Sediment management throughout the Meuse river

The catchment of the Meuse River measures 34,347 km2 and is shared by France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Germany. The main river is 905 km long and flows from France through Belgium and the Netherlands towards the North Sea. Since the 19th century large engineering works have been carried out to serve navigation, power generation and flood safety.
The International Meuse Commission (IMC) was established in 2002 with the signing of the Meuse Treaty (Ghent Convention). The treaty aims at achieving sustainable and integrated water management by addressing transboundary issues such as flood management, water quality and nature and water availability. In this way rules and requirements of the European Water Directive and the Floods Directive are implemented in a coordinated way. Although erosion and sedimentation processes are important for ecology as well as a potential threat for structures and navigation, the directives do not provide clear guidance for sediment management.
In this research we made an inventory of sediment related problems in the countries and national sediment management strategies, which until now aim at safeguarding navigation and flood safety through maintenance dredging. However, national sediment research programs started recently including river system aspects and long-term effects of human interference and climate change. France started the program “Know the River” to understand the sediment loads, morphological development and impact of human activity and climate change. In the Netherlands the morphological system is assessed in the “Story of the Meuse”, the “Story of the Sediment” and the Integrated River Management program. In both countries the results will be used for improved management and planning new interventions.
The national programs are not coordinated at this stage. This provides a challenge for international cooperation, aiming at understanding of basin wide sediment sources, sinks and fluxes and ultimately recommendations for transboundary sediment management.