The 1953 flood disaster
Description
On the night of 31 January 1953, the dykes broke in many places in Zeeland and South Holland. The storm that caused this was of a very rare strength and as a result, the storm surge reached the greatest height ever measured. According to later analyses, it was about a 1 per 100-year storm. The scale of the disaster became so great because the maintenance of the flood defences had been neglected during World War II. Moreover, after the war, the government had implicitly prioritised rebuilding industry over doing this overdue maintenance.
The scale of the disaster was enormous. 1,800 people lost their lives and about 100,000 lost property.
Recovery was tackled energetically and successfully. Within a year, all holes were closed and the polders were dry again. A period of reflection followed, leading to the famous Delta Plan. The full report was released in 1960, but implementation had already begun. In 1986, it was completed with the commissioning of the storm surge barrier in the Eastern Scheldt. Later, the barrier in the Nieuwe Waterweg was added
10.30 h Reception with coffee
11.00 h Lecture "The 1953 flood disaster" by Prof.ir.drs. J.K. Vrijling
11.45 h Break
12.15 h Continuation of the lecture with concluding discussion
12.45 h End of meeting
Speaker(s)
Han Vrijling (born 1947) received his engineering degree from Delft University of Technology in 1974 with a thesis on prefabricated office buildings.
After a short period at the design office of the Adriaan Volker Group, he was seconded to the construction of the commercial port in Jubail (S.A.) to realise the construction of auxiliary works and the opening of a quarry as project engineer. In 1976, he was deputed on behalf of Dosbouw to design the storm surge barrier in the Oosterschelde. There, he developed the probabilistic approach to the design of the barrier. During the further course of the project, he rose through the ranks to eventually become a member of the project management team. He was responsible for all the project's research.
After the completion of the barrier in 1986, he moved through the higher ranks at Rijkswaterstaat, from 1989 as part-time professor of Probabilistic Design at TU Delft. His appointment as professor of Hydraulic Structures and Probabilistic Design followed in 1995. From 1980 to 2005, he was involved in a large number of hydraulic design projects at home and abroad.
Location
Science Centre, Mijnbouwstraat 120,
2628 RX Delft
Organiser
History of Technology
Histechnica
Name and contact details for information
Further information from L.A. Hissink at the e-mail address below.