Dear all,
On Friday September 8, we had a most successful UNIGIS Alumni day.
We visited Rijkswaterstaat Noord-Holland (RWS). RWS is a governmental organisation that deals with protection
against flooding and providing clean and sufficient water for The Netherlands. It also stimulates a swift
and safe traffic flow on the Dutch highways.
UNIGIS student Paul Jonk had organised this excursion. Henk Scholten started the day with a lecture on
mobile technology and route navigation systems (like TomTom). Paul Jonk gave a lecture on RWS using innovative
GIS: RWS uses mobile working places and tries to be a more public oriented organization. Location Based services
seems to be a mobile solution in which RWS is thinking to invest heavily. For more details: see
Paul's presentation.
After these presentations we visited the highway traffic control center, where the walls were covered with big television screens
on which the traffic jams could be monitored. Mr. Michiel Bontebal explained how RWS coped and solved jams and incidents.
During our visit we witnessed 2 traffic accidents at the Coentunnel and at the Velsertunnel.
After lunch we visited the drainage sluice in IJmuiden, which regulates the water level in a large area of North-Holland and in Amsterdam.
We also went aboard of the new ship of RWS, called the Scheurrak, used for measuring under water. It is a catamaran,
equipped with the latest techniques.
Click here
for more information on this vessel. The sea was quite rough.
A specialized RWS-employee demonstrated us how a depth-measurement map is made.
These maps are mostly used for nautical purposes, for instance by dredge vessels.
And what a beautiful day it was!
The day was concluded with a discussion on everything we've seen this day and of course a borrel.
Best regards,
Paul Jonk
Postscript from the UNIGIS team: We think it was a very successful and well-organised excursion and from this point we would like to thank Paul Jonk
for all the effort he has put into this excursion. Thanks very much!
We hope to welcome the Alumni again at next year's Alumni event and of course at the special Alumni session at the Unigis Conference in June 2007.
The UNIGIS Team
