Deltares is an independent, institute for applied research in the field of water, subsurface and infrastructure. Throughout the world, we work on smart solutions, innovations and applications for people, environment and society. Our main focus is on deltas, coastal regions and river basins. Managing these densely populated and vulnerable areas is complex, which is why we work closely with governments, businesses, other research institutes and universities at home and abroad. Our motto is "Enabling Delta Life". As an applied research institute, the success of Deltares can be measured in the extent to which our expert knowledge can be used in and for society. For Deltares the quality of our expertise and advice is foremost. Knowledge is our core business. All contracts and projects, whether financed privately or from strategic research budgets, contribute to the consolidation of our knowledge base. Read more on http://www.deltares.nl/en/
Coastal managers and engineers increasingly need coastal state information at small scales of days to weeks and meters to kilometres. This is due to the frequent use of local beach nourishments and the demand for year-round exploitation of beaches, driven by the increasing recreational pressure on the coast. Coastal managers aim for a sustainable development of a variety of coastal functions, including protection of the hinterland against flooding, swimmer safety, beach recreation and nature conservation.The design and evaluation of coastal policy measures and engineering interventions is hampered by the dynamics of the natural system. Beach nourishments adapt to an equilibrium profile in a matter of weeks to months, through phases that may be unexpected and could pose temporary problems. Rip currents may even develop within days, hence forming a serious threat for swimmer safety. Effective decision making in this complex field thus demands the availability of detailed coastal state information with high resolution in time and space. Remote sensing techniques offer the potential to provide this information against low costs.
Deltares has been involved in ARGUS video monitoring since the installation of the first station in The Netherlands in 1995. In 1998, we settled a license agreement with Oregon State University (from where the ARGUS technology is originating) for the installation of ARGUS video stations worldwide outside the United States, Canada and Mexico. Since 1998, we have been involved in the installation of more than 20 video stations on three different continents.
Our general objective is to broaden the use of remote-sensing techniques to support management of coastal areas. We provide to interested parties services ranging from technical input for installation, training on the use of the so-called ARE (Argus Runtime Environment that gives access to coastal management tools through GUIs) and provision of licenses, to integrated studies involving both video monitoring (image post-processing and analysis services, that might require R&D activities) and sophisticated morphological models. We are always in favor of defining a collaborative framework in which Deltares would be involved in (part of) the image post-processing and analysis, or in any R&D activities that would be necessary to cope with the project specificities.