Delta Life 8

DELTARES, OCTOBER 2017 3 K DELTARES IN BRIEF VIETNAM IS PUMPING ITSELF DOWNWARDS EUROPEANWATERS CLEAN AND HEALTHY All European waters must meet the standards for cleanliness and hygiene by 2028. The agreements relating to this area have been set out in new European framework directives. To make the implementation smoother, member states are receiving support from the Blue2 project. This will allow local authorities to make a social cost-benefit analysis of various measures designed to make surface water clean and healthy. In this way, Europe hopes to show how the directives canmake a concrete contribution to a better economy and living environment. Deltares is helping by writing software, developing a policy analysis tool and elaborating a range of scenarios. SALT WATER AND FRESHWATER ON THE FLEMISH COAST Groundwater in the Flemish coastal polder area can be fresh, brackish or salt. The Flemish Environmental Company (VMM) is mapping out the salt levels with the help of Deltares and other partners. A helicopter with an electromagnetic probe was used to survey the area this summer. The results will show where the groundwater is fresh, where it is brackish and where it is salt. It will then be possible to devise measures to use the shallow fresh groundwater in a sustainable way. For example, by storing excess rainfall from the winter in the subsurface and using this water in the dry season to irrigate crops. The Mekong estuary in Vietnam has, in the course of twenty-five years, been transformed from a stable area into a rapidly-subsiding delta. The rate of subsidence has now reached several centimetres a year, which is a lot more than the global sea-level rise of a few millimetres a year. That is alarming news for the delta, which is only one and a half metres above sea level. Salinisation, an increasing probability of flooding and coastal erosion are imminent threats. This fertile area is home to twenty million people and it produces food for almost two hundred million others. Deltares researchers have used a new three-dimensional groundwater model to map out where the land is subsiding due to groundwater extraction, and by howmuch. This study is an important first step on the road to a better under­ standing of the causes of land subsidence in deltas and the development of feasible solutions. The interdisciplinary research programme Future Deltas focuses on the development and integration of knowledge for global sustainable delta management.

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