Netherlands Centre for River Studies

The extent of the research challenges for the coming decades necessitates co-operation on national and international levels: one single research institute cannot perform the interdisciplinary research needed nowadays on its own, especially where the institutional structure in a country more or less follows methodological lines. In the case of river research in the Netherlands, some institutes focus on field monitoring, some on field campaigns, some on numerical modelling and laboratory experiments, some on behaviour analysis, and some on uncertainty analyses.

Cooperation between the various institutes is therefore essential, making use of the specific expertise and infrastructure of each institute. And this is exactly what has been done in the Netherlands since the establishment of the Netherlands Centre for River Studies (NCR) in October 1998.

NCR seeks to achieve co-operation between the major developers and users of expertise in the Netherlands in the area of rivers, so as to:

  • Achieve a rivers expertise potential of sufficient breadth and depth in the Netherlands.
  • Establish and reinforcing the position of Dutch scientific research into rivers.
  • Strengthen the partners' positions.
  • Enhance education and scientific research at Dutch universities.

NCR partners

  • Deltares
  • TUD (Delft University of Technology)
  • UU (Utrecht University)
  • RU (University of Nijmegen)
  • UT (University of Twente)
  • IHE (International Institute for Infrastructural, Hydraulic and Environmetal Engineering)
  • RIZA (Institute for Inland Water Management and Waste)
  • ALTERRA
  • TNO-NITG (Netherlands Institute of Applied Geoscience)
  • WUR-CWKG (Wageningen University)

In 1999 NCR has been asked to manage a large research umbrella project in the framework of the EU Structure fund IRMA (Interregional Rhine/Meuse Action Programme). In this umbrella project, IRMA-SPONGE, more than 30 research institutes from six European countries (the Netherlands, Germany, France, Belgium, Luxembourg and Switzerland) cooperate to improve the flood forecasting and prevention possibilities in the Rhine and Meuse catchment areas. The project will be executed before March 2002.

More information on this umbrella project is available on the IRMA-SPONGE Internet site.

more information

The NCR programme is available upon request. Please contact the programming secretary Ad van Os. Our secretariat is housed at Deltares.

For more information see the NCR website or the sites of the NCR partners by clicking on their names above.