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Jan De Nul Develops Hybrid Dune-Dike Coastal Protection Blueprint

Posted on March 25, 2026

Climate change accelerates sea level rise, intensifies storm regimes, and increases coastal erosion across Europe. At the same time, biodiversity is under pressure and natural landscapes are increasingly scarce. The need for coastal infrastructure that both protects our shores and enhances biodiversity has become urgent. That is why we developed a blueprint for hybrid dune-dike solutions: coastal protection systems that combine reliable man-made structures with dynamic dune landscapes.

Hybrid dune-dike solutions are coastal protection structures that combine sand dunes with engineered dikes to protect shorelines from flooding and storm surges. They protect our shores and enhance our nature. While they are increasingly recognised for their potential, dune-dike solutions are still rare, and few exist on a large scale.

Coastal resilience

In the Netherlands, the Prince Hendrik Sand Dike is a well-known example.  To protect the island Texel in the Wadden Sea against storms and floods, we provided a solution that incorporates both nature and tourism: a new dune landscape against the old dike and a salt marsh landscape on the seaside. This makes the transition between water and land natural again and protects the island for decades to come.

Blueprint to scale implementation

Within the European Horizon project DuneFront, we created a blueprint for dune-dike nature-based solutions together with our DuneFront partners.

Nasrin Hassanpour, Project Engineer at Jan De Nul.

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