Room for the River Project on River Rhine

Instead of raising the river levee, the Dutch national public works Rijkswaterstaat started to lower the levee along the river Rhine with 3 meter over a length of 2 km. In case of an extreme river discharge, the river will overtop the lowered levee and flood the hinterland, the Noordwaard polder

During the past four years Rijkswaterstaat has restructured this 2,000 ha polder so it can flood without posing a risk to the remaining 50 homes, and farmers can maintain their farm lands.

On 1 April CEO Jan Hendrik Dronkers of Rijkswaterstaat and René Cruijsen of regional water authority Rivierenland launched the actual depoldering of Noordwaard. They controlled two excavators and took the first chunks of earth out of the river levee, near Werkendam.

Excavation of the primary flood defense of the Noordwaard polder, is the final stage of one of the biggest projects of the national Room for the River programme.

Very remarkable moment: dig into levee

For Dutch circumstances it is very remarkable to have two excavators to dig into a levee.

For centuries levees have prevented the Netherlands from flooding and because of climate change - with its expected sea level rise and bigger river charges - it would seem more logical to raise the levees rather than lower them.

However, at certain locations the Dutch water authorities decided to create more room for the river Rhine. At some locations retention areas are being constructed where - by lowering the levees - the water can freely flow into these areas at a certain water level. One of these locations is the Noordwaard polder.

The new height of the levee that protects this depoldered area from river floods, is carefully selected.

In case of an extreme large river discharge that may occur once in 2000 years, enough water can flow into the polder to lower the water level near the city of Gorinchem by 30 centimeters.

On the other hand the levee will remain high enough to prevent the area from flooding too often. This would damage the grassland agriculture. It is expected for the levee to overflow once a year.

Source: Dutch Water Sector

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• Environment
• Project Management
• River Basin management