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New resilience centre set to prepare Denmark for an uncertain future

DHI is part of the new Resilience Center Denmark. The centre seeks to strengthen the development of knowledge and solutions that will help companies and organisations meet new demands for increased resilience to threats to critical infrastructure and society as a whole. The centre brings together the efforts of the seven Danish Research &amp; Technology Organisations to promote growth and export of resilience technologies – ultimately making Denmark more robust and resilient.
Flooding, cyberattacks, fires, supply chain disruptions, terrorism, power outages, hybrid warfare and pandemics. The list of threats to Danish companies is long, and the likelihood of incidents affecting business operations is increasing.
In response, the seven Danish Research and Technology Organisations (RTOs) have joined forces to create Resilience Center Denmark. The centre aims to drive the development of innovative solutions that enable suppliers to help companies become more robust and less vulnerable to the growing threat landscape.
Creating business opportunities and helping companies
Resilience Center Denmark will strengthen Denmark's technological capacity in societal security and emergency preparedness and develop new technologies to enhance public safety. The centre will ensure access to the latest and most advanced technologies for strengthened societal security by focusing on the following key tasks:
 

Research and development: The centre conducts research and development across various technological areas, including flood simulation, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and drones.
Technology transfer: The centre demonstrates and transfers new technologies to businesses and critical societal functions for practical application.
Collaboration: The centre collaborates with Danish and international research institutions, private companies, industry organisations and authorities to advance the development of new technologies.

 
Initially, the focus is on supporting suppliers developing resilience technologies and solutions for businesses, including creating standards and certification schemes that foster an effective and transparent market. This will help companies comply with NIS2 and CER legislation, which come into effect in 2025. The NIS2 directive primarily addresses cyber and information security, whereas the focus of the CER directive is on protection of both physical and digital critical infrastructure considering threats such as natural disasters, sabotage and supply chain disruptions. 
‘We focus on bringing research and technology closer to businesses so they can leverage the opportunities created by the new legal requirements. This is a unique chance for Danish companies to strengthen their competitiveness,’ says Jesper Florin, Head of Resilience Center Denmark.
A national contact point for resilience and robustness
All seven Danish RTOs contribute their unique expertise to Resilience Center Denmark, forming a powerful resource for creating a more robust and resilient Denmark. This strong position establishes the centre as a national contact point for enhanced resilience, accessible to both businesses and public authorities.
‘DHI has decades of experience in supporting preparedness planning, trainings and simulations focused on infrastructure related to water environments,’ explains Thor Danielsen, head of DHI’s Danish business unit Water in Cities.
‘As an example, our digital solutions enable water utilities to respond swiftly and accurately to a crisis. Our aim is to gather Danish stakeholders in water and wastewater management in a hub to facilitate a space where the sector can collaborate on developing new solutions, knowledge, guidelines and ultimately, resiliency for Denmark.’
Resilience Center Denmark and the seven Danish RTOs
Resilience Center Denmark is a national collaboration between the Alexandra Institute, Bioneer, DBI, DFM, DHI, FORCE Technology and the Danish Technological Institute. The centre is supported by funding from the Ministry of Education and Research's performance contract funds, with an annual grant of DKK 7.8 million from 2025 to 2028. This funding enables the centre to promote research and development that strengthens Danish companies' position in the international market for resilience technologies.
‘Resilience Center Denmark aims to drive a strong market for resilience technologies that not only makes Denmark more robust but also provides Danish companies with a global competitive advantage,’ says Carsten Damgaard, Research Director at DBI.

Research project PHISHES set to improve prediction of soil health and ecosystem services

The research project PHISHES kicked off recently, marking the start of a four-year initiative aimed at safeguarding European soils through advanced simulation tools. PHISHES stands for Physically Based Integrated Soil Health Simulation Platform, which is also the main planned output. Coordinated by DHI, the project brings together nine expert partners from across Europe, encompassing soil science, hydrology and policymaking. PHISHES is funded by Horizon Europe, which is the EU's key funding programme for research and innovation.
The core scientific challenge addressed by PHISHES is: ‘How do soil use and soil contamination influence soil functions and associated ecosystem services, in the presence of major drivers such as climate change, and how can we predict the impacts of mitigation and adaptation measures?’
In other words, ‘How do the land management choices we make impact our soils, and how can we ensure the best possible outcome for us and the planet?’
Data and action for soil health
Soil is healthy when it has the continued capacity to function as a vital living ecosystem that sustains all life on earth and PHISHES seeks to bridge the gap between soil data and actions to protect soil health. The project will provide much-needed predictive capability in terms of the consequences of management choices on soil functions and associated ecosystem services, taking into account soil use, soil contamination and various drivers such as climate change. 
 
At the heart of PHISHES is the development of a digital platform containing tools quantifying the effect of management actions on the environment. The tools will be combinations of data processing procedures and further developed modules on top of existing numerical models, such as DHI’s integrated catchment hydrological modelling software MIKE SHE and the DAISY agro-ecological model of the soil-plant-atmosphere system.
 
The gap between science and policy is bridged in practice by a decision support system that will display the concrete findings of the PHISHES project and actionable recommendations for policy affecting soil health.
Better decision-making for impacts on soil health and ecosystem services
By providing quantitative predictive tools, the project will enable stakeholders and decision makers to evaluate the effects of possible actions such as changed agricultural practices, land restoration or pollution mitigation measures with the goal of preserving soil health and improve impacts on associated ecosystem services. Indeed, the results of the scenario simulations generated by the PHISHES digital platform will be translated into policy recommendations aimed at promoting soil health, enhancing ecosystem services and mitigating the effects of contamination and climate change.
European case studies
To ensure practical application and relevance, PHISHES modelling results are applied and tested using four case studies across Europe, focusing on diverse environmental challenges:
•    The Zelivka River Basin in the Czech Republic, analysing soil management’s influence on drinking water quality at catchment scale•    The Koprzywianka River in Poland, covering drought on agricultural land•    The Airport in Örnsköldsvik, Sweden, looking at efficiency of mitigation measures of PFAS contamination at sub-catchment scale•    The Rotterdam urban area in the Netherlands, evaluating the use of green infrastructure to improve resilience and sustainability of urban environments
Additionally, a soil laboratory in France will examine the fate and transport of PFAS from soil to groundwater under controlled conditions.  Copenhagen University, a project partner in PHISHES, is also a member of the recently established Danish PFAS Research Centre. Like the PFAS Research Centre’s aim to support the Danish PFAS Action Plan, PHISHES will support EU policymakers and member states with issues related to PFAS soil contamination.
 
By integrating scientifically founded models and case studies, the PHISHES project will provide valuable insights into sustainable soil management. Moreover, with its focus on translating scientific findings into actionable recommendations, PHISHES represents a significant advance in the preservation of soil health and the sustainability of ecosystem services.

A full circle in coastal research: Professor Qin Jim Chen returns to DHI after 30 years to advance nature-based solutions

DHI experts and visiting researcher Professor Qin Jim Chen are leading the development of new science-based models to enable improved coastal decision-making. Together, they are investigating ways to account for coastal vegetation and its relevance for wave attenuation and coastal circulation in the design of nature-based solutions (NBS).
Dr. Qin Jim Chen is a professor at Northeastern University in Boston where he focuses his research on coastal processes and nature-based solutions using field campaigns, numerical modelling and physics-informed neural networks. However, it all started when Dr. Chen worked for two years with DHI 30 years ago as part of his PhD study on Boussinesq models at the ICCH (International Research Centre for Computational Hydrodynamics). Later, his career took him to Louisiana State University and now Northeastern University in Boston; always with focus on coastal hydrodynamics. Now 30 years later, he has returned to DHI – and the Technical University of Denmark – to renew collaboration as part of his academic sabbatical.
‘The increase in extreme weather events around the world makes it imperative that we have multiple lines of defence for coastal communities and critical infrastructure. Nature-based solutions are one such critical line of defence. However, the challenge is that there are no official or universal design guidelines for NbS, so how can we make robust decisions on when and where to implement which nature-based solution?’ explains Dr. Chen about his motivation for research in NbS.
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‘Ultimately, the goal is to assign values and strength to different types of NbS and to have a science-based framework for decisions on e.g. what type of extreme event the NbS should withstand such as tropical storms or hurricanes. In other words, the engineering community and decision makers need a framework that enables more efficient and objective decision-making surrounding the complex design of NbS and at the same time allows for cost efficiency and adaptability in a changing climate.’
Dr. Chen will collaborate with DHI experts on testing the accuracy of DHI’s wave modelling solutions with his field data. The end goal is to remove subjective decision-making in coastal and marine engineering projects by increasing confidence in modelling tools such as MIKE 21 SW &nbsp;and MIKE 3 Wave FM.
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Collaboration will close research gap between field conditions and modelling
Niels Gjoel Jacobsen, Principal Engineer at DHI, elaborates on the close collaboration, ‘The work of Dr. Chen is an important part of the foundation for developing new tools to predict the effectiveness of nature-based solutions. By comparing the results of our modelling predictions with his field data, we hope to convince even more in the engineering community of the validity of using such quantitative modelling tools when designing nature-based solutions.’&nbsp;
The two researchers are currently working on the comparison between field data and numerical predictions on wave attenuation through marshlands under the landfall of a tropical storm. The aim is to improve on the swaying effect through analytical models so that extrapolation to field conditions is easily achieved and can be incorporated in MIKE Powered by DHI’s practical engineering models.
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There is a need for a more holistic approach to nature-based solutions
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‘There needs to be a more complex and holistic approach to NbS where we also include the value of ecosystem services as one example of co-benefits. The perspective on NbS should include other co-benefits than simply the value of reducing the risk of e.g. flooding or erosion, and this is why we need to have a broad range of experts in such matters on board.’&nbsp;
Dr. Chen adds, ‘The great thing about working with DHI is that they have a strong team of marine biologists and ecologists, so we can leverage their expertise on the seasonal characteristics of specific species of seagrass or mussel banks, for example. By combining this knowledge with advanced engineering models, we will hopefully be able to contribute to more resilient nature-based solutions as a part of climate adaptation measures.’

DHI biologists film bats and birds at night to train MUSE AI system for Ecowende offshore wind farm

A team of DHI biologists recently collected field data on bats’ and birds’ movements at night. The data will be used to train DHI’s MUSE artificial intelligence (AI) solution to automatically discriminate between bats and birds at night. MUSE will be deployed at Ecowende’s pioneering offshore wind farm to monitor and protect bats.Dutch wind farm developer Ecowende – a joint venture of Shell, Eneco and Chubu – will set a new ecological standard for building and operating offshore wind farms, with minimal impact on the natural habitat of birds, bats and marine mammals, and with a thriving underwater world. To do so, Ecowende puts state-of-the-art monitoring and mitigation technologies and innovations at their core in their windfarm Hollandse Kust West VI. 
 
Recording bats and birds at night
DHI is a proud partner to the Ecowende project, and a team of DHI biologists recently went out at night to record bats and songbirds at night. DHI’s MUSE system integrates any combination of radars, digital cameras and acoustic sensors to detect, monitor and protect birds and bats while maximising uptime of the wind turbines. MUSE AI for bird species recognition during daytime was launched a few years ago. The next step is to enable the MUSE AI algorithm to recognise and discriminate between bats and small birds during the night, using the new recordings as training data. 
 
Minimise impact on vulnerable speciesMost bats are of species that are considered vulnerable and are protected by the EU Habitat Directive, and European offshore windfarms must be able to document how they will minimise the negative impact on bats when in operation. As some bat species migrate between the Netherlands and the UK, they risk encountering and potentially colliding with turbines in an offshore windfarm. In fact, though there is a lot of knowledge about bats on land, there is still much to learn about bats at sea. As such, Ecowende wants to gain as much knowledge as possible about these species to better understand how one should mitigate the impact on bats at sea. Innovations from DHI, such as MUSE coupled with thermal cameras, will support Ecowende’s monitoring and research programme.
Bats are an important part of the ecosystem. Some species of bats are predators of common nocturnal insects and regulate these populations. Across Europe, there can be found around 45 species of bats, occupying a wide range of habitats. On land, they each face a variety of pressures such as landscape change, agricultural intensification and habitat fragmentation. 
Filming in Denmark’s bat hotspotsThe field team of DHI biologists borrowed an advanced cooled thermal camera, and subcontractor Circle Consult helped the team set up the advanced equipment for several nights in one of Denmark’s bat hotspots in the region Lolland-Falster. DHI MUSE AI experts will use the recordings to train the AI to automatically distinguish between bats and small birds in low light. This will eventually help to reduce bat collisions, and the DHI MUSE scientific team can create more detailed analyses and potentially discover unseen behavioural patterns of bats at night, ultimately helping to protect this vulnerable species group.

New biodiversity portal gathers unique knowledge about the North Sea marine environment

Today, DHI and TotalEnergies, as operator of the Danish Underground Consortium, presented the North Sea Environment Portal, which provides access to more than 40 years of data on the North Sea marine environment and biodiversity. The portal will support the work of combining future offshore energy facilities with responsible management of marine ecosystems.
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For the first time, comprehensive data on the seabed, biodiversity and environmental impacts of oil and gas platforms has been gathered in one portal and made available to researchers, authorities and decision-makers. The portal provides the ability to visualise and analyse data previously hidden away in reports, helping us understand e.g. to what extent platforms can serve as habitats for fish and wildlife.
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The North Sea Environment Portal is an important resource when designing future solutions for energy infrastructure. It provides valuable insight into how existing platforms can and have contributed to biodiversity, and how new projects such as wind farms and CCS installations can be designed with maximum consideration for the marine environment.
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DHI has collected and delivered environmental data and is responsible for the design and development of the new portal:
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‘At DHI, we have been collecting environmental data from the North Sea for decades, and we are very pleased that we are now helping to make this data easily accessible in an online portal. It gives all stakeholders a solid basis for analysing the natural variations in the North Sea's biodiversity and environmental status,’ says Mikael Kamp Sørensen, Executive Vice President of DHI’s Energy business unit.
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The Danish Ocean Institute (Danish: Tænketanken Hav) welcomes the new initiative:
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‘The new biodiversity portal marks an important step in sharing data on North Sea ecosystems and species. It contributes to knowledge about the marine environment and biodiversity associated with offshore structures - knowledge that can be used when considering marine life in other contexts, such as the construction of offshore wind turbines and CO2 storage below the sea surface. We are therefore pleased that the portal is now a reality, and we encourage data from all sectors to be shared publicly in the future,’ says Ditte Mandøe Andreasen, Program Manager at Ocean Institute.
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TotalEnergies sees the North Sea Portal as an important tool for the coming energy transition:
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‘The energy transition means that a huge amount of development needs to take place in the North Sea. Therefore, we are in a time where biodiversity and responsible development are more important than ever before. When we talk about our shared responsibility for the climate and biodiversity, it is very much about understanding the footprint we've already made, to develop the best solutions for tomorrow. And this is where the North Sea Environment Portal marks a breakthrough,’ says Ole Hansen, Managing Director of TotalEnergies EP Denmark.
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A joint effort for the future of the North Sea
The North Sea is one of Europe's most productive and busy seas. Not only is it a source of energy, fishing and transportation, it is also home to a high number of species and ecosystems that play a crucial role for both nature and the evolution and survival of species.
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The North Sea is facing major political ambitions, including large-scale CCS projects and large offshore wind farms. The North Sea Environment Portal is an important tool to support informed decisions that support sustainable development in the North Sea.
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Visit the North Sea Environment Portal here: https://www.northseaenvironmentportal.eu&nbsp;

MIKE 2025: Unlock powerful new features in the latest release from DHI

DHI has launched MIKE 2025, the latest version of its MIKE Powered by DHI software suite, bringing exciting advancements to all major products. This release is packed with new functionalities, tools and enhancements designed to empower water professionals with more robust, efficient and collaborative solutions. Clients with a valid Service Maintenance Agreement (SMA) or subscription can access these features at no additional cost.
 
Highlights from the MIKE 2025 release

MIKE+ introduces new features and improvements to enhance analysis, collaboration and data handling. Key updates include a new scatter plot window for result analysis, a Plots Manager for organised result visualisation, enhanced data export options and real-time collaboration enhancements. MIKE+ 2D Overland introduces isoline export to shapefiles, a new hazard tool for flood hazard quantification and a discharge calculation tool for assessing total discharge from 2D flow results. For water distribution, MIKE+ now includes Q-H results plotting for detailed pump performance analysis and a Modified Hazen-Williams head loss type for added flexibility in hydraulic modelling.
FEFLOW 10 delivers features to streamline modelling workflows, enhance visualisation and support advanced applications. Highlights include a new implicit modelling workflow for constructing geologically meaningful surfaces and structural models with ease and advanced map projection tools with online background maps for improved visual clarity.The release also introduces an extended Equation of State (EOS) for evaluating phase conditions in deep geothermal models and a streamlined standard transport formulation with an extended ‘Convective Form’ to simplify transport modelling across diverse applications, including direct Lithium extraction, aquifer remediation and geothermal storage and direct use.
MIKE 21 and MIKE 3 introduce updates for marine and coastal modelling. Key innovations include the new MIKE 21 Wave Model FM, DHI’s first unstructured Boussinesq-type wave model, and a new and improved engine for MIKE ECO Lab and MIKE ABM Lab. Improvements to LITPACK include interactive workflows and enhanced coastline evolution modelling, while the MIKE 3 Mud Transport model now features an optimised near-field/far-field method for assessing ship propeller impacts on seabed sediments. Additionally, streamlined workflows in MIKE Zero and expanded MARINE PP tools further elevate usability and efficiency.

 
Plus, all MIKE+, MIKE 21 and MIKE 3 subscriptions and perpetual licenses now support powerful Linux clusters equipped with hundreds of CPUs.
 
Ready to dive in?
Explore the new features or download the latest version.
 
See the new features in action at an upcoming webinar:                                                                        

9 Dec | MIKE 2025 Release – What's new in Water in Cities
10 Dec | MIKE 2025 Release – What's new in MIKE 21, MIKE 3 and LITPACK

 
For questions, or to reactivate an expired SMA, please contact your local DHI office. 

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