Martin Baptist

CORRIGENDUM. In version 1 of June 2019 an error has been made. The class boundary between shallow sublittoral and low intertidal was not set to 4% mean exposure but to 0.001%. This resulted in a too low cover of sublitoral areas. In Version 2 this is corrected. The data file is a zipped file "EctpWZ3L_gpkg.zip" containing a GeoPackage, holding the geographical data (polygons etc.): i. EcotopeWS3_mp = polygon geodata of ecotope map ii. bivbeds_focc = geodata for eco-element bivalve beds (polygon) iii. eelgrass_presence = geodata for eco-element seagrass aka eelgrass presence (polygon) iv. EcotopeWS3CodeInterpretation, table explaining how fields in ecotope map should be interpreted v. ZESsmpleCode2Legend, table expanding ZESsimple from code to full legend text. and includes: 2) a set of QML-files (symbology definition files for QGIS), 3) a set of SLD-files (symbology layer definition files for GeoServer), 4) three PNG-files to provide the different textures/patterns used in...

Zipped package with: Shapefile for the trilateral ecotope map (EcotopeWS3) Shapefile for the tidal basin delineation Shapefile for eco-element bivalve beds Shapefile for eco-element eelgras Style Layer Descriptor files and Excel file with coding scheme

In the light of challenges raised by a changing climate and increasing population pressure in coastal regions, it has become clear that theoretical models and scattered experiments do not provide the data we urgently need to understand coastal conditions and processes. We propose a Dutch coastline observatory named ICON.NL, based at the Delfland Coast with core observations focused on the internationally well-known Sand Engine experiment, as part of an International Coastline Observatories Network (ICON). ICON.NL will cover the physics and ecology from deep water to the dunes. Data will be collected continuously by novel remote sensing and in-situ sensors, coupled to numerical models to yield unsurpassed long-term coastline measurements. The combination of the unique site and ambitious monitoring design enables new avenues in coastal science and a leap in interdisciplinary research.

Distribution patterns and species composition of macrozoobenthos were studied in the Dutch coastal zone in front of the Port of Rotterdam. Relationships between macrozoobenthic assemblages and environmental variables were determined using non-metric dimensional scaling (nMDS) based on 470 boxcore, bottom sledge, and sediment samples collected in spring 2006 and 2008 in a 2500-km2 research area. We investigated two types of benthic assemblages, infaunal assemblages sampled with a boxcorer and epifaunal assemblages sampled with a bottom sledge. Five main in- and epifaunal assemblages were distinguished using clustering techniques and nMDS ordinations. Macrozoobenthic species composition correlated with combinations of measured sediment variables and modelled hydrodynamic variables. Macrozoobenthic species richness and biomass were highest at 20 m deep areas with a grain size of 200 µm, elevated mud and sediment organic matter, and low mean bed shear stress. Considerable interannual di...

... I therefore would like to thank WL|Delft Hydraulics and especially Pascal Boderie, Erwin Meijers, Reinaldo Peñailillo, Hanneke van der Klis, Ferdinand Diermanse, Henk van den Boogaard, Klaas Jan van Heeringen and Ron Passchier, for help, comments and ideas. ...

Several harbours along the Dutch Wadden Sea deal with large siltation rates and limited possibilities for developments. However, development of new harbour activities is needed for these harbours to be able to survive in the long run. As these harbours lie in or close to areas with a protected status, expansion is not straightforward. In this paper we illustrate that harbour development is possible when a Building with Nature approach is used. This approach facilitates a design in which the proactive utilization and/or provision of ecosystem services serves as part of the engineering solution. We introduce four Building with Nature concepts that can be used in harbour designs, i.e. 1) optimising dredging strategies, 2) enhancing saltmarsh development, 3) creating estuarine gradients, and 4) optimising flow patterns. Based on these concepts, three case studies have been identified and pilot projects initiated. In the Port of Harlingen a pilot has started in which an optimized dredgin...

With 80% of the world's population living in lowland urban areas by 2050, sea levels gradually rising and societal demands on the quality of living increasing, sustainable development of coastal zones becomes increasingly urgent as well as complex. Modern strategies for the design and implementation of measures for infrastructure development, coastal protection and other functions adopt the concept of Building with Nature to handle these challenges. Recently, two full scale experiments were implemented to assess the benefits of the this approach for coastal development. The Sand Motor pilot project addresses the potential concentrated nourishments on the basis of a 21 million m3 shore nourishment at the Delfland coast in the Netherlands. This unprecedented experiment aims to protect the hinterland from flooding by letting natural processes distribute sand over shoreface, beach and dunes, thus constituting a climate-robust and environmentally friendly way of coastal protection. T...

Wadden Sea ports are situated at the border of the UNESCO World Heritage site Wadden Sea. Because of the protected status of this area, developing new economic activities is not straightforward. However, maintaining and developing port activities is needed to safeguard the economic viability of the Wadden Sea socio-economic region. In this paper we illustrate that sustainable port development is feasible when adopting a Working with Nature approach. This approach facilitates a design in which the proactive utilization and/or provision of ecosystem services serves as part of the engineering solution. We introduce four Working with Nature concepts that can be used in port designs, i.e. 1) optimising dredging strategies, 2) enhancing saltmarsh development, 3) creating estuarine gradients, and 4) optimising flow patterns. Based on these concepts, three case studies have been identified and pilot projects initiated. In the Port of Harlingen a pilot project has started in which an optimiz...

World-wide the turbidity of many rivers, estuaries and shallow seas is increasing, leading to degradation of water quality and growing siltation. Large volumes of dredged sediments are disposed and lost offshore, while coastal regions and river banks are eroding, exposing towns to more recurrent flooding. A huge amount of sediment is trapped in reservoirs behind dams, reducing their storage and flood mitigation capabilities. These are all indicators that smart and integrated sediment management is necessary. At the same time, coastal development activities demand for large quantities of sediment as building material, with many areas of the world characterized by fine sediments (mud), especially in large river delta regions. Integrated sediment management approaches leveraging on Building with Nature (BwN) concepts represents a potentially powerful solution to these enormous world-wide challenges and societal needs. With this in mind, EcoShape initiated the Living Lab for Mud (LLM), ...

Bouwen met de natuur, het zou iedereen winst op kunnen leveren. Met de zandmotor voor de kust en met kunstmatige oesterriffen die zandplaten in de Oosterschelde beschermen, en wellicht met nieuwe kwelders in het Waddengebied. Profijtelijk voor de natuur, de staatskas en het bedrijfsleven dat het natuurlijke waterwerk kan exporteren. IMARES Wageningen UR telt vissen, vogels en andere dieren om te kijken of de grote beloften echt uitkomen.

In de nacht van 1 op 2 januari 2019 raakte het containerschip MSC Zoe ter hoogte van Terschelling de zeebodem waardoor in totaal 342 containers overboord geslagen zijn en verspreid geraakt over het gebied tussen Terschelling en Schiermonnikoog. Rijkswaterstaat heeft Wageningen University & Research opdracht gegeven onderzoek te doen naar de mogelijke gevolgen van de containerramp op het ecosysteem van de Noordzee en Waddenzee. De doelstelling van dit onderzoek is het in 2019 geregistreerd verzamelen van plastics en organismen die plastics kunnen hebben ingenomen, aansluitend bij bestaande monitoringprogramma’s. In 2019 is in het kader van deze opdracht zwerfvuil verzameld bij monitoring, en daarnaast zijn vissen, vismagen en vogels verzameld en veiliggesteld voor analyse op aanwezigheid van (micro)plastics. Zwerfvuil: Het registreren van zwerfvuil van de zeebodem is een reguliere activiteit tijdens visbestandsopnames met bodemtrawl netten in het IBTS-programma. Volgens hetzelfde protocol is aanvullend zwerfvuil op de zeebodem geregistreerd tijdens twee andere vissurveys en tijdens schelpdierinventarisaties. Ook is er een analyse gedaan naar zwerfvuil verzameld op Griend. Het zwerfvuilonderzoek richt zich op grotere objecten dan microplastics. Vogels: er zijn ten minste 43 dood gevonden Noordse Stormvogels verzameld, waarvan verreweg het grootste deel op de Waddeneilanden en de Fries-Groninger waddenkust. Daarnaast zijn ten minste 14 Zwarte Zee-eenden, 1 Grote Zee-eend en 4 Drieteenmeeuwen verzameld, allen dood aangetroffen in het Waddengebied. Vissen: er zijn tijdens reguliere visbestandsopnames in het gebied boven de Nederlandse eilanden tot aan Helgoland 211 magen van vissen uit de vangsten verzameld, en 4856 vissen uit de gehele Noordzee tijdens het reguliere onderzoek naar bijvangsten van de visserij. Begin 2020 gaf RWS opdracht aan WMR om (een deel van) de biologische monsters in 2020 te analyseren.

This document describes the concepts, data and methods used in the 2019 report (under Article 17 of the Habitats Directive) on the conservation status of habitat types for the parameters range, area, structure and functions, and future prospects. The ranges of nearly all habitat types have not changed. No reliable, updated data on area were available for most habitat types. The methodology for assessing structure and functions has been thoroughly revised to accommodate long-term monitoring data and meet the new reporting formats. The European Commission has also introduced a new method for assessing future prospects. The report presents the results and indicates where the methods and data can be improved.

The Lesser Black-backed Gull, Larus fuscus Linnaeus, 1758, is a surface feeder with a broad prey spectrum that forages in the North Sea on subsurface pelagic fishes and crabs swimming within 0.6 m of the sea surface. In July 2006 and in July/August 2009, we surveyed the Frisian Front area in the southern North Sea (53.4°N–54.3°N, 4.0°E–5.5°E) to determine the prey base for Lesser Black-backed Gulls. In July/August 2009, we conducted bird counts in an integrated ecosystem survey by simultaneously sampling subsurface pelagic prey by a combination of fishing and echosounding. Lesser Black-backed Gulls make use of facilitated foraging to improve the catchability of their prey. The two most important aids for facilitated foraging by Lesser Black-backed Gull in the Frisian Front were (1) multispecies feeding associations with Common Murre, Uria aalge (Pontoppidan, 1763), and (2) fisheries discarding bycatch and offal. We found that in the top meter of the water column, the natural prey base is large enough to provide for self-foraging; however, Lesser Black-backed Gulls were found to rely mainly on facilitated foraging.

Numerical simulations of the effects of vegetation on flow and morphology are helpful to understand the behaviour of natural rivers and to predict the developments of rehabilitated rivers. However, some fundamental problems remain in modelling these interactions. This paper describes the application of two-dimensional and three-dimensional numerical models to natural and rehabilitated river systems, i.e. the Rhine (the Netherlands), Allier (France) and Volga (Russia). The results show that vegetation has a pronounced effect on flow patterns and morphological developments in rivers. This can be subdivided in remote effects and local effects. Further analysis of the model results shows a fundamental shortcoming in the mathematical modelling of the effects of vegetation on the local sediment transport capacity. Traditional approaches to modelling vegetation roughness yield erroneous results in combination with common sediment transport equations. Therefore, research focuses on the development of new model approaches to accurately simulate the influence of vegetation on flow and morphology.

De Zwitserleven Ronde om Texel is ’s werelds grootste catamaran race. Het evenemententerrein ligt in meerdere Natura 2000 gebieden en aangetoond zal moeten worden dat het evenement geen significante gevolgen heeft voor de natuur‐ en instandhoudingdoelen voor deze gebieden. De organisatie en de deelnemende teams doen er alles aan om de milieubelasting tot een minimum te beperken. Deze verstoring‐ en verslechteringtoets behelst de SBZ Waddenzee, de SBZ Noordzeekustzone en de SBZ Duinen en Lage land van Texel.

Understanding the interactions between the ecosystem and the morphology of river floodplains, ie floodplain biogeomorphology, is becoming increasingly important in view of modern river management and climate change. There is a need for predictive models for the ...

ABSTRACT 11 Abstract The Wadden Sea forms the coastal strip bordering the North Sea in NW Europe. Along most of its length it is separated from the North Sea by a string of barrier islands. The system consists of many recognizable geomorphic units (here called ecotopes), such as islands, high sandbanks, sand dunes, salt marshes, subtidal and intertidal sand and mudflats, and channels of different depths and widths. Within these units communities of biota such as mussel beds and seagrass fields can also be recognized and mapped. For management purposes, it is important that information on these units is available on different scales, depending on the management issue. For mapping it is therefore important to develop legends for different variables. The classes of the legend should be based on ecological considerations and reflect the habitat requirements of species, communities , or biotopes. The classes used are, for example, percentage emergence during a tidal cycle, sediment grainsize, and sediment dynamics based on shear stress and shear strength as well as potentiality of occurrence of bioengineers that are important as habitat or substrate for other organisms.