This year, NethCold was celebrating their 50th anniversary. NethCold is the Dutch Commission On Large Dams. In July 2018, the first meeting for organising this festive day was planned and some rough ideas for making this a great day were set on paper. The 9th of May was this festive day, and we can look back at a beautiful day.
The day started with the opening by Cees Henk Oostinga, the President of NethCold. He gave an introduction of ICOLD, EUCold and the contributions of NethCold. Bas Jonkman, vice-president of NethCold told us about the challenges we are facing within the world of large dams. Marijn Meyer Ranneft gave a personal story about what triggers people to take part of this challenges. Our keynote speaker Jean-Jacques Fry, president of the EUCold who came here all the way from Lisbon, gave us a wider perspective about EUCold and ICOLD. The plenary sessions was closed with an inspiring story of Hans van Duivendijk. His contributions to NethCold are massive, and that can be seen from his story in which some beautiful experiences within the world of large dams were told.
After a coffee break together with RoyalHaskoningDHV, Rijkswaterstaat, Sweco, VanOord and Hydraphalt, the workshops started. The workshops were divided in three groups, each representing one of the technical committees NethCold holds: Dam Safety, Sediment and Levees. Students and experts in these fields were put together in groups, which led to lots of experience to cross over.
After the workshops, everybody came together to listen to the multidisciplinary student project which was done by students from different universities in the Netherlands. Rosanne Hakfoort and Han de Jong tols us about the the challenges in implementation of large water infrastructure. The day was ended with some drinks! Thank you all for coming and the contributions to make it a fruitful day!
