Creating opportunities to adapt to climate change through innovative ...

which in turn leads to more efficient energy use and better awareness of potential threats.More storage capacity means neighbors can help one another more systematically, splittingthe strain throughout the system, which also implies that energy usage can be spread out insmall sections, leading to savings as well.2.3.2 Shipping informationWhen managing the water level in the Noordzeekanaal, there are many things one needs totake into account other than extreme floods or draughts. One of these things is traffic: theNoordzeekanaal does not just function as a way to discharge water to the sea, it is also animportant part of the regional infrastructure, connecting the Noordzee with the port ofAmsterdam.This means that there are a lot of ships passing the Noordzeekanaal every day, some of themvery large. In order to grant them safe passage, we need to maintain a minimum water levelthat enables them to pass safely over the tunnels in the area. However, this water level ismaintained at all times – even when there are no such large ships passing.Our suggestion was to set up a connection with the port of Amsterdam, who operates thelocks in IJmuiden and oversees all ships coming in and going out of the harbor. This way, thepumping station operators can go below that minimum level for a short period of time tomake optimal use of low tides, if they know that there is no ship with a large draftapproaching.We received positive responses to this theory, and set out to gather information on technicaland ‘political’ feasibility. (Ref. 5.10)2.3.3 RefinementsThis section focuses on using the information you have. The DSS does not currently use allavailable water level information. It measures the local water levels, takes an average, anduses that for its calculations, with no regard for the actual local situations. That means thatit is always working with a greater margin of error than is strictly necessary, because judgingby just the average water level there could be local risks.We wanted to find out what would be the advantages (or disadvantages) of taking localwater levels into account, instead of working with an average of the entire Noordzeekanaal.8