The intended ICT-expert (Medior) is responsible for supporting the Policy department in modeling soil erosion and sediment transport to the Flemish watercourses, including the impact of erosion control measures using the WaTEM/SEDEM model. This model was developed by KU Leuven. The WaTEM/SEDEM model is written in FreePascal using the open-source software package Lazarus. For the spatial representation of data (input and output), rasters in the IDRISI format (.rst) with accompanying metadata files (.RDC) are used. These rasters can be created via both IDRISI and QGIS and can be read via IDRISI, QGIS, and ArcGIS.

The WaTEM/SEDEM model was further optimized, recalibrated, and operationalized by order of the Policy department via Python (pywatemsedem and pywatemsedemvlaanderen). However, the model still needs to be further expanded with new features, restructured, documented, and operationalized within the Policy department.

The tasks of the ICT-expert (Medior) include supporting the running of the notebooks and Python code, guidance for calculations at the Flanders scale in function of the sediment indicator, reporting, implementing the requested model improvements or extensions in the code (Python), maintenance, restructuring, and documentation (GitHub) of the developed Python code (pycnws).

The assignment is part of the implementation of the River Basin Management Plans 2023-2027 and is part of action 8B_A_0100 regarding the development of erosion control scenarios for the priority areas of sediment supply to watercourses and sewer systems.

Context/Requirements

The Flemish Environment Planning Bureau (Policy department) of the Department of Environment (OMG) of the Flemish Government is responsible for the research, monitoring, and evaluation of soil protection policy in Flanders. Erosion control is the spearhead of this policy.

Within the framework of the river basin management plans, the Department of Environment is the lead for the aspect of sediment reduction to watercourses. To reduce sediment supply to watercourses as efficiently as possible, it is important to focus spatially on the watercourse segments that experience the highest sediment supply and to stimulate the most effective measures in the relevant contributing areas in a targeted manner.

The modeling of soil erosion and sediment transport to the watercourses makes a significant contribution to this.