News - December

The magazine De Ingenieur reports:

• Plan for evacuating the Netherlands

Pierre Belanger from Harvard University states that the Netherlands should have better evacuation plans, and proposes a sequence that starts with rural areas, then urban areas and finally city centers. He points at New Orleans where 1.5 million people where moved in 36 hours.

• A new book:

'De Bostatlas van Nederland Waterland' or The Atlas of the Netherlands with a focus on water has been released. (ISBN 978 9001 90203 2)

• Using emotions when judging high-risk technologies

Sabine Roeser from the University of Twente and Technical University Delft pleads to use emotions when judging high-risk technologies to decrease the gap between scientific experts and the public. Many new technologies are not accepted by the public due to misinformation about the risks involved. Experts should investigate what risks the public sees and prove the results of failure of new technologies have less sever effects as imagined.

The magazine H2O reports:

• The economic importance of delta technology

A research performed by Panteia and Blueconomy show the total turnover in the sector delta technology for the Netherlands is 7.5 billion (Dutch: miljard) euro. About 4 billion comes from the international market, which is 6% of the total market of 120 billion euro (2008). Given climate change and increase in population, the expected growth is 15 billion euro per year.

• A new model predicting evacuation outcomes

The company HKV Lijn in Water had created a new model called EvacuAid, that has many variable parameters and lets users see how many people are evacuated from a certain area, from 0 to 48 hours after the call for evacuation. It also forecasts the number of casualties, based on results in New Orleans after hurricane Katrina. Interestingly enough the model shows preventive evacuation could cost more casualties than 'vertical evacuation' (where people are told to move up a floor or sit on their roof), depending on the area and the time available for evacuation.

• Results from the first 5 Space Studio meetings along the Rhine

The water board Rivierenland, covering the Eastern part of the Rhine, has created meeting rooms where spatial planners and water experts can meet and share plans. These so-called Space Studio meetings have taken place in 5 municipalities and focused on problems at the local level. Everywhere multiple solutions were thought up for the separate problems, and this success has led to the extension of the meetings to another 5 municipalities.

The Dutch government reports:

• The Future of the Enclosure Dam

The Department of Public Works is developing a plan for the future of the Enclosure Dam in the North of the Netherlands. Three different alternatives are being constructed based on meetings between provinces and other governors, environmental reports and expected costs. The ultimate choice will also depend on finances and agreements between parties. More >>>

• A movie about the SBW (Strengths and Taxes of Weirs) Program:

A movie will be released about the SBW, a program form the Department of Public Works. Three of the nine research areas are explained in the movie, along with how the results are used to enlarge water safety in the Netherlands. Link to the video >>>