The Sand Motor: Five Years of Building with Nature Next Week

‘The Sand Motor: Five Years of Building with Nature’ conference will take place on September 14-15, 2016 in Den Haag, the Netherlands.

Five years after the creation of the Sand Motor, the initial research results from this pilot project will be presented with respect to coastal safety, innovation, nature and recreation and will be the central focus of this two-day international conference.

There will be speeches, interviews, an exhibition market, workshops and theme excursions looking at areas including morphology, nature and leisure development.

The Sand Motor

The Sand Motor is an experiment in the management of dynamic coastline. A sandbar-shaped peninsula was created by man; the surface is about 1 km².

It is expected that this sand is then moved over the years by the action of waves, wind and currents along the coast.

To protect the west of the Netherlands against the sea, the beaches along the coast are artificially replenished every five years, and it is expected that the sand engine will make replenishment along the Delfland Coast unnecessary for the next 20 years.

This method is expected to be more cost effective and also helps nature by reducing the repeated disruption caused by dredging and replenishment.

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