In the Netherlands, a new assessment method for the required safety level of primary flood defences is introduced in the Water Act. It is estimated that currently roughly 1900 kilometres of flood protection does not meet the safety requirements for the future (Jonkman, Jorissen, Schweckendieck & Van den Bos, 2017). Past flood defence projects show that integrating reinforcement measures is a difficult assignment. It is specifically focused on dike reinforcement projects in this thesis. A deficiency in the design process is identified in the role that the influence on the existing situation has on the evaluation and selection of design alternatives that are input for the Environmental Impact Assessment. The difficulty for improving the importance of the existing situation in the surroundings, in the design process is that the subject experts on these themes are typically assessing the consequences of proposed interventions (Aalberts, 2018). The research objective is set to develop a method that allows to include the influence on the existing situation within the evaluation and selection of design alternatives in dike reinforcement projects. This method aims for providing information to compare the spatial integration of reinforcement designs in early stages of reinforcement projects. Subject experts should assess the provided information, and determine whether a reinforcement design provides a satisfying influence on the project area. It is focused on dike reinforcement projects in rural area. A research through design study is used to develop the method to compare design alternatives. The study included the identification of technical design measures to increase the strength of dikes in rural area, and the decomposition of rural areas in functional characteristics that can be valued. A conceptual evaluation model is developed to express the relation between functional characteristics and design alternatives for dike reinforcements. It is studied how a method can be provided to compare the outcome of the conceptual evaluation model for a large variety of design alternatives. The value of the developed method is assessed in a case study, which is the dike reinforcement project “Wolferen-Sprok”. The resulting method is able to compare design alternatives on the influence on the existing situation by following seven steps. It is providing design measures for the identified safety problem of the dike in a certain project area. Simultaneously, the characteristics of the project area should be identified and visualized on maps. This provides the required information to apply the conceptual evaluation model that identifies effects of design alternatives on the existing situation. The retrieved data is visualized to compare design alternatives. It is concluded that the developed method focusses mainly on natural, cultural, and social economic functions in rural project areas. This means that influence of design alternatives on costs, maintainability, and landscape values should be addressed separately, in the evaluation and selection of design alternatives. It is recommended to study how the influence on these topics can evaluated in a similar method. The developed method can be applied to include the existing situation in the project area in the evaluation and selection of design alternatives in dike reinforcement projects in rural areas. It is expected that application of the method in design teams provides new input for further improvement of the method.

In Sri Lanka, the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam waged a civil war between 1983 and 2009. During this period the social and economic development in the north and east of the country was disrupted. Due to this disruption a development opportunity for this region is the expansion of the fishery industry. In 2016, the Sri Lankan government proposed the Northern Province Sustainable Fisheries Development Project, in which the construction of a harbour at Point Pedro in the Jaffna District is included. This harbour should become the second largest fishery harbour in Sri Lanka.

This report covers the design study of the Point Pedro harbour project, the goal of this study is to design a safe, economically efficient and socially accepted harbour at Point Pedro. To achieve this goal, the following research question “How can safety, economic efficiency and environmental impact be combined optimally in a harbour design for Point Pedro in the Jaffna District?” is answered.

In figure XX, the final design of the harbour can be seen. This design is focused on the optimal combination between safety, economic efficiency and environmental impact. Because these criteria are conflicting, they are prioritized as follows: (1) safety, (2) economic efficiency and (3) environmental impact. Safety is provided by constructing breakwaters around the harbour, providing sheltered water conditions in the harbour basin. Also, the harbour entrance is constructed in a way that monsoon waves cannot directly intrude into the basin. Economic efficiency is accounted for by constructing the quay wall close to the central located fish processing facilities. This optimizes the supply chain, resulting in a smaller loss in the fish production (compared to the current situation). The costs are optimized by reusing all dredged material inside the breakwater or for land reclamation. Additionally, the location of the harbour entrance is minimizing the sailing routes as much as possible, without creating safety issues due to wave intrusion. Finally, the negative effects of social impact are limited by involving local fishermen and residents during the entire development process. Because these stakeholders are potential blockers of the project, it is important to include their opinions in the design. This can also be done by broadening the scope, in which touristic facilities and accommodations can be included in the project. Other negative impacts of the harbour can be either mitigated or minimized. However, because the environmental impact is determined as the least important criteria, it is not able to solve every issue.

This design is considered to be the most optimal combination for the harbour design of Point Pedro, regarding the criteria of safety, economic efficiency and environmental impact. It is recommended to EML Consultants that three characteristics of the proposed design should be implemented in their final design for Point Pedro: (1) apply building on the reef for land reclamation inside the harbour, (2) cluster the fish processing facilities near the unloading quay walls, because it optimizes the fish supply chain and reduces fish loss, and (3) construct the jetties for large boats (in the east of the harbour) as proposed, because it optimizes manoeuverability inside the harbour using minimal space. The final recommendation is to perform additional research to make a more accurate design, as the main limitation of the report is the limited amount of available data. Additional research should be done in the fields of; wave data, ground conditions over the entire harbour basin, cost estimation and sedimentation.