The goal of the Connected River EU Interreg NS-project is to improve communication between stakeholders, governments, and water users, from kayakers to large cargo ships.

Withing this project VMM did a study on the Kleine Nete river, in collaboration with the cities of Kasterlee and Herentals and other local stakeholders. The goal is to harmonize recreational use, set in the Local Kayak Agreement, with the ecosystem’s limits, determined by the Water Framework Directive (WFD).

In order to understand how kayak traffic affects the WFD goal, kayak movements are anonymously recorded with cameras during the summer months on the Kleine Nete. Long-term trends will be derived from ongoing measurements in collaboration with a commercial partner (company improvement IT).

The findings will provide input for

• Assessment advisability of permanent monitoring
• Validation of a complementary method for monitoring kayak traffic by the use of an e-ticket system
• Providing databased information for discussing impact of kayak traffic on the WFD goals for the ‘Kleine Nete’

The partners of this project are Rijkswaterstaat (NL), Ecoloop (SE), Hamburg Logistiks (DE), Ports de Lille (FR), Vordingborg (DK), Amsterdam and Nijmegen (NL), Innovalor (NL), Antwerp Management School (BE), and the Flanders environment agency (VMM) (BE).

More info: 
Myriam Bossuyt
📞 +32 479 85 15 08
📨 my.bossuyt@vmm.be