This year a group of 25 Hydraulic Engineering students as well as Tjerk Zitman and Sierd de Vries gladly exchanged the rainy streets of Delft with the sunny, warm hills of Lisbon for the 3 day excursion of 2017.

The city trip started off on a Thursday afternoon where everyone gathered at Schiphol airport and headed towards the check-in area together. After check-in, we enjoyed a cheeky beverage and then made our way to the plane. Everyone was scattered all over the place and new friends were made on the short 2,5-hour flight to Portugal.

Our bus chauffeur for the weekend met us with a friendly smile as we landed and took us to the beautiful Independante hostel in the center of the city. It is an old building that has been very well maintained over the years with its own beer garden and bar with happy hour each evening, the perfect place to get to know each other better. Once everyone was settled in we made our way to a tapas restaurant for dinner and spent the rest of the evening roaming the busy streets of Lisbon, including the famous Pink Street.

Friday morning we hopped on the bus to our first hydraulic related excursion – the coast of Caparica with coastal geologist Celso Pinto. We had an introduction to the sediment distribution along the coast and the problems the locals are currently facing. We had a tour of the coastal structures that are currently in place and how the coastline has developed over the recent years. This was an extremely interesting case and tested us to think strategically and consider different viewpoints with different challenges than those in the Netherlands.
The afternoon was spent touring the city in true tourist fashion during a walking tour of Bairro Alto, a neighbourhood in the city. We discovered hidden gems of Lisbon and ended the evening eating at Timeout food market where we were spoiled for choice for food and wine.

Saturday morning we were up bright and early and headed towards Alqueva Dam which was our second educational trip of the weekend. The two-hour drive flew by and before we knew it we were staring at the largest dam in Europe. This was a breathtaking construction and it was difficult to imagine the enormous volume of water it contained. After an explanation of the area and the dam, we had time to take some pictures and then it was time to head back.
On the way back to Lisbon we had a pit stop at Monsaraz, a civil parish near the Spanish border. Lunch in the afternoon sun, and a view of the horizon where Spain lies made for the perfect time to recover from a long day. This was also the last night of the trip and we celebrated in style back in Lisbon at a classy restaurant where we ate like kings.

Sunday may have been the last day but an evening flight meant that the daylight hours could be taken advantage of. We started off with the last excursion to an Oerias Marina where we marveled the huge breakwaters and listened to the stories of 15 meter high waves causing chaos in the past. We spent our last hours in Portugal enjoying the sun and views of the blue coastal waters of Cascais.

Overall our time in Lisbon was filled with laughter, learning and lots of sun, little did we know that about a week later we would be covered in snow back in the Netherlands.

The Hydraulic Engineering Student Association (‘Het Waterbouwdispuut’) organises a student/TU Delft staff meetup twice a year that focuses on a different particular subject every event. The main aim of the events is creating an informed and well connected climate among the hydraulic engineering students. The first master community of the 17/18 year aimed to focus on track/field choice and what it is like to work for the TU Delft. Since hydraulic engineering covers a wide spectrum of subjects, it is important to inform students as early as possible on their options. The host of the day was dr. ir. Stefan Aarninkhof and our speakers for the day were four PhD’ers from different fields within hydraulic engineering.

After the presentations, students were given the opportunity to have a chat with the PhD’ers and ask for any specific unanswered matters and opinions. From the received feedback from our students we can conclude that the first Master Community was a great success and that the chosen subject was very relevant to our staff and students!

One of the most important and biggest activities organised by Het Waterbouwdispuut is the master kick-off day. About 100 students start their masters Hydraulic Engineering every year and participate in the event. The master kick-off day is the first activity in the new academic year which brings all new Hydraulic Engineering students together to get to know each other, the faculty and some of the professors. It is a busy day with presentations, excursions and a big barbeque with drinks. 

The day started with presentations of Het Waterbouwdispuut, the master coordinator, and a professor. After approximately an hour of presentations, the first Hydraulic Coffee of the year took place. The Hydraulic Coffee is an event that takes place every week, where everybody can talk to each other, meet fellow new students and the department. Afterwards, four busses took off to visit several Hydraulic Engineering projects. These projects were hosted by Rijkswaterstaat, the Port of Rotterdam, BAM International and the TU Delft.

Around 6 o’clock we all arrived back in Delft, and a big barbecue with drinks was waiting for everyone. 

Written by Floortje Roelvink

After months of hard work, a lot of coffee from Niek, some beers, moments of panic about credit cards and visas, asking professors to accompany us, beautiful selfies and a fantastic hydraulic drinks the time was finally there: The big study tour of Hydraulic Engineering 2018! The choice for the location was easily made.  The name India is derived from the word ‘drop’, and Sri Lanka hangs down as a drop beneath India, it cannot be any better than that was our opinion.

We started our travels in India. Late in the evening we arrived at Mumbai, where we were immersed in the Indian night life. Booties were shaked at us, hands were thrown up in the air, this was a good start of a week full of trips to companies, days full of culture and long walks through the wilderness of India.

The first company visit was Van Oord India. After a couple of interesting presentations about their pursuits, their corporate social responsibility and a delicious lunch we went to the harbour of Mumbai. A ship was waiting for us to give as a tour through the harbour past all the Van Oord vessels.  At five o’clock, the time was there to have a beer at the stock exchange and soon after that a wonderful dinner accompanied by Indian dancers was served. What an interesting day, where we learned a lot about the Van Oord projects in India en their view as a company.

To stay in the flow, the next day was all about visiting companies, namely Fugro India. A series of presentations gave us a detailed image about the activities of Fugro, which was reinforced with a tour of all the different departments. De closing lunch gave us the opportunity to ask our questions and ask for more information. After this we went back on the bus to explore the city centre some more.

After three days of Mumbai, it was time for a change of scenery; we went on the road to Pune, a nice city with a lot of green and a nice hostel. We played loads of board games and drank beers because this was our free time! A walk to a fortress was on the schedule. The view of the Rajgad fort should have been breath taking but unfortunately the dense mist made it impossible to even see your own hands. This didn’t spoil the fun though, through the rain en mud we climbed up the mountain en almost as cheerful we made our way down. The next day did not go without a hitch either. The bus was a small five hours late, with as a result that we could not visit the dam. On the bright side we made it to Mumbai the end of the day. We had another two days to explore the beauties of this city before we flew to Sri Lanka.

When we arrived in Sri Lanka we suddenly realised how extremely crowded it was in Mumbai. Sri Lanka was so peaceful and quiet in comparison. We strutted along the boulevard, visited the very polluted Laguna of Colombo and some temples and again enjoyed the various foods Sri Lanka had to offer. After a couple of days the day had finally come, the dream for every hydraulic engineer, thé big land reclamation of Colombo: Port City Colombo. Eelco Bijl of CDR lead us past gigantic tetrapods, an active dredger, the Chinese offices and employees and the enormous breakwater the harbour assets. With a lot of anecdotes and an interesting presentation the story of Port City became clear to us. It was pointed out to us that there are a lot of political, economical and social aspects important for the project and for Sri Lanka in general. After the serious part of the day we went to one of the most fancy hotels of Colombo and while enjoying a nice cold beer, followed by a dinner, we reflected on the fun day.

The rest of the week we had a lot of free time and spent this almost entirely on the beach. We saw the erosion processes from up close and the strong impact of waves on the beach. We tried surfing, relaxed in the hot sand and took long walks down the beach of Tangalle en Hikaduwa. Our last company visit was with the Chinese company CHEC together with CDR. We visited the port of Hambantota, a huge port where no ship ever moored. Again the combination of politics and hydraulic engineering became very clear. Nevertheless it was again an interesting visit, which ended with a nice lunch.

These two weeks were absolutely fantastic. We had a lot of interesting company visits, boardgames, culture, nature and of course the most important thing of all; a lot of hydraulic engineering. We want to thank all the companies, participants and mentors for these amazing two weeks!