Can we elevate the subsiding coastal plain of the Netherlands with controlled sedimentation

Why we urgently need a public subsidence information service in the Netherlands

Geological surveys traditionally assess past and present processes in the subsurface, focusing mainly on exploration and extraction of natural resources. Applications like these determined how geological surveys designed and operated their information services. In recent years, information needs are rapidly evolving in conjunction with emerging...

The geological significance of novel anthropogenic materials: Deposits of industrial waste and by-products

Industrial wastes and by-products are increasingly (re-)used as filling material in constructions. To enhance awareness among the geological community of the growing and widespread occurrence of deposits that contain these “novel anthropogenic materials”, this paper reviews three volumetrically important materials: (1) ash remaining from the...

Advances in constructing regional geological voxel models, illustrated by their application in aggregate resource assessments

Aggregate resource assessments, derived from three subsequent generations of voxel models, were compared in a qualitative way to illustrate and discuss modelling progress. We compared the models in terms of both methodology and usability. All three models were produced by the Geological Survey of the Netherlands. Aggregate is granular mineral...

Quality control of geological voxel models using experts' gaze

Due to an expected increase in geological voxel model data-flow and user demands, the development of improved quality control for such models is crucial. This study explores the potential of a new type of quality control that improves the detection of errors by just using gaze behavior of 12 geological experts. Gaze is used as input for an...

3D geology in a 2D country: Perspectives for geological surveying in the Netherlands

Over the last ten to twenty years, geological surveys all over the world have been entangled in a process of digitisation. Their paper archives, built over many decades, have largely been replaced by electronic databases. The systematic production of geological map sheets is being replaced by 3D subsurface modelling, the results of which are...

Sediment management and the renewability of floodplain clay for structural ceramics

Background, aim, and scope: The Netherlands has vast resources of clay that are exploited for the fabrication of structural ceramic products such as bricks and roof tiles. Most clay is extracted from the so-called embanked floodplains along the rivers Rhine and Meuse, areas that are flooded during high-discharge conditions. Riverside clay...

Coastal zones and climate change: A sediment perspective on adaptation

Climate-change problems in coastal zones are predominantly perceived from a water perspective. However, in accordance with the temporal and spatial scales at which the effects of climate change occur, we propose that coastal zones have to be regarded as sedimentary systems, rather than mere delimitations of a water system. Long-term coastal...

Silica sand resources in the Netherlands

Silica sand, (almost) pure quartz sand, is a valuable and scarce mineral resource within the shallow Dutch subsurface. High-grade deposits are exploited in the southeastemmost part of the country, as raw material for the glass, ceramic, chemical and other process industries. Dutch land-use policy requires that scarce mineral resources (including...

Regional sediment deficits in the Dutch lowlands: Implications for long-term land-use options

Background, Aim and Scope. Coastal and river plains are the surfaces of depositional systems, to which sediment input is a parameter of key-importance. Their habitation and economic development usually requires protection with dikes, quays, etc., which are effective in retaining floods but have the side effect of impeding sedimentation in their...

Clay resources in the Netherlands

Clay is a common lithology in the Dutch shallow subsurface. It is used in earth constructions such as dikes, and as raw material for the fabrication of bricks, roof tiles etc. We present a new national assessment of Dutch clay resources, as part of a project that provides mineral-occurrence information for land-use planning purposes. The...

Handling sediments in Dutch river management: The planning stage of the Maaswerken river widening project

Goals, Scope and Background. Faced with higher peak discharges in the foreseeable future, the Dutch government has decided to increase the discharge capacities of the Dutch Rhine and Meuse rivers. Instead of raising the dikes, river widening measures are to be undertaken, in and along the riverbed. Such measures include surface level lowering...

Aggregate resources in the Netherlands

We have built a 3D lithological model of the Netherlands, for the purpose of mapping on-land aggregate resources down to 50 m below the surface. The model consists of voxel cells (1000 · 1000 · 1 m), with lithological composition and aggregate content estimates as primary attributes. These attributes were derived from ∼350,000 borehole...

The sand extraction potential of embedded land surface lowering in the Netherlands

In the Netherlands, mineral extraction by means of dredging or quarrying meets with considerable societal resistance. Land surface lowering prior to large land reconstruction projects may raise fewer objections. We have calculated the potential yields of sand and gravel from land surface lowering embedded in planned building and construction...

Construction raw materials policy and supply practices in Northwestern Europe

The present contribution is an inventory of the construction raw materials policy and supply practices in The Netherlands, Belgium, North Rhine-Westphalia, Lower Saxony, Great Britain, Norway and Denmark. The work has been commissioned by the Dutch government in order to benchmark its domestic provision and the governing mineral planning policy....