The Forecasting and Warning System of the ‘Rijkswaterstaat’ for the River Rhine

Abstract

The sea and rivers would flood the largest part of the Netherlands, if it were not protected by hundreds of kilometers of dikes. Dikes which must be carefully maintained and monitored. Especially during storms and river floods, the ‘Dike-guard’ performs detailed inspection and when necessary makes emergency repairs. Clearly, good warning systems giving accurate forecasts far enough in advance are important. In the following section, the organization and tasks of ‘Rijkswaterstaat’, the government agency which operates these warning systems, are discussed. In section 10.3 the riverflood warning system will be dealt with in more detail. In sections 10.4 and 10.5 the “old” empirical and the statistical forecasting models currently applied are discussed. In the final section long term forecasting of low flow on the River Rhine is discussed.