On Wednesday 8 November Martijn van Staveren (WUR) will defend his thesis. After the defence a reception with drinks and bites will be held in the Aula (ground floor) right afterwards, from 14.30 till 15.30.

The thesis has investigated existing, contemporary cases of controlled flooding in the different world deltas. Controlled flooding concerns the (temporary) removal or modification of flood embankments, which means that (tidal) flood dynamics are restored on previously enclosed delta lands. These hydraulic interventions are highly contested since those lands are often in use for agricultural production, and also contrast decades of full flood prevention policies. The thesis argues that environmental delta dynamics have been critical to trigger ideas for and show the potential of controlled flooding. At the same time, technological factors and societal debates have been important in enabling (and constraining) the materialization of controlled flooding initiatives. The study compares controlled flooding case study similarities and differences in the Netherlands (de-poldering the Noordwaard polder), Bangladesh (Tidal River Management as practiced in the southwest coastal zone) and the Vietnamese Mekong (restored seasonal flooding) delta.