More than half of the world’s population lives in cities. Two-thirds of the world’s largest ones are at high risk of flooding from climate change and the associated sea level rise due to their location on the coast or an estuary. Those who live in river basins outside those kinds of areas also run great risks due to the increasing roughness of the weather and the correspondingly extremely varying water discharge. The latter occasionally result in flashfloods that may cause major damage. We gained our water knowledge by helping to protect large parts of the Netherlands against flooding. This involved not only protecting the coastline with dykes and storm surge barriers, but also structuring the catchment area of ​​the Rhine, Meuse and Scheldt behind the dykes. These low-lying areas are characterized by a very diverse river landscape with a mosaic of cities, peri-urban areas with intensive agriculture and nature. All these areas are intersected by extensive and complex networks of above- and underground infrastructure related to water, energy and traffic and transport. We help to keep this Delta metropolis inhabitable and livable and to protect it against flooding. Our water specialists provide advice in the field of water safety. This concerns the development of new safety concepts, the design of innovative and intelligent water infrastructure as well as maintenance that keeps the infrastructure in optimum condition. In doing so, we take into account the fact that water infrastructure must be compatible with multifunctional land use, which  is the norm rather than the exception in this part of the world. The choice of certain measures often depends on the specific situation;  the natural and built environment, the people who live there, the space that is available and the hinterland. So we help water boards, provinces and contractors to design and realize future-proof and (data) intelligent flood defense systems. We do this on the basis of extensive (digital) analyzes and the efforts of our flood risk management and geotechnical experts. For example, we support the manager in the assessment of existing dykes (management phase), advise in mapping the reinforcement tasks and design preferred alternatives (exploration phase), draw up project plans for the reinforcement of dykes (planning phase) and advise and supervise the implementation of these. improvement plans (realization phase). In addition, safe, strong and future-proof dikes and defenses require well-considered management and maintenance. We offer various digital tools for this that make our expertise in the field of flood risk management available in a coherent manner. This results in support the flood risk manager that is efficient and effective. We do this on the basis of a combination of substantive water knowledge and our Digital Twin approach, in which responsible Asset Management is one of the objectives. All this should lead to better flood protection with a smaller chance of failure. One of our most recent projects (AENEIS) is the development (Blueprint) and creation of a Proof of Concept Digital Twin of the Maeslantkering, a storm-surge barrier near Rotterdam that is protecting the city and port of Rotterdam.