The Importance of Hydraulic Structures for Society: Quay Walls and Dikes in the Netherlands

Abstract

Since mankind exists, men have undertaken engineering activities to make their life more pleasant and secure. However this has not been an easy task, especially in the past. The knowledge of mathematics and physics to describe engineering problems became available only since 1400-1500. Nevertheless, great achievements have been made by man before that time, e.g. the pyramids in Egypt, the first sluice in China, the Borobudur temple in Indonesia, and the design and building activities of the Inca's in South America. To illustrate this development, also the world economy, world ecology will be shortly mentioned. The structures that are briefly discussed in this paper are: soil and concrete dams for generating electricity, reservoirs for irrigation and drinking water, dikes, sluices, inland and sea, tunnels, and quay walls. This paper presents an overview of hydraulic structures in general with the emphasis on quay walls and dikes in the Netherlands. Examples of these structures will be discussed illustrating present state of the art and also with a view to the future. Conclusions and recommendations are given to enhance the knowledge of hydraulic structures.

Structural health monitoring of inland navigation structures and ports: a review on developments and challenges

“…Riveros and Arrendondo 25 proposed a Markov chain model to predict the deterioration of gates. Prediction models operate on two fundamental assumptions: (1) the deterioration of the structure is continuous (2) and the condition of the structure can be characterized by a limited number of states. The first assumption does not consider damage due to an extreme/unusual incident.…”

“…Proper and timely maintenance of such structures facilitates the smooth functioning of inland navigation. 2 Figure 1 conceptualizes INS across a landmass connecting seaports with inland harbors through waterways.…”

“…The European Union (EU) maintains 41,360 km of navigable waterways. 8 Europe's most dense network of inland waterways is found in the Netherlands, where 6000 km of waterways stretch out over only 41,543 km 2 . This network is vital to the Dutch economy as about one-third of total freight is transported in it.…”