On September 1st Joris Bierkens joined the Center of Mathematics & Computer Science (CWI) as an assistant in the Deltares funded project 'Mathematics for Dike Height Control'.

The Dutch government inspects and is constantly improving the dikes and dunes that protect The Netherlands against large flooding. After the flood disaster of 1953, a model was developed at CWI that describes how much a dike should be raised in order to fulfill proper security requirements. Over the years, this model has been  extended and elaborated upon by external users into a computer program. At present, research is being carried out by CWI to fundamentally improve the existing model in order to meet tomorrow's safety requirements.

More information:
http://www.cwi.nl/en/projects/Mathematics-for-Dike-Height-Control

Photo:
"Samen werken met water", Deltacommissie, 2008, page 4