Governance 
Sediment management measures to preserve the Wadden Sea under sea-level rise require social, institutional and legal prerequisites for implementation. We aim to understand what kind of governance arrangements (i.e., formal and informal institutions, governmental and non-governmental organisations) can help to overcome social (i.e., administrative, legal, economic, financial, etc.) barriers associated to sediment management in the Wadden Sea.

The Physical System
The transport pathways and morphodynamics of the Wadden Sea are influenced by various forcing conditions including sediment management strategies that affect the physical system. Based on the analysis of field data and numerical modelling we provide the physical basis of ecologically important metrics: availability of sediment, visibility in the water column, substrate of the sediment bed, the water depth distribution (morphology) and changes therein (morphodynamics). We quantify how interventions influence the physical state of the Wadden Sea in contrast to the natural dynamics, and how these changes translate into ecologically relevant parameters. 

The Ecosystem
Natural disturbances and human management have an impact on tidal-flat communities. We want to investigate the reactions of these Wadden Sea communities to sea-level rise and sediment dynamics. Our aim is to link biological and physical modelling by combining hydrodynamics and sediment transport with biota-driven sediment capture and biodiversity.