Coastal and River Basin Management

Nature-based solutions, ecosystem functioning, estuaries, (eco)toxicology, economics, ecosystem services, drought/flood risk management.

Research groups

• Ecosphere 

• Centre for Urban History 

• Global Change Ecology 

• ​GeoBiology​

Key experts​​

• ​Lieven Bervoets​​
• ​Ronny Blust​
• ​Gudrun De Boeck​
• ​Patrick Meire​
• ​Jonas Schoelynck​​
• ​Tim Soens​
• ​Jan Staes
• ​​Eric Struyf​
  
• ​Stijn Temmerman​
• ​​Stefan Van Damme​
• ​Goedele Verreydt​

​Selected projects

• ProWater: 'protecting and restoring raw water sources through actions at the landscape scale', and contributes to climate adaptation by restoring the water storage of the landscape via 'ecosystem-based adaptation measures'. Developed the ‘water system maps’ approach  

• TURQUOISE: Blue-Green Strategies for climate change adaptation. The project prepares Flanders better for water scarcity and droughts. It is researched how nature-based solutions in agricultural land can proactively increase water availability. 

• Bankbusters: Design of novel measures for developing coastal marsh restoration under high dynamic estuarine circumstances.

• MONEOS Scheldemonitor: an integrated monitoring program for the Scheldt Estuary. This program includes 3 types of monitoring: system, research and project monitoring. 

• Mesodrome: A research facility to study estuarine and river ecosystem services at the meso-lab scale. The Mesodrome is the largest aquatic mesocosm facility in Belgium, and is part of the ESFRI infrastructure AnaEE. 

• Water systems maps: Spatial maps that classify the hydrological functioning of a landscape. Shown are e.g. key recharge zones, landscape depressions, seepage areas, moorlands, frequently inundated areas. The maps can be used as a planning tool for nature-based solutions that aim at enhancing water infiltration. 

• IFlux: A spinoff company that monitors groundwater fluxes. A method is used that simultaneously monitors the speed and direction of a contaminant in groundwater. 

• ​Coastal Carbon: Aims to advance research on natural sources of ocean alkalinity and investigate options to enhance ocean CO₂ uptake and storage​

• River ecosystem impact of the invasive Chinese mitten crab; Chinese mitten crabs are an invasive species that is claimed to clear-cut aquatic vegetation and thus have a devasting impact on the river ecosystem. In the mesodrome lab facility, the impact of Chinese mitten crabs on water plants is researched.

• From exposure to effects of pollutants: a dynamic mechanistic basis: this project has the ambition to go beyond current empirical ecotoxicological models to establish mechanistic knowledge of the underlying processes in the chain from exposure to effects of pollutants. 

• Sampling and analysis of micropollutants in Biota from aquatic systems in Flanders: Studies the bioaccumulation of priority substances in fish, in particular perch (Perca fluviatilis) and European eel (Anguilla anguilla). Priority substances are defined in EU law as micropollutants that are toxic, persistent and likely to bio-accumulate. 

• ADMIRE: investigates project how the importance of peat in the Flanders-Netherlands border region can be revalued in light of its ecosystem services and improve the condition of these important peatlands in the region.