SOURCE: Sand nOURishment strategies for sustainable Coastal Ecosystems

Accelerated sea-level rise (SLR) seriously threatens coastal areas globally. It will narrow the beach and cause increased erosion. Moreover, housing and socio-economic developments cause increasing pressure on coastal land use. Without adaptation through coastline management a so-called coastal squeeze will occur with a narrowed beach and dune system. This endangers these systems and puts coastal communities at risk of flooding. The coastal ecosystem’s response to SLR combined with human interventions will be critical for the future of our sandy coasts. Coastal sand nourishments – the addition of sand to increase the beach volume – are potentially a key method to sustainably adapt to accelerated SLR and keep the low-lying hinterland protected against coastal flooding.

Carefully planned sand nourishments now will create the required and desired resilient and dynamic multifunctional coastal landscapes of the future. However, it lacks knowledge, tools and collaboration to realize this. Therefore, the main research question of the SOURCE project is: How can we co-create multifunctional sand nourishment strategies for a resilient dynamic coast with high socio-economic and natural values?

SOURCE will deliver the scientific knowledge, models and design tools to develop and evaluate nourishment strategies in a multi-stakeholder co-creation process. This will be accomplished by a unique combination of a fundamental coastal ecosystem understanding, reliable predictive modeling of nourishment impacts, quantification of both the non-monetized and monetized social costs and benefits, and an integral nourishment design and evaluation process.

Our Living Labs are two sand nourishments along the Dutch coast. These will be co-designed, monitored and evaluated by the SOURCE researchers and 25 partners from government organizations, research institutes, nature organizations and industry. This is key for the intended societal impact: co-created multifunctional sand nourishment strategies for a resilient dynamic Dutch coastal flood defense with high socio-economic and natural values.