Recent training of the lower Rhine River to increase Inland Water Transport potentials: A mix of permanent and recurrent measures

摘要

Inland navigation is very important for national and international transport to and from the Netherlands. River management of the main Dutch Rhine branch, the Waal River, aims at improving navigation conditions, at the same time taking into account other, sometimes conflicting interests. Therefore integrated approaches are demanded to implement improvement measures. This paper focuses on the river improvement measures, executed in the Waal River for the benefit of navigation since 1995. The impact of executed and planned measures for navigation on the morphology of the river is discussed. New in the approach since 1995 is that in addition to (essentially traditional) permanent bend improvement measures, recurrent measures like (systematic) dredging and sediment feeding schemes are becoming increasingly important. This signals a change in policy of the Dutch Public Works Department, which traditionally preferred permanent fixed solutions. Special emphasis is given to the specific in-depth field and mathematical modelling studies, which were carried out to understand the morphological processes in this engineered river, the interaction between structures and the river and the relevant time and spatial scales of effects and impacts of the recurrent methods. The need for a master plan taking into account the autonomic trends to facilitate a sustainable development of the river system is underlined.