In some coastal villages in northern Belgium, hundreds of metres of artificial dunes have sprung up over recent years. The government has funded the testing of new systems to protect the territory from storm surges and rising sea levels, two of the problems the country is increasingly grappling with as a direct result of climate change.

For some time Belgium has been engaged in several projects to safeguard and protect its coastal areas, with priority given to infrastructure that is as natural as possible — exactly like artificial dunes. Starting from a base of lattices, vegetation and sand dredged from the sea, these have grown naturally over time thanks to wind and storm surges, and have proven they can work. So much so that other countries are also moving to launch the same experiment.

DuneFront @DuneFront_EU

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Ever heard of dune-by-dike systems? This nature-based solution helps protect our shores from climate change & rising sea levels. But how does it work? And what are the benefits?

Find out more!
👉 dunefront.eu/innovative-dun…

♥ 1 13 mar 2025 · Apri su X →

Rising sea levels in Belgium

From the 1950s to today, the sea level at Ostend, a coastal town in northern Belgium, has risen by approximately 20 centimetres. This rise has accelerated over the past ten years, with an increase since 2015 of around 5 millimetres per year, a value higher than the global average.

Belgium is one of the territories most at risk from the effects of climate change. On one hand, global warming is causing sea levels to rise and increasing the frequency and intensity of storm surges; on the other, portions of the territory are sinking below sea level due to erosion caused by acid rain and mining activity — the so-called subsidence. This increases the country's vulnerability in the face of rising sea levels.

In 2011, the government of the Flemish region of the country presented a coastal flood protection plan. Structures such as dikes and barriers are already partly in place, but the authorities decided to reinforce these structures and create new ones while trying as much as possible to work with nature. From this emerged the idea of creating artificial dunes.

The dune-dike project

The more technical name is dune-dike. It is "a hybrid, nature-based approach that combines natural dunes with artificial dikes to provide resilient, adaptable and sustainable coastal protection", as highlighted by DuneFront, the research project that, together with Living Labs, is developing hybrid solutions for coastal protection in Belgium.

DuneFront @DuneFront_EU

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As the days shorten, summer sampling campaigns between the dune grass seem far away 🍂

However, these days form the essential groundwork for the research output and data analysis that helps us understand how dune vegetation influences dune dynamics at our European coasts.

💬 1 7 nov 2025 · Apri su X →

The experiment was launched at four locations: Raversijde, Knokke-Heist, Spinoladijk and Middelkerke. The projects were launched between 2021 and 2023 and involve the construction of lattices made of willow branches and grass that are filled with sand dredged offshore and held in place precisely by the wood and vegetation. Certain plant species were then planted on the dune sites, useful for trapping new sand carried by the wind and by waves breaking on the dunes during storm surges. A Flemish government report noted that considerable sand accumulation had already occurred at all four sites within the first year, with the dunes having already reached heights of over two and a half metres.

As the magazine Mongabay notes, over these years the artificial dune-dikes have fostered remarkable biodiversity. Plant species such as sea radish, buckwheat and sand oat grass have appeared, while on the animal side insects such as blue-winged grasshoppers, dune tiger beetles and grayling butterflies have been recorded. Bird species could arrive soon as well.

Future prospects

The experiment currently under way in Belgium could soon be extended to other locations. At the same time, it requires some refinements, since dredging sand offshore presents certain drawbacks, as it alters the ecosystem and deprives the country's shallow coastal waters of sand that could otherwise help slow sea-level rise. Nevertheless, the dune-dikes have so far proven to be a positive model, especially during Storm Benjamin, which struck the Belgian coast in autumn.

It comes as no surprise, then, that other European countries have also decided to replicate the experiment. DuneFront is planning new systems for Dunkirk, in France, and for Zandmotor, in the Netherlands, while expressions of interest have also come from Germany, Portugal, Sweden and Denmark.