Under the ‘SimpleCoast’ banner, Deltares is supplying knowledge notes and tools to the small island states, helping them to investigate coastal erosion problems in a relative simple way.
This allows managers and practitioners from small islands to investigate coastal erosion problems and determine courses of action.
The facility is therefore primarily for those islands with little experience in this area, or who lack adequate financial resources. They will usually be local government authorities, universities and consultants.
The knowledge about coastal protection measures will, in part, cover easily applicable, environmentally friendly measures such as building with nature. This can often benefit the islands because of the flexibility of the measures and the ready availability of the building materials.
Examples are: using sand to widen the coastline (which may ultimately also reduce salinization), and the preservation of coral reefs (enhancing coastal protection by mitigating the impact of waves).
As well as sharing the knowledge, Deltares is also organizing workshops and training in which the focus is on setting up monitoring and on how to draw on data and tools as a basis for effective action.
Policymakers are also told how they can use this information in line with the ‘adaptive planning’ method. The first workshops will take place in February 2016.