About Niedersächsischer Landesbetrieb für Wasserwirtschaft, Küsten- und Naturschutz (NLWKN)
The state agency for water management, coastal protection and nature conservation of Lower Saxony (NLWKN) is a sectoral public authority affiliated with the Lower Saxony Ministry for Environment, Energy and Climate Protection.
The agency operates, maintains and supports 14 storm surge barriers that protect the regions around the tidal rivers. NLWKN’s largest storm surge barrier, the Emssperrwerk, at the Ems estuary near Gandersum, also has a second important function: the Ems storm surge barrier enables newly constructed cruise ships to pass from the shipyard through the shallow tidal river Ems towards the sea. Starting probably in 2027, the Ems Barrier will fulfil a third function: the flexible tidal control. The goal of this function is to resolve silt issues and to improve the water quality of the Ems river.
About the case study
With its Emssperrwerk, the NLWKN takes part in the STORM_SAFE project. The case study is focusing on a model-based analysis of safety, consistency and performance of the control software of the Emssperrwerk.
The case study will be concerned with modelling the infrastructure from low to high functional levels. This means that the temporal behaviour of individual moving gates is modelled, as well as any combination of them to fulfil a high-level function. The established functions are the storm surge protection, the damming, as well as the upcoming tidal control. These models will be used, together with specification of various safety properties to do verification based on the model.
Organisations involved and participating universities
NLWKN acts as the infrastructure provider, while Saarland University is responsible for the academic investigations. Involving further academic partners is planned.
Contribution to STORM_SAFE
The reason for NLWKN to participate in the STORM_SAFE project is to exchange knowledge with other North Sea region partners and thereby gaining from each other’s experiences. The exchange between different critical infrastructure providers can be crucial in future for software security and reliability.
Thereby, the university partners get experience with real life applications. Additionally, the experience from university partners in formal methods can be a real benefit in the development of reliable software.