Title Page -- Summary -- Samenvatting -- Contents -- Introduction -- Flood and drought risk -- Risk-based decision making -- Robust systems -- Objective and research questions -- Research approach -- Outline of this thesis -- Conceptual framework for analysing system robustness -- Defining system robustness -- ...in general -- ...in this thesis -- ...of flood risk systems -- ...of drought risk systems -- Analysing system robustness -- Response curve -- Characterising system robustness -- Quantifying system robustness -- Response curve in comparison to a risk curve -- System robustness versus decision robustness -- The added value of system robustness analysis for flood risk management -- Introduction -- Flood risk analysis -- Approach -- Step 1: water level probability distribution per location -- Step 2: fragility curve for each location -- Step 3: potential damage at each breach location -- Step 4: flood risk of the entire system -- Results -- System robustness analysis -- Approach -- Results -- Discussion of system robustness criteria -- Conclusion -- Enhancing flood risk system robustness in practice: insights from two river valleys -- Introduction -- Method: Quantification of system robustness -- Response curve -- System robustness criteria -- Introduction to the cases -- IJssel case -- Meuse case -- Results -- IJssel River valley -- Meuse River valley -- Discussion -- What enhances system robustness? -- How realistic are `unbreachable' embankments? -- Conclusion -- Developing system robustness analysis for drought risk management: an application to a water supply reservoir -- Introduction -- Drought management under uncertainty -- Analysing system robustness -- Application on a drought risk system -- Methods and assumptions -- Water balance model and input data -- Characterising and selecting drought events -- Water supply loss function.

Scoring the robustness criteria -- Results -- Discussion, conclusions and recommendations -- Discussion and conclusions -- Recommendations -- Analysing the robustness of an agricultural drought risk system: a case in a coastal polder area in the Netherlands -- Introduction -- Drought risk management under climate change -- Case study area -- Outline -- System robustness analysis framework and alternative system configurations -- Response curve -- System robustness criteria -- Alternative system configurations -- Models -- Data -- Results: how robust is West-Netherlands for droughts? -- Analysis with NHI -- Analysis with RAM -- Discussion -- System robustness criteria -- How can system robustness be explained? -- How can system robustness be increased? -- The added value of robustness analysis for drought risk management -- Conclusion -- Discussion, conclusions and recommendations -- Thesis overview -- Answering the research questions -- Research question 1: How can robustness be defined for flood and drought risk systems? -- Research question 2: Which criteria and indicators can be used to quantify robustness of flood and drought risk systems? -- Research question 3: What is the added value of system robustness analysis for flood and drought risk management? -- Research question 4: What characterizes a robust flood risk system? -- Research question 5: What characterizes a robust drought risk system? -- Reflection -- Assumptions in a system robustness analysis -- How to use the robustness criteria? -- System robustness in comparison to other concepts -- Implications and recommendations for flood risk management -- Implications and recommendations for drought risk management -- Recommendations for further research -- Bibliography -- Dankwoord -- About the author.