Ana Restu Nirwana, who completed an internship at the Delta Climate Center (DCC), presented her research at the General Assembly 2025 of the European Geosciences Union (EGU) in Vienna. The EGU took place before the summer holidays and welcomed more than 20,000 participants from around 120 countries.
During her internship, Ana explored how transdisciplinary research and learning communities can help shape long-term adaptation strategies for the Southwest Delta. She emphasized the importance of co-creation sessions, field visits, regular consortium meetings, expert consultations, lectures by PhD candidates, and one-on-one conversations with doctoral researchers. This allows diverse expertise and perspectives to come together. In her presentation, she highlighted that while scientific publications can provide the foundation for these strategies, it is the learning communities that drive change in practice. Bringing people together, fostering shared knowledge, and building bridges between science, policy, and society are essential for shaping a climate-resilient future. In Vienna, Ana also presented a spatial narrative she helped develop during her internship as part of the Delta Wealth project. Using an interactive ArcGIS story map, she illustrated (through the protect-open strategy) how complex scientific insights and long-term strategies can be translated into an engaging, accessible story.
Closed river basins
The protect-open strategy stems from issues related to the consequences of closed river basins. The closures disrupted tidal flows and sediment transport, which in turn led to sand hunger (sediment shortage), habitat loss, and declining species numbers. These problems may worsen due to sea level rise and the effects of climate change. Reopening certain basins can restore tidal dynamics, biodiversity, and essential ecosystem functions. The strategy argues against waiting, for example, until the Eastern Scheldt storm surge barrier reaches the end of its lifespan. Waiting too long risks irreversible ecological degradation.
Ana contributed to the Delta Wealth project during her MSc internship at the DCC. She was supervised by professor of applied sciences Teun Terpstra from the research group Resilient Deltas and by Laura Piedelobo Martín and Yara Maljers from the Building with Nature research group at HZ University of Applied Sciences. They also co-authored the presentation.
Three strategies
Delta Wealth is a four-year research project funded by the Dutch Research Council (NWO). HZ is the lead partner. The project investigates how the Southwest Delta can remain safe, climate-resilient, ecologically healthy, and economically robust in light of accelerated sea level rise after 2050. Researchers are examining three long-term strategies: protect-open, protect-closed, and seaward. All strategies are being evaluated on the themes of flood risk management, freshwater availability and salinization, ecology, social well-being, and public support.
In addition to HZ, TU Delft, Utrecht University, Wageningen University & Research, NIOZ, and several public and private partners are involved.