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Track: Emergency Management and Public Safety
Frank Kok
Rijkswaterstaat Directie Oost Nederland
PO Box 9070
Arnhem, 6800 ED
THE NETHERLANDS
Telephone: 31-26-368-8911
Fax: 31-26-363-4897
The Fist of Hans Brinker
In the winter of 1995 more than 250,000 people had to leave their homes because the dikes almost collapsed. At a length of 550 km, the river dikes were straining to burst at critical weak points. If the dikes had collapsed, the lives of 10,000 people and the savings of billions of dollars would have been swept away. In the middle ages the thumb of brave Hans Brinker was sufficient enough to turn the water. Nowadays you need a strong political fist to take the necessary measurements. Common aspects of the measurements are the excavation of sediments of floodplains and the contribution to a further ecological rehabilitation of the river. One of the main problems with realization of the measurements is the removal of the sediments out of the floodplains. This problem is even bigger because the river Rhine was one of the most polluted rivers in Europe. To estimate the total amount of sediments and the chemical quality of the sediments that are found on the floodplains, a model has been developed in ArcInfo.
The model can be used for different kinds of scenarios. The most important aspects used to design the model are the - mining activities in the past - periods of flooding - impact of river regulation - information of soil strata - soil quality The result of the model is a map with a new hierarchical classification as a legend. By the creation of this model, the development of a decision support system for all the aspects of river management has come closer.
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