Movable Barrier Monitoring System Demonstrator in Roermond

20. November 2025 | News

On October 13, 2025, in Roermond-Limburg, a smart fiber-optic-based monitoring system—developed by the Delft University of Technology under the MULTICLIMACT project for the BoxBarrier movable flood defense—was tested in realistic conditions. The BoxBarrier consists of aligned and stacked water-filled boxes designed to protect flood-prone urban areas during high-water flood events.

by Juan Aguilar López (TU Delft)

The team TU Delft team collaborated with fiber-optic systems developer fibrisTerre, the local Dutch water board for Limburg province (Waterschap Limburg), and the Dutch Water Prevention company that owns the BoxBarrier system. Together, they brought this demonstrator to life.

The test site was located along a side channel of the Green River in Roermond. Built in the early 1990s, this river system connects the Hambeek and Roer rivers in southern Netherlands. It helps divert high water levels from the Maas River, keeping them away from urban areas near the floodplain. Waterschap Limburg uses this site annually to test its own movable flood-prevention systems.

During one of these exercises, the team erected a flood wall made of 25 BoxBarrier boxes in front of the testing area. They attached fiber-optic sensors to the structure. The monitoring system featured a thin fiber-optic cable running across all the boxes to measure strain at each box joint. Special clamps—designed without screws—held the cable securely in place. Their optimized design can withstand pulls of over 30 kg while allowing quick installation via a simple push-and-fix mechanism.

The cable connected to fibrisTerre’s DTSS interrogator, a photonics-based device. It generates light signals, transmits them through the cable, and analyzes the returning signals. By detecting distortions in the photonic signals, the system measures strain at any point along the cable.

To simulate a potential failure in the flood defense, the team half-emptied one box to ensure large displacement and breakdown at that spot. They then used a pump to draw water from the river into the side channel, flooding the area behind the barrier.

The results were highly promising. The system not only pinpointed the expected failure location—the box with the highest strain—but also detected initial movement 15 minutes before the event, registering just 400 microstrains. For context, with about 60 cm of cable between each box, this equates to detecting a mere 0.12 mm elongation. That’s remarkably precise!

In short, the system is not only accurate but also delivers early warnings to operators—the core goal of the technology.

Professor Juan Aguilar, leader of the TU Delft team, said: „Combining hydraulic engineering principles with high-end tech like fiber-optic sensing will let us generate quick warnings and turn weak points into safe ones during high-water events. That’s resilience at its best!“

This movable barrier demonstrator was funded as part of the MULTICLIMACT Horizon Europe project. Thanks to such funding, more frequent climate events like floods—which affected over 400,000 people in Europe—can be better managed, with consequences significantly reduced.

---

About MULTICLIMACT:

MULTICLIMACT is an EU-funded project aimed at safeguarding Europe’s built environment against the increasing threats of natural and climatic hazards. By uniting 25 leading European organisations, MULTICLIMACT aims to enhance resilience, sustainability, and safety for communities across the continent. Through innovative strategies, including a toolkit of 20 reliable methods and digital solutions, the project targets the urgent need for adaptive measures against floods, earthquakes, extreme weather conditions and heatwaves. Tested across four pilot sites with diverse climatic conditions, MULTICLIMACT embodies a shared vision for a safer, more resilient future, focusing on actions to reduce the impact of climate change on the built environment. For more information, please visit www.multiclimact.eu