Coastal research is a topic of great interest for the Netherlands, since a large part of the country is situated below sea level.
In 1992 the coastal research groups of Delft University of Technology (TUD), Utrecht University (UU), WL | Delft Hydraulics and Rijkswaterstaat (RIKZ) engaged in a strategic co-operation programme, NCK (Netherlands Centre for Coastal Research). Some time later the Netherlands Institute of Applied Geoscience TNO (TNO-NITG) and the University Twente (UT) joined NCK, recently followed by the Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ) and the Netherlands Institute for Ecology-Centre for Estuarine and Marine Ecology (NIOO-CEMO).
NCK focuses on the physical processes in the coastal zone, including waves, currents, transport processes and the influence of biota on the morphological processes. It links field, theory and model approaches of the different research groups: NCK is a platform for coastal research co-operation. |
