Second article accepted!!

The editors of Ecology and Society have accepted the manuscript, composed by Jan van Tatenhove and me, entitled "Hydraulic engineering in the social-ecological delta: understanding the interplay between social, ecological and technological systems in the Dutch delta by means of 'delta trajectories'" for publication! I expect that it will be published next month. 

This older post gives a short summary: 
http://www.martijnvanstaveren.blogspot.nl/2015/05/second-paper-submitted-deltas-as-co.html

Stockholm & water

For the last two weeks I’ve been in Stockholm, attending the Stockholm World Water Week (SWWW), followed by a research visit hosted by the Stockholm Environmental Institute (SEI). Both ‘events’ were a great opportunity to talk with many people about the topics I work and discuss about the particularities of the deltas where the research takes place.

At the SWWW, still, it is not easy to get immediately in touch with people working on or interested in similar topics – the seize of the conference (over 3000 people participated) and the broadness of the theme (water and development) made it very likely that you would connect with people working on totally different dimensions of water. It required some targeted, on-site researching and contacting. 

So, I was happy that the week after the event was dedicated to planned and more focused discussions with ‘matching’ organizations and individuals when it comes to research topics. Besides SEI you can think about organizations such as the Global Water Partnership, the Stockholm Resilience Centre, and the Stockholm International Water Institute.

Today I gave a presentation at SEI about controlled flooding in deltas and discussed with the participants about how to conceptualize deltas, and how controlled flooding (and associated sedimentation processes) might contribute to building long term delta resilience – not only for humans inhabiting the delta, but also for the delta as a dynamic ecosystem itself. You can find the slides of the presentation via Slideshare. The conclusion was that the paper, written by Jan and me, which includes all these kinds of issues, will find a large community interested to read it and to continue thinking about dealing with delta flood dynamics ;p!

The Delta Works of the 19th century

After fifteen years I re-visited a pumping station near some of the deepest regions (located several meters below mean sea level) of the Netherlands, which houses one of the world’s oldest museums dedicated to hydraulic engineering: the Cruquius. The pumping station contributed to draining the former Haarlemmermeer (‘meer’ meaning ‘lake’) between 1849 and 1852. After serving as a backup station it was formally taken out of service in 1932 and turned into a museum two years later. It now displays several hydraulic pumps used in other projects, but most attention goes to the eight enormous lift pumps and the central cylinder engine, which can still move - on electricity, and no longer pump water.

The museum, which is housed in the pumping station’s workshops, sends out message rests on emphasizing a continuous battle between the Dutch and their ‘water wolf’. For example, it depicts a heroic Dutch lion in the shape of the landscape of west Holland after the reclaiming the lake. The names of the three pumping stations are after three hydraulic engineers who brought forward plans for reclaiming the Haarlemmermeer: Jan Adriaanszoon Leeghwater (plans dating back to the mid-17^th century), Nicolaas Kruik (Latinised name Cruquius, early 18^th century), Frans van Lynden van Hemmen (early 19^th century) which also indicates a form of ‘heroism’.

Before the pumping stations were constructed, water management in polders and reclamation of small wetlands was mostly done by using wind mills, (Archimedes’) screw pumps and water wheels, but in the late 18^th century, steam driven engines step by step became employed in hydraulic engineering works. The construction of three large pumping stations to drain the Haarlemmermeer represented a solid establishment of using steam power for land reclamation.

The Haarlemmermeer measured around 17,000 hectares, which more than out-doubled the largest drainage project done so far by means of wind mills (Beemster polder of around 7,000 hectares). Over the centuries the lake had expanded gradually (eroding its shores, breaking connections to nearby other lakes, as well as deepening up to 4 meters due to underwater peat extraction). Although plans for draining the lake existed earlier, it necessitated socio-political reasons, as well as the advent of hard wind and steam power engines, to materialize. According to the museum, William the First (the first king of the Netherlands) needed to improve his public image after Belgium declared its independence from Holland in 1830. Also major storms in the 1830s, extending the lake further, threatening the urbanizing cities along its edges. Reclaiming the Haarlemmermeer could from this perspective be seen as a nation (re-)building effort, attempted with steam engines in pumping stations displaying grandeur and technological achievement.

Because besides its hydraulic background, a striking feature of the pumping station is its architecture. When looking at the station’s pictures, but even more when visiting its interior, it is hard not to associate the structure to designs of churches or castles. Its buttresses, lancet-shaped windows, battlements and keep support an authoritative affirmation by the church and state power with the practice of ‘pumping out water’. Therefore, well worth to pay it a visit and to learn more about this feature of water management in the Dutch delta.


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Noordwaard, Perkpolder, and more 'bring in the floods'?

Considering Dutch water engineers being associated with flood prevention, a most remarkable event took place last week. In the southwest delta, where in 1953 the largest and most recent flood disaster took place, large excavators cut away a part of the embankment. With high tide, water from the Westerschelde now is able to flow into a tidal floodplain of 75ha. Omroep Zeeland published a short movie about this while also regional newspaper PZC had a report (link):

Cutting away 400m of embankments finds its roots in the construction of a tunnel underneath Westerschelde in 2003. The ferry connecting Zeeland’s Zuid-Beveland (island) with Zeeuws-Vlaanderen (in connection with Belgium) now disappeared, leaving the project area, known as Perkpolder, in a declining socio-economic state. In the mid-2000s it was proposed to start re-developing the area, partly influenced by the need to compensate damage to nature (the Westerschelde was to be dredged to allow large ships entry into the harbour of Antwerp).

In formal project documentation, the plan to de-polder the area is referred to as a ‘embankment relocation’. While in fact this is true (the primary embankment is relocated land inwards), the lowering and removal of the former embankment received a lot of criticism. Many people do so by stating that it is unnatural to de-polder areas and cut away dikes in a country located partly below sea level. Others state that, having the 1953 in mind, this goes against common sense and breaks a decade-old promise to protect Zeeland against floods. Nature organizations are blamed for pushing their agenda.

While this contested project is now reaching its closure, it is not the first, nor the last de-poldering project in the Dutch delta. A project which is now underway, the Noordwaard, concerns a polder measuring over 4000ha. It will partly be de-poldered and will transport water from the river Merwede, when it level reaches a certain height, through the polder towards the southwest delta. The restoration of polder floods and tidal dynamics in the region is likewise framed as improving ecological conditions of the surrounding Biesbosch wetlands. A paper can be downloaded via Water International, but for those without access may find the infographic interesting.

Other similar projects are on-going, for example in the Onderdijkse Waard near Kampen, where the embankments of the IJssel river are planned to be cut, and the Waterdunen project, also in Zeeland. Bring in the Dutch, bring in the floods?

Second paper submitted: deltas as co-evolving social, ecological and technological systems

Last week I submitted my second paper to Ecology and Society. For those interested, here you’ll find a short version of the paper (or, extended version of the abstract ;p).

In its academic publications, Ecology and Society emphasizes the interplay between society and ecological systems. Since 2003 the journal has focused on topics related to the management of ecosystems, of societal processes in relation to ecological processes, and on different modes of governance or politics involved with nature. Concepts such as resilience and adaptability originate in this field, trying to express states or capacities of complex and coupled social-ecological systems.

What I found most interesting about the journal, and which is also highlighted in my paper, is the interplay between ecology, or 'delta environment' a bit more specifically, and society in terms of water policy & interventions. But what can be remarked about studies that use valuable social-ecological perspectives to look at deltas (for example, see Garschagen (from p.45) on the Mekong, and Pel et al on the Netherlands) is that they do not go into much detail about hydraulic engineering. And how hydraulic engineering influences the way delta systems (the social-ecological one) develop over time. Therefore, the manuscript reaches out to the domain of socio-technical systems research to see which concepts can be helpful to understand social, environmental, and technological (hydraulic) dynamics in delta systems over time.

If we take the Netherlands as a more specific example, various types of technology have materialized, often triggered by dynamics or (flood) events in the natural system. Social actors’ deliberations about how to respond to a watery event, or overall policy approach resulted into certain (policy) decisions or choices for certain technological interventions. These technological interventions are constructed by means of  rather ‘simple’ science and construction works, others by means of more complex models or high-tech engineering. River embankments or smaller dams can be examples of the former (although nowadays constructing an earthen 'bundh' is quite a scientificalized task...), while the Oosterschelde storm surge barrier can be an example of the latter. Once constructed, these objects start to influence both the delta environment (for example changes in water and sediment processes) as well as society's responses to a 'constructed' environment (for example, rapid socio-economic developments behind the dykes, feeling of being safe).

Drawing from socio-technical systems research, technological interventions may lead to responses that reinforce the existence of the infrastructure under review: embankments are raised over and over again, and the negative side effects of the Oosterschelde storm surge barrier are addressed as second-order problems. This sets the delta on a certain trajectory in which technology can arguably be said to already ‘sketch’ or outline the direction, or future, towards which the delta is evolving as a whole. This we have called a 'delta trajectory'. 

Researchers have argued that these rigid trajectories are not very sustainable when seen over longer timescales. But, there are options to move away from seemingly path-dependent approaches. Those come at huge social (resistance) and economic costs - see for example the Room for the River programme, which is based on river widening instead of only raising and strengthening embankments. The domain of eco-engineering or ecosystem-based flood management also provide concepts that combine ecological delta dynamics with technological possibilities. Bringing societal demands, natural processes and technological possibilities more in tune with each other may help to develop sustainable trajectories.

Hopefully the paper will be accepted by the editors of the journal for the review process, and once that has been completed successfully, it will appear online in a few months’ time!

Hydraulic jungle

The Dutch version of Angkor Wat is located in the Noordoostpolder. Overgrown, abandoned relics from a hydraulic ‘religion’ are spread out in a deep ‘jungle’ called the ‘Waterloopbos’. It is not the first time that this place has been mentioned (see this post about a visit of some of my project colleagues some years back), but being an amazing sight worthwhile to receive yet another blog and update. Even more important, the area is targeted to receive its very own Master Plan (also check out the video)!

The forest itself dates back to 1944, and was planted in one of the reclaimed Flevopolders. By the early 1950s the area was handed over to the WL Hydraulics. This organization had an office in the Flevopolders and was in need of an area to be used as a testing facility, or open air laboratory, in which scale models of various hydraulic works could be tested on various hydraulic characteristic. Interestingly, various decisions regarding the place of a dyke, or layout of a harbour, have not been taken on site, but in, or based on measurements, sometimes on the other side of the world, in a small forest, in a typical Dutch ‘polder’.

For example, in small scale version (1:50), miniature versions of the harbors of Rotterdam, Lagos and Bangkok appeared between the trees, equipped with different types of docking quays and wave barriers, to test with design and layout would suit the requirements of planned projects. Many of the works implemented within the Delta Plan were constructed and tested here, for example and the effect of waves and erosion during the closing of dams. After testing, however, those small scale models were just abandoned, and became in turn the target of the forest ‘re-reclaiming’ the area with overgrowing vegetation.

In the mid-90s WL Hydraulics moved to Delft. Plans of the new land owner to convert the area into a recreational area with holiday houses faced protests by nearby inhabitants and NGO’s advocating nature protection and restoration. The NGO Natuurmonumenten was able to buy the area in 2002, and developed various initiatives to keep the area accessible and to capitalize on the various hydraulic scale models integrated in the forests’ walking routes. The area is up for nomination and this will undoubtedly speed up the formulation of a ‘Master Plan’ describing the future plans for the area.

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Historic water research in the Netherlands

Yesterday I participated in an event organized by the Vereniging voor Waterstaatsgeschiedenis (association of historic water research). Their yearly ‘research symposium’ highlighted and gave a very efficient overview of the type of research, and themes, that is currently taking place in the field of historic water research in the Netherlands. Very useful in relation to science and technology studies in which a historical perspective is often emphasized.

The relation between disasters/water management and religion captured several research projects that are being carried out in different historic time frames: from religious explanations of disasters (later partly replaced by scientific explanations) to religious motives to support disaster victims with money or goods.

Another group of projects deals with issues that can now be expressed by the term ‘governance’: the involvement of various actors, including a formalizing state and moves to adopt a more centralistic approach to dealing water. It became clear that investing in projects, for example in impoldering (large) lakes in Holland was a very risky business; and that when private investors (including the Church!) did not take action, the state progressively came into the picture to fund or coordinate hydraulic works. Especially when ‘water safety issues’ were felt important enough. Open lakes (and erosion of shores, storms etc) presented water risks.

A specific issue that was heavily debated were river ice floes. In the 17-19^th centuries this was a common problem in the river, which frequently caused dike overtopping. It was argued that the various de-poldering projects (spreading out the water over larger areas) was dangerous because shallow water freezes quicker. Of course counter arguments were voiced:  those de-poldered areas will only receive water at certain water levels, during which water flows are very high. In addition, I learned that  Rijkswaterstaat even has developed a protocol to deal with ice in the rivers. What was that thing with climate change again...

Ice encroaching near Ochten (source: http://www.weyerman.nl/9964/kruiend-ijs-1789)

But at the same time… these guys still talk about ‘dia’s’ instead of slides J. 

New case: controlled flooding in the Ems delta?

Many years after its first publication in 1999, I closely re-read ‘De Graanrepubliek’ (in English: The Wheat Republic). The author, Frank Westerman, is a graduate from a study programme what is now called International Land and Water Management in Wageningen, already many years back. Every bachelor and master student of this programme will immediately recall the very strongly ‘suggestion’ of reading the book ;p.

Everybody probably knows about the southwest delta – the delta where in 1953 a big flood hit the Netherlands, and the region where the Delta Works have been constructed. But we have another delta, the Ems delta, in the northeast of the country, covering the province of Groningen. To be more precise, the region can be classified as a Dutch-German delta, because a large part of the estuary lies in Germany, and the river Ems that flows into the estuary comes from there as well. The Dollard is a kind of spatial depression or delta lake in open connection to the Ems, which is characterized by a century long history of settlements, land reclamation, coastal flood disasters and flooding. Over time, lands have been reclaimed and lost again (including settlements) to the sea several times.

     

(source: http://www.weikopiebes.nl/ and http://en.wikipedia.org/) 

De Graanrepubliek deals with developments in agricultural polders bordering the Dollard. Those polders are typical ‘delta polders’ in the sense that the soils are extremely fertile, supporting the most productive farms of the Netherlands at the time. The farmers produced wheat – of similar importance as rice in food production and consumption in the Asian deltas. The period after the 1960s was socio-economically very dynamic: it was a time when discussions arose about the relation between farmer workers, and the large farmer landowners that got rich by producing wheat, the socio-political tensions that this brought, the interest in socialism, mechanisation in agriculture, and the unification of Europe.

All these developments contributed to what I study in my research: the flooding, or de-poldering, of delta polders. The book describes how European agricultural policy in the 1960s and 70s led to a huge overproduction of wheat. Realizing that maintaining what in fact was a highly subsidized agricultural production system, the Dutch Sicco Mansholt (who was actually born in Groningen, the Ems delta), vice minister of for agriculture in Europe, reduced the formerly ‘guaranteed’ price that would be paid to farmers for their wheat.

The farmers in the Ems delta felt the consequences. Farming wheat became much less profitable, and new plans that were in favour of continued support for agriculture did not pass through the political system. Instead, environmentalists and spatial planners got enthusiastic about other uses of the delta landscape. Instead of farming, which was said to be unprofitable, bad for the environment because of its use of fertilizers and massive wheat production, those social groups wanted the plan ‘Blauwe Stad’ (Blue City).

                                                                                  (Source: https://klaasantonmulder.wordpress.com)

Plan Blauwe Stad wanted to flood some agricultural polders in the delta and construct villages around a newly formed delta lake. It was envisaged that many, especially rich city dwellers would favour a house in such an area, with new nature and options for recreation, all supported by a large water body covering some of the most fertile delta soils in the Netherlands. This would stimulate a different type of economic activity in the region: no more agriculture, but delta leisure. A long story short – the plan was accepted  and in 2005 about 1200ha agricultural land was converted into 400ha of new nature and 800ha of water (lake Oldambt).

Now, several years later, Frank Westerman explains in an added chapter that those expectations did not materialize. Only a very small percentage of the plots has been sold, and the province has let go the original plan. It is now presented as a nature development plan with some supportive economic activities and the task to act as a water storage basin in times of high rainfall or river discharge.

All in all a very fascinating story. A typical delta story: dynamics at the border of land and water, times of land (reclamation), of disasters (1877), and since recently also of intentional flooding. But first, it’s time to prepare for a next delta tour up north, to take a first-hand look!