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## Early-stage overview

Water authorities are legally obliged to periodically assess their flood defences against the applicable standards. In settlement-sensitive areas, such as peatlands, dikes gradually subside due to autonomous settlement. As such, if water levels remain the same or rise, they may no longer provide sufficient height. Increasing loads can also mean that a flood defence is no longer strong enough. Managing thousands of kilometres of regional flood defences is therefore a continuous and labour-intensive process. However, raising dikes is not straightforward: stability, subsoil conditions, water levels, available space, and environmental factors such as nature and recreation must all be considered simultaneously. 

## From detailed calculations to targeted exploration

Traditionally, a dike reinforcement project starts with a great deal of manual work. Elevation data is collected, a 3D model of the existing situation is created, and various design options are assessed integrally by several disciplines, including water safety, geotechnical engineering, structural hydraulic engineering, spatial planning, sustainability, conditioning and stakeholder management. This takes time, coordination and money, while the first phase is often still exploratory in nature. The dike-raising app makes it possible to quickly create area-wide outline designs at an early design stage, so that options are immediately clear and open for discussion without the need for final calculations. This increases accuracy and, consequently, reliability. 

## How does the app work?

When using the app, the first step is to upload a reference line showing the alignment of the existing dike or quay, for example from a CAD or GIS file. Elevation data is then added. This can be taken from the Actueel Hoogtebestand Nederland (AHN), the Dutch national elevation dataset, which is updated periodically, or from the user’s own, more detailed survey data. Based on this data, the app visualises the current situation. Additional information can also be added, such as locations where the dike must not be expanded, existing or planned buildings, watercourses or other spatial constraints. These data are not automatically included in the calculation, but are essential for properly assessing the design at a later stage. 

The app makes it possible to quickly explore a new situation. The user enters a number of key parameters, such as the required crest level, for example 0.2 or 0.3 metres above NAP (Normaal Amsterdams Peil/Amsterdam Ordnance Datum), the crest width and the gradients of the inner and outer slopes. Based on these data, the app calculates what the dike will look like, both in cross-section and in plan view. For example, an asset manager may want to make the slope steeper or shallower, raise or widen the crest, avoid affecting a road or house, or retain a ditch and agricultural land. Within seconds, the app produces a clear outline design, including the required quantity of fill material, the space occupied by the measure and potential interfaces with water or the surrounding environment. This allows design options to be discussed directly with the client, either at their office or via Teams. What would normally require extensive coordination and time is made immediately clear. 

![Screenshot 2026-09-29 162033.png](https://cms.viktor.ai/uploads/Screenshot_2026_09_29_162033_78420a9c4f.png)

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## The app in practice

For the storage-basin system managed by Hoogheemraadschap Hollands Noorderkwartier (HHNK) (water authority in the Province of North Holland), the flood defence app was applied to dozens of kilometres of storage-basin quays. In this area, the difference between the water level and the hinterland is often only 30 to 50 centimetres, with a complex network of waterways and agricultural plots. Using the app, we were able to provide rapid insight, through outline designs, into where raising measures were technically feasible, what impact an intervention would have on the surrounding area, and where bespoke solutions would be required. This was achieved without having to produce full 3D designs, making it possible to assess the viability of a measure, together with its budgetary and spatial implications, as early as the exploratory phase. 

Another example is a low-lying area in North Holland, directly behind the coastal dune area, where rainfall can either infiltrate towards the sea or run off towards the polder area behind it. The area contains agricultural land used for grass and flower cultivation, intersected by roads and ditches that drain the water. Due to its location, the area is prone to flooding. This issue has increased significantly in recent years and is the reason for a regional programme aimed at the controlled drainage and management of water. A potential subsidy also played a role in this project, meaning that the viability of possible measures had to be assessed quickly. Here, the app was used to assess variants at an early stage and immediately identify the required soil volumes, allowing a subsidy application to be submitted. This showed, for example, that some variants, such as raising works that would affect an existing ditch or road, were technically feasible but not viable because of their impact on water drainage or agricultural land. 

## Digitalisation as an accelerator, not a replacement

Projects increasingly require rapid visualisations and drawings. With the flood defence app, consultants can prepare outline designs themselves and explore bottlenecks without depending on detailed design development. The lines and profiles generated can be used directly as 2D drawings, enabling ideas to be shared quickly within the project team. 

The main value of the app lies in its speed, flexibility, and reliability. Changes to design parameters, such as a revised construction height or slope gradient, can be implemented at the touch of a button. The consequences of these amendments are immediately visible across the entire process. Whereas traditional drafting can take days or even weeks to incorporate changes, this can now be done in minutes. Depending on the project, time savings of up to approximately 60% can be achieved in the exploratory design phase. Additionally, reliability improves because the design is no longer based on a small number of critical cross-sections, but on area-wide data. 

The results from the app are not the end point. The designed dike alignment and cross-sections can be exported as shape files and used as input for further design software. In this way, the outline design forms a starting point and connects with existing workflows. The app is particularly effective in relatively straightforward situations, such as rural or open areas where there is little development directly adjacent to the dike. In more complex urban environments too, the app adds value by providing insight into potential solutions in an early phase. The app provides a basis for further development and detailing in preliminary and final designs, with additional bespoke engineering where required. 

Above all, this flood defence app shows how digitalisation can accelerate and strengthen the work. It does not replace expertise, but automates repetitive tasks and makes insight available more quickly. 

## Build apps like this with VIKTOR

IV built the app on VIKTOR, an AI platform that turns engineering challenges into verified solutions, safely and at scale.

VIKTOR provides a trusted environment where engineers can combine engineering logic, AI, project data, and existing software into reusable apps and workflows. These solutions can be tested and verified before being deployed across projects and teams, with the governance, access control, versioning, and auditability needed for engineering organizations.

Instead of recreating workflows for every project, teams can capture proven engineering methods and reuse them with new project data. This helps engineers spend less time on repetitive work and more time reviewing results and making engineering decisions, while organizations maintain control over how automation and AI are used.



Water

Civil

Environmental

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See how IV uses a dike raising app to assess regional flood defences, compare early design options and estimate material needs across entire routes.

Dike Raising App Speeds Up Flood Defence Design | Iv

How IV Speeds Up Regional Flood Defence Design with a Dike Raising App

## Enhancing quality, lowering risk

The applications used at Van den Herik currently serve to enhance the quality and efficiency for tenders and projects. It not only gives them a competitive advantage when applying to a new project, but it also lowers the risk of making wrong cost estimations. So far, they have successfully used their applications on several projects. For example, the tools for waterway routes and water info analysis are being used for almost all tenders. 

## General and project-specific tools

Besides apps for waterway routes and water info analysis, Van den Herik has one more general tool for determining the type of geotextile that should be used on the soil. Two other project-specific tools are for analyzing sensor data and predicting dredging work.

### Optimizing waterway routes

This application is also referred to as Van den Herik’s Google Maps for waterways. The app is used to determine the fastest route from point A to point B, which boats are allowed to navigate a certain route, and what the most optimal route is when more locations (e.g. 20) should be visited.
“This is a great example of how we automate the boring! Sometimes, we must dredge in 30 locations and dump in 20 possible locations based on soil type and quality. With 600 possible routes, it can become quite complex and laborious to manually determine what the optimal routes are. This tool lets you optimize this process in minutes, saving cost along the way as you use far less fuel.”

![vd Herik (maps).png](https://cms.viktor.ai/uploads/vd_Herik_maps_4ee52232af.png)
*Screenshot of Herik Maps, the application to calculate waterway routes*

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### Water info analysis

Using the Rijkswaterstaat Waterinfo website, Van den Herik retrieves historical data on water levels and currents across the Netherlands. This data is important for the firm, for example, to determine expected workability in certain time windows. However, requesting data from the past 10 years generates enormous .csv files with tens of millions of lines of data. Especially when requesting multiple measuring points. That is why Roga developed an application that connects to Rijkswaterstaat’s API to retrieve these files within minutes, rather than hours, that are ready to be analyzed. The app also filters the data and allows users to create plots and graphs on the course of water levels and currents, which was not possible before using Excel. 

### Geotextile 

Oftentimes underwater constructions need soil protection afterwards to ensure the soil remains as it is. For this, a wide variety of different ‘geotextiles’ and alternatives can be used. Previously, to decide which geotextile was suited the design department at Van den Herik used spreadsheets. However, these can be quite complicated. Especially, for people with less knowledge of the topic. Instead, with the geotextile application, work planners can fill in a list of all environmental factors and the app will provide a suggestion of which geotextile is most suited within five minutes, including a template for a design report that can be submitted to the client.

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### Dredging at Zeesluis IJmuiden

Currently, Van den Herik is working on a large maintenance project at Zeesluis IJmuiden where they are responsible for maintaining the right soil levels for the upcoming 20 years. They are developing an application that will predict how the underwater soil will develop. This is done using bi-weekly measurement data on which machine learning will be applied to discover trends and create links to environmental factors, such as water heights and weather conditions. This way, they can predict when and how often dredgers must be sent to the location. Van Den Herik intends to apply the lessons they learned in using machine learning to assist in dredging operations and, more generally, in optimizing dredging strategies for other projects in the future.

![vd Herik (dredging) resize.png](https://cms.viktor.ai/uploads/vd_Herik_dredging_resize_b7b4fbb69e.png)
*Screenshot from the Dredgin Predictions application used to predict soil developments at Zeesluis IJmuiden*

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## Not a software developer

Despite the great number of tools being developed at Van den Herik, they do not define themselves as a software development organization “And we never will become one”, adds Roga. “However, we can leverage our means to create software that enables us to deliver more quality. Something we had never foreseen to be possible in the first place.” 

> “In conversations with VIKTOR, we appeared to be a great match. Short lines, fast fixes, and feedback gets processed quickly. Everything is based on parameters, which makes creating apps much easier. But the code you write is not linked to the platform and can be repurposed at any time.” – Lloyd Roga, GIS specialist at Van den Herik.

## More engineering tools

Besides their own custom collection of web apps, Van den Herik also uses several pre-existing VIKTOR tools. For example, [GeoTools](https://www.viktor.ai/blog/14/web-application-python-geotechnics): a set of tools that helps save time and make geotechnical data more insightful, the [BRO app](https://demo.viktor.ai/public/bro-app) to assess the soil in combination with their own Geotextile app, the [CPT interpreter](https://demo.viktor.ai/public/cpt-interpreter) to view .gef files in graphs and GIS maps, and the [Document Searcher](https://www.viktor.ai/blog/124/search-engineering-documents-with-viktor-chat-gpt) to find and access any information in (engineering) documents. The last is used on every project; all documents are uploaded so everyone involved can easily search through contract details, fast. 

![vd Herik 2 - resize.png](https://cms.viktor.ai/uploads/vd_Herik_2_resize_f71f7f8259.png)
*Van den Herik ships Charlock and Christophorus dredging at Zeesluis IJmuiden*

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Geotechnical

Hydraulic

Data Science

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Hydraulic engineers at Van den Herik use digital technologies to develop software that empowers them to automate and optimize daily work processes and deliver high-quality projects.

Hydraulic engineering meets digital innovation at Van den Herik

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Van den Herik Automates Hydraulic Engineering with GIS-Connected VIKTOR Apps

Structural

Mechanical

Electrical

Energy

Sustainability

Process

Offshore

[Arup](https://www.arup.com/)'s Chief Technology Officer (CTO), Dai David, led the technical vision behind the rollout, working with Chief Digital & Information Officer (CDIO) Rob Greig and Arup's digital engineering teams. Together with VIKTOR's CEO Peter Madlener and co-founder Wouter Riedijk, Business Development Director Wichert Kooloos, Customer Success Lead Leonard Bonnet, and Janez Mikec from VIKTOR's Professional Services team, they have explored how to make advanced AI and automation accessible across Arup while maintaining the quality, governance and accountability that engineering work demands.  

![Arup and VIKTOR celebrate signing of global contract at Autodesk University 2026](https://cms.viktor.ai/uploads/Arup_VIKTOR_global_collaboration_ecdf67622f.png)

*[Left image] Arup CDIO Rob Greig and VIKTOR CEO Peter Madlener sign the agreement at the VIKTOR booth, Autodesk University, Las Vegas.*
*[Right image] The Arup and VIKTOR teams after the signing. From left to right: Arup CDIO Rob Greig, Arup CTO Dai David, VIKTOR CEO Peter Madlener, VIKTOR Business Development Director Wichert Kooloos, VIKTOR Customer Success Lead Leonard Bonnet and VIKTOR co-founder Wouter Riedijk.*

## From pilot to global rollout 

The relationship between Arup and VIKTOR goes back further than a single pilot. Arup had already developed significant internal automation capabilities and after considering how best to scale and build on these efforts, chose to partner with VIKTOR.  

Over the past year, Arup's digital engineering teams across Europe, the Americas and APAC worked side by side with VIKTOR's Professional Services team to identify, develop and validate real-world use cases, turning existing workflows into reusable apps tested in real project environments. These applications already span multiple engineering disciplines, from ground engineering and structures to acoustics and data centres, with many more use cases in development. 

## Scaling AI with governance built in 

In this area, Arup and VIKTOR share their vision. VIKTOR provides an enterprise framework that allows organisations to govern workflows, tools and knowledge sources while maintaining oversight and traceability. For Arup, this is a key foundation for scaling AI responsibly across the firm. 

## Flexible workflows with interactive AI agents 

Arup was a priority beta customer for VIKTOR AI Agents, which execute complex, multi-step engineering workflows end to end. Arup's engineering teams were among the first to evaluate the capability and shape how it works today. 

## Bringing trusted company knowledge into the AI layer 

The next phase will explore how Arup's standards, best practices and engineering knowledge can be integrated into AI-powered workflows through the VIKTOR Knowledge Base. This is an area Arup and VIKTOR will continue to develop as the rollout evolves. 

## What's next: organization-wide rollout 

The agreement starts with a structured rollout of the VIKTOR AI platform across Arup. 

This will follow a structured, phased approach supported by a dedicated change programme, helping engineers across Arup adopt and scale trusted digital solutions. Through a Champions Network, tailored learning pathways and proven approaches can be shared more widely, enabling a global community of engineers who create, share and apply digital solutions across disciplines and regions. 

## Thank you to the teams behind the rollout 

Arup's internal team drove the implementation from day one.  

Special thanks go to Ingrid Jongman, Benedetta Ravicchio, Ed Eastwood, and the engineers, digital champions and change leads across Europe, Asia and the Americas who supported the rollout. On the VIKTOR side, Janez Mikec, from the Professional Services team worked closely with Arup teams throughout the programme.  

The next phase builds on your work. Thank you. 

## Arup and VIKTOR: Scaling AI with engineers in control 

Arup is a multidisciplinary design and engineering consultancy operating globally, ranked 19th in the Engineering News-Record (ENR) 2026 Top 150 Global Design Firms. 

The next phase of AI in engineering depends on combining technological capability with engineering expertise, governance and trust. Arup and VIKTOR are working together to create that foundation, helping engineers apply AI responsibly and at scale.

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Arup signs a long-term agreement to roll out the VIKTOR AI platform globally, giving engineers AI-powered apps and workflows with governance built in.

Arup Rolls Out the VIKTOR AI Platform Globally | VIKTOR

Arup rolls out the VIKTOR AI platform across its global organisation

Customer cases

Arup rolls out the VIKTOR AI platform across its global organisation

How IV Speeds Up Regional Flood Defence Design with a Dike Raising App

Van den Herik Automates Hydraulic Engineering with GIS-Connected VIKTOR Apps

Customer cases

Arup rolls out the VIKTOR AI platform across its global organisation

How IV Speeds Up Regional Flood Defence Design with a Dike Raising App

Van den Herik Automates Hydraulic Engineering with GIS-Connected VIKTOR Apps

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