Shellfish reefs

Location: 'Val en Slikken van Viane', Schouwen-Duiveland, The Netherlands

Aim and opportunities

This project will help to protect an intertidal flat by creating a reef in front of it. The shellfish reefs will not only provide delicious shellfish, they will also reduce the direct wave attack on the beach and thus prevent erosion.

Methods

Climate Proof Areas will test how the shellfish reefs will decrease the erosion of the sea on the island of Schouwen-Duiveland. The construction of those reefs is one of the three projects to enforce the coast defence and decrease the erosion. Researchers will monitor the effects on the erosion and the opportunities that the construction will bring along.

Partners

Output

Installing a shellfish reef

Monitoring the effects

Coastal defence project

Several ideas, dealing with the reduction of erosion of the forelands, will be executed in the Oosterschelde. This is the first time that pilots of this nature are executed in the North Sea Region. It is innovative in the way that it considers off-shore measures to deal with anticipated sea level rise and that the measures are based on natural processes (building with nature).