Partners

Rijkswaterstaat is the executive agency of the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management, with a history of 225 years. Safety, mobility and quality of life in the Netherlands. That’s what Rijkswaterstaat is working on. 

As lead Partner, Rijkswaterstaat is responsible for design, construct and maintenance of the main road and waterway networks infrastructure in the Netherlands. Maintenance covers renovation and modernisation of its aging infrastructure. This transition is from document-based to model based control system engineering, embedded in long-term strategic focus areas: 'Data and Information provision' and 'Data Driven Asset management'. Crucial is the modernisation of Software Reliability for vital infrastructure. Rijkswaterstaat brings in its most complex and critical infrastructures: Storm Surge Barriers and how to maintain these ageing critical infrastructures in the fast-changing software reliability arena. The strategy is to develop new methods for reliable software, faster and cheaper. 

The Flanders Environment Agency intends to adopt an even stronger position as a solution-oriented partner. In this way, we want to have a positive impact on the Flemish living environment and help make it climate resilient. Together with our partners, stakeholders and other interested parties, we aim to achieve results on the ground and in our policy, so that we are able to respond quickly to the changing needs within society. With this in mind, we have developed a new mission/vision statement and reorganised our entire operation. With our new mission, we are committing ourselves to the current and future generations in Flanders.

• We will ensure clean, appealing and sufficient water.
• We will ensure that the air is clean
• We will help to steer adaptations in response to our changing climate.

In addition, we are specifically committed to open space, smart cities and a circular and climate-adaptive living environment. What we are aiming for is defined in our vision: "The Flanders Environment Agency, your solution-oriented partner for a climate resilient living environment".

With the STORM_SAFE project, the Flanders Environment Agency wants to learn from the experiences from other North Sea region partners to improve its capacity to create and manage water management infrastructure that is updated, resilient and (cyber-)safe in terms of software. Specific attention will be given to a specific location that is of key importance for coastal water safety, where we can test and implement transnational best-practices.

The University of Twente wants to be the ultimate people-first university of technology, and empowers society through sustainable solutions. Their research group Formal Methods and Tools (FMT) is involved in the STORM_SAFE project. Their guiding values match the spirit and knowledge needs of the project: "to develop mathematical methods, high-performance data structures and algorithms, and suitable programming languages for the design of reliable software- and data-intensive control systems.

Within STORM_SAFE, the University of Twente will be primarily involved in:

• developing quantitative modelling approaches and analysis algorithms for risk management and dependability evaluations;
• applying Markov models for optimal decision-making under uncertainty, specifically tailored to the software systems used in the given infrastructures;
• contributing to the implementation of domain-specific modelling languages and automated software for model analysis;
• focusing on software prototyping and partner integration aspects;
• implementing the scientific and engineering contributions of the UT’s participation in the project

Gothenburg, the work of planning, coordination and development of high water protection, including both protection against higher sea level and the management of increased waterflows, is gathered under one single umbrella - the High Water Protection Programme.

Gothenburg's most important goals within the High Water Protection Program are two-sided. Firstly, by year 2040 high water protection measures including riverside protection, protective gates, raised ground levels need to be completed along the route Älvsborg Bridge - Marieholm Bridge, including inland waterways. Secondly, by year 2070 the outer storm barriers in Göta Älv River, Nordre Älv River and Välenviken need to be completed.

The City of Gothenburg participates in STORM_SAFE through the High Water Protection Programme. We can highlight the problems of a city facing significant flood risks, where most of the work to protect the city has barely begun. By asking questions and sharing views with the project from an early stage, we hope to add another dimension. Answers to questions such as general strategies, climate adaptation, lessons learned from similar cities, additional questions such as insurance situation, implications for navigation and port operations, etc is very valuable to us. WP2 provides the space to present actual results and to anchor them with a wider circle of possible replicators, this is in line with our ambitions in the project.

Voies navigables de France (VNF) is a public entity dependant on the French Ministry of Ecological Transition and Territorial Cohesion, which gathers in one only operator the whole French inland waterways (IWW) ambition. Strong of its 4 300 agents, VNF is acting on 6 700 km of the French inland waterways 8 500-km-long network. Pooling all the skills and technical expertise around inland waterways, VNF strengthens the ability of the sector to innovate and develop, creating optimisation and efficiency for the public service. VNF is made of a freight transport (large gauge) network and a tourism (small gauge) network, where it achieves its three missions: promoting sustainable inland waterway logistics; contributing to land use planning; and ensuring a comprehensive water management on its 2 networks.

As a member of the STORM_SAFE consortium, VNF will pursue its work already started to implement an automated French IWW infrastructure, with remote control of large gauge locks, hydraulic remote management and reorganization of maintenance. In WP1, VNF will provide its knowledge to understand and define the needs and will contribute to the assessment of the usability of innovative strategies and solutions. In WP2, VNF will commit on testing the solutions and disseminate them, while sharing feedbacks and pooling efforts. In WP3 and WP4, VNF will contribute to prepare the standards and policy recommendations in connection with climate adaptation.

The Danish Coastal Authority (DCA)will be sharing their experience as asset owner and operating a sluice remotely. They will look into their procedures action cards and infrastructure and expectedly improve their robustness during the project. In a wider context, the participation of both Rijkswaterstaat and the Danish Coastal Authority in STORM_SAFE enables an even stronger peer review when it comes to the national perspective of coastal defense, also in the context of Climate Change Adaptation.

DCA expects improved and more efficient planning and assignment of existing and future capacities. Furthermore, it expects to gain more knowledge in design and safely operating sluices. 

the NLWKN operates, maintains and strengthens 14 storm surge barriers which protect the regions around the tidal rivers against storm surges. The NLWKN’s largest storm surge barrier, the Emssperrwerk, at the Ems estuary near Gandersum, also has a second important function: The Ems Storm Surge Barrier enables newly constructed cruise ships to pass from the shipyard through the shallow tidal river Ems towards the sea. The Emssperrwerk plays also a prominent roll in the Master Plan Ems 2050 – the counterpart of the Dutch program Eems-Dollard 2050. Both are trying to develop the Ems estuary in an even balance and joint synergies of nature protection, industrial development and climate adaptation.

The NLWKN’s unit that will be participating most actively in STORM_SAFE will be the unit in Aurich that is responsible for the operation of the Ems Storm Surge Barrier. This unit will be actively participating with the following activities:

• Providing data and information about the specific case of Lower Saxony’s largest storm surge barrier, the Emssperrwerk. This is especially interesting for the entire team, as this infrastructure is highly complex and multifunctional. For example, besides the barrier against storm surges, it also helps to regulate the water level in support of the local shipyard.
• Providing access to data / information of the other water related infrastructure in Lower Saxony.
• Contributing to the development of real-world needs profiles for software reliability.
• Peer-reviewing / commenting of deliverables and outputs from the viewpoint of and infrastructure operator.
• Using the own further network within Germany to support dissemination and replication.
• Actively participating in events

Eindhoven University of Technology is a research university specializing in engineering science & technology, it has been founded in 1956 by industry, local government, and academia. This spirit of collaboration is still at the heart of the university, generating impact with research, together with partners, consortia and relevant governmental institutions is something the university excels at.  

Eindhoven University of Technology will contribute to the specification, modelling, analysis and generation of the software that controls water defence works. Two complementary techniques are involved: supervisory control synthesis and formal verification.Eindhoven University of Technology will provide its control software generation and analysis techniques, including the available tools, to be used in WP2 for real-life case studies. It will also provide support in applying these techniques. Within WP1, it will improve and strengthen the methods, where they may fall short in WP2. It will publish within WP1 about the newly developed techniques and provide assistance in the form of educational material. Additionally, it will provide support in creating comprehensive guidelines for non-IT/control experts in WP3.

Lund University was founded in 1666 and is one of world's top universities. The University has approximately 45,000 students and 8,600 staff based in Lund, Helsingborg, Malmö and Ljungbyhed. We are united in our efforts to understand, explain and improve our world and the human condition. Water issues are complex and must be solved sustainably with holistic understanding. The profile area Water contributes to the implementation of improved water policies and practices by for example developing innovative technologies and reducing environmental impact, advance the knowledge of water in society, influencing priorities set for improved water governance and laying the foundation for improved water governance policy. We help the world recognize the value of water and ensures that it is shared and used sustainably, equitably, and efficiently – for a water-wise world.

Within STORM_SAFE, the research and development in Lund will focus on establishing the situation in Sweden and transfer relevant knowledge to the network of stakeholders to be formed. Subsequently, useful information and feedback will come from Swedish applications that will improve the methods, making them more robust and general, especially with regard to applications in other fields besides storm surge barriers. The innovation aspect will be covered in collaboration with the WinWater network which is cooperating with Lund University and engages in collaboration with SME and the wider public.

University of Saarland can be considered to have "laid a general foundation" through representing a cornerstone for being amongst the first institutions to design the numeric model and strive for an application in vital infrastructure. A full assessment of those preparatory research has taken place during the project preparation. The contributions of USAAR will focus on WP1 and WP2 where they bring in techniques for model construction, model checking, cyber-physical system analysis, probabilistic guarantees, as well as verification and validation of software and systems. In WP1, they plan to bridge general-purpose methods and tools to uncertainty quantification and formal system design to domain specific particularities. In WP2, they plan to contribute to the development of a library of reusable models and their instantiations in the spectrum from real system to digital twins across entire domain.

USAAR expects to gain considerable expertise and domain-specific insights regarding the applicability and use of our portfolio of analysis and verification techniques to storm surge barriers verification and testing. In WP1, they plan to come up with techniques that enhance system simulation approaches including digital twins by verification components. WP2 is planned to deliver a library of reusable models that are validated regarding uncertainty and risk. These results are of considerable interest beyond the project scope. 

Since its establishment in 1974, Aalborg University (AAU) has pursued a problem-based learning (PBL), also by extensive collaboration with the surrounding society. The department of Computer Science at AAU has a long-standing and internationally recognized body of research into both foundational and logical theories as well as algorithms and tools for verification, validation and methodologies for real-time and embedded systems. Using the verification tool UPPAAL, numerous software problems in a variety of domains have been tackled over the past decades. One of the key research areas is the 'safe and secure society', which recognizes the need for trust that systems work as intended in an increasingly automated world. More recently, the department has been involved in several water-infrastructure related research project, like Distributed Online Monitoring of the Urban Water Cycle (DONUT) , Controlling Water in an Urban Environment (CLAIRE), and Verifiable and Safe AI for Autonomous Systems, in collaboration with other academic (civil engineering) and industrial partners in the field of (urban) water management.

As a higher education and research organization, the contribution to the project mainly focuses on work packages 1 and 2. In work package 1, From Knowledge to Practical Approach, AAU contributes by sharing the vast knowledge and experience in obtaining verifiable software for embedded and cyber-physical systems. Together with the other partners, AAU researchers will identify gaps and barriers that arise when implementing academic solutions in practice, resulting in a roadmap for the future. In work package 2, From Pilot Testing to Real-World Application, AAU contributes by collaborating with industrial partners to work on an actual real-world case, hence bridging between theory and practice. Subsequently, results and lessons-learned from this case will be distributed to the other partners within the project, but also to members of the wider community of observers.