Public works engineer
Description
Rijkswaterstaat was established more than 200 years ago to solve water management problems of a supra-regional scale for the first time in the history of the Netherlands. The organisation started very small with the establishment on 24 May 1798 of the Bureau van de Waterstaat in The Hague. But already within two years, the organisation acquired a decentralised structure with supra-regional powers.
The rapidly changing state forms (after the Batavian Republic, the Kingdom of Holland, the annexation to the French Empire and the Kingdom of the Netherlands (Belgium and the Netherlands together) were followed by organisational adaptations of the Waterstaat. The organisational form with decentralised branches remained to this day but each period in the development of our country demanded its own adjustments to the organisation.
The lecture outlines the developments of the organisation over time and how well-known and less well-known waterworks engineers gave direction to it over time
10.30 h Reception with coffee/tea
11.00 h Lecture by ir. J.R. Hoogland
11.45 h Break
12.15 h Continuation of the lecture with a concluding discussion
12.30 h Short word by drs. M. der Meer, director of the Science Centre
12.45 h End of the meeting
Speaker(s)
Jan Hoogland worked his entire career at the Rijkswaterstaat, since 1990 as chief director of Water in The Hague and from 1997 as chief engineer director in North Netherlands in Leeuwarden. He retired in 2006 and has since studied, among other things, the history of the Rijkswaterstaat organisation. This led to an (internal RWS) publication "Ingenieur van den Waterstaat" in early 2010. The lecture is based on this publication
Location
Science Centre, Mijnbouwstraat 120, Delft
Organiser
History of Technology
Histechnica
Name and contact details for information
Further information from L.A. Hissink at the e-mail address below.