Theme: The Graduation Process Online Education MDE Mind Spinsels

Transcription

Volume 23 | September 2013
Theme: The Graduation Process
Online Education
Anke Grefte
MDE Mind Spinsels
Frits Dankers
Colofon
September 2013
Dear Druppel readers,
Volume 23, Number 3,
September 2013
The ‘Druppel’ is a magazine of the student
society of watermanagement of the TU Delft.
The magazine is published four times a year.
Editors
Frans Willem Hamer
Remko Nijzink
David Ginting
Luis S. Ruiz
Pradeep Rathore
Design
Colofon 2
Remko Nijzink
Frans Willem Hamer
The ‘Druppel’ is distributed to
all members and relations of the
‘Dispuut Watermanagement’
Faculty of Civil Engineering
and Geosciences
Contact
The end of summer, the start of a new academic
year. A lot of students are graduating and will leave
the university with a lot of knowledge. For the
students who are still at the department or will
start graduating this year, this issue is one to cherish,
as the graduating students were so kind to share
some key knowledge about their graduation with
you!
Luckily, studying water management is also a lot
of fun! Especially during the activities organised by
the Dispuut. In this issue you can read about all the
activities of the 4th quarter and the study trip to
the Balkan. These activities can only take place with
the help of the active members and participants.
This is also true for the Druppel. David, Remko
and Luis are leaving the committee after years of
commitment, devotion and dedication. Therefore,
we need three new committe members to continue
the fun we had last year. If you are interested: don’t
hesitate, and contact us!
On behalf of the Druppel Committee,
Frans Willem Hamer
Dispuut Watermanagement
Room 4.74
Stevinweg 1
2628 CN Delft
015-2784284
[email protected]
www.dispuutwatermanagement.nl
www.facebook.com/Druppelmagazine
Cover
Maikel Votel
Picture of the artificial Lake Piva in Montenegro
together with a previous edition of the Druppel.
Druppel - Volume 23 - September 2013
Table of contents
Joris de Vos
4 From the board
5 Cover contest & Graduates
Remko Nijzink about the steps in the
Summarizing some work in the
Onno Ebbens about
Anke Grefte telling about
Tanja Euser is
Prof. Wiggers about his expercience during
Mark de Weerd looking forward to
Druppel is getting to know
Struan Robertson about being an
Summarizing some of the
Frits Dankers writing some
Frans Willem Hamer about another
7 International water news
9 The Graduation Process
10 Graduates Overview
13 Symposium
15 Online Education
17 Digging into stuff
20 The Kosi River Floods
23 Curriculum Changes
24 Jules van Lier
25 International Student
28 Dispuut Activities
30 MDE Mind Spinsels
33 Historical Water Figure
34 Dispuut Puzzles
Table of contents 3
Remko Nijzink
From the board
From the board & Incoming mail 4
There is a probability that you get this magazine
in your hands for the first time. Not so strange,
since most of the new students arrive around the
time of circulation of this magazine.Welcome to the
Dispuut Watermanagement!
When I’m writing this article, I realize that the
fourth quarter of the academic year was quite a busy
one for the Dispuut. For me personally, there could
not have been a better timing for summer holidays.A
negative point about the summer holidays however
is that everything seems so long ago if you are in
the end of it. Fortunately the new academic year is
coming with new activities and events.
The annual symposium that took place in May
was a great success. The key-note speaker of that
evening: Prof. Damir Brdjanovic gave his view on
paradigm changes in the urban water cycle and two
other speakers: Rutger de Graaf and Jasper van
Kempen got the room quietly with their speeches.
After this, strong opinions were not kept quiet in
the panel discussion guided by Thom Bogaard.
Barely two weeks later, the board change took
place after a hectic week of fieldwork in Luxembourg.
Please let me introduce you my new fellow board
members: Mark, Pradeep, Marlies, Frans Willem and
Damien. Last three are new in the board and they
take over the places of Tom, Lobke and Anthonie
who I really want to thank for their efforts in the
52nd board.
On the 5th of June, all eyes in and around the
faculty were fixed on us when the second edition of
the Fitterij competition was organized in front of the
CiTG building. Don’t ask me how it could happen,
but water management students are not the best
in pipe fitting, since this is already the second time
that a couple of non-water management students
won the competition. Naturally I hope that a next
event will prove that water management students
are born pipe fitters!
Another happening was the sailing weekend,
which was a bit alternative this year because of the
strong wind on the Kagerplassen. The end of the
academic year was celebrated with a BBQ for all the
members and staff members of water management.
Bas des Tombe was awarded with the Cees Boeter
Prijs for his BSc thesis on salinization problems of
extraction wells for irrigation.
After the exams, a group of 25 students
and staff members went to the Balkans to visit
interesting projects and places in Serbia, Bosnia
and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Croatia. You’ll
definitely find an article about this interesting study
tour elsewhere in this edition of the Druppel.
We hope to see you at one of the activities
or at our weekly cookie breaks on Wednesday at
10:30!
On behalf of the 53rd board,
Joris de Vos
President
Incoming mail
Do you have comments on the articles? You don’t
agree with the contest winner? Or do you just want to share
your water story with us? Send in your mail and we place
it in the next Druppel!
Cover contest
This Druppel cover contest was about the
two things everyone can’t wait for throughout the
year: Druppel and holidays. The task was to take a
picture of the Druppel at your holiday destination.
Somehow, all entries came from the Balkans.
Apparently, many people have been to the same
place: the winning picture was taken at the same
spot as the picture that came 3rd. The Druppel
Committee suspects that the two persons must
have been traveling together. Luckily, the best picture
was taken from a better angle and the Druppel was
displayed more prominently. That made it an easy
decision. The winner will get the Lonely Planet of
his own choice together with a copy of his beautiful
picture. 
2
Graduates
3
May - August 2013
Sanitary Engineering
Anthonie Hogendoorn
Enhanced digestion and alginate-like-exopolysaccharides extraction from Nereda sludge
Joeri Legierse
Development of an innovative wastewater reuse plant for the RINEW project
Udo Ouwerkerk
Investigation of the regeneration process of the softners at BWP-Botlek
Marleen Heidekamp
Mild Desalination of Cooling Tower Blow Down with Electrodialysis and Membrane Capacitive Andreas Moerman
Drinking water temperature modeling in domestic systems
Wu Kai
Measurement of organic halogen in boiler feedwater of power plant
Hydrology
Koen Wenker
The influence of fissures on landslide hydrology
Water Resources Management
Bart Dekens
Gradient-based hybrid Model Predictive Control using Time Instant Optimization for Dutch regional water
Anthony Meyer Zu Schlochtern
Creative Policy Generation in IWRM: A Case Study in the Upper Citarum Basin
Bouke Kooreman
Measuring weight fluctuations in trees based on natural frequency
Paul Rutten
The Urban Water Balance: a case study of the Prinseneiland, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Graduates & Cover Contest 5
1
Werken met drinkwater...
Je hebt recent een opleiding op het gebied van procestechnologie,
chemische technologie of AOT afgerond.
Je bent op zoek naar een uitdagende baan.
Bij een vooruitstrevende, eigenwijze werkgever.
Waar je veel kunt leren en snel verantwoordelijkheden krijgt.
Iets voor jou?
Oasen maakt drinkwater voor 750.000 mensen en 7.200 bedrijven in het oosten van Zuid-Holland.
Oasen N.V. | Nieuwe Gouwe O.Z. 3 | Postbus 122 | 2800 AC Gouda | T 0182 59 34 15 | www.oasen.nl
International water news
TAHMO Final Challenge Nairobi 2013
August 2, 2013
After a week of soldering, programming and
teamwork, a cheer went up when 21 sensors,
brought in from all corners of Africa, came online
and started submitting their measurements to the
internet. The sensors were designed by the winners
of the TAHMO Sensor Design Competition. Their
prize: to join researchers from Delft University
of Technology (the Netherlands) for a week in
Nairobi, Kenya and work together on integrating
all winning sensors into one big weather station.
From Monday 29 July to Friday 2 August 2013 this
EU bathing water continues to improve
May 21, 2013
The latest data on EU bathing water quality
hasbeen released, showing 93% of sites meet the
minimum standards.
However, the authors said storm-water run-off
was still causing pollution problems in some areas.
Compiled by the European Environment
Agency (EEA), the report lists data from more than
22,000 sites within the EU, Croatia and Switzerland.
An interactive website allows people to check
the water quality of prospective holiday destinations.
The data, which refers to the 2012 bathing
season, shows that 20,621 out of 22,184 (92.9%)
bathing sites achieved at least the minimum water
quality standard.
These figures show a slight improvement from
2011, when 20,499 sites out of 22,374 (91.6%) at
least met the minimum standard.
The EEA report said that although the overall
data matched the longer term trend of improving
water quality, about 2% of the sites sampled did not
meet the minimum criteria.
It added that the nations with the highest
proportion of non-compliant locations were
Belgium (12%), the Netherlands (7%) and the UK
(6%).
(BBC)
The TAHMO participants
7
Final Challenge was held in buzzing iHub. Twelve
selected participants from Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda,
Zimbabwe and Spain worked together with water
management professor Nick van de Giesen and
MacGyver scientist Rolf Hut from Delft University
of Technology, and Adam Gleave from the Raspberry
Pi Foundation to create a “for Africa, from Africa”
weather station.
During the five day workshop, the 21 sensors
brought by the participants, measuring variables such
as rainfall, temperature, humidity and wind were
integrated into an experimental weather station. All
sensor were connected to one Raspberry Pi, a lowcost microcomputer, that functioned as the heart
of the integrated weather station. The Raspberry
Pi sent all data obtained by the sensors to the
internet through MQTT, a messaging transport that
is ideal for connecting small devices connected on
networks with minimal bandwidth. IBM’s system
Intelligent Operations for Water (IOW) stored the
data from the 21 sensors in the cloud and nicely
visualised measurement values on a map.
(TAHMO)
International Water News
Remko Nijzink
Heavy rain brings floods to Philippines
August 19, 2013
Heavy rain in the Philippine capital forced
the closure of government offices, schools,
banks and most private companies, and residents
in parts of the city and nearby provinces had
to flee from their homes because of floods.
The monsoon rain, intensified by tropical storm
Trami, also led to the closure of the Philippine Stock
Exchange, the Philippine Dealing System foreign
exchange platform and the secondary debt market
via the Philippine Dealing and Exchange Corp
after government offices suspended their work.
At least three people were killed and two
were missing in accidents caused by the rain and
flooding, disaster and government officials said.
The flooding was the worst this rainy season
in the Philippines, which is regularly battered by
heavy weather including at least 20 typhoons a year.
The governor of Cavite province, southwest of
Manila, declared a state of calamity after 395 mm of
rain fell on parts of the province in a day, equivalent to
86 percent of a month’s average rainfall.That and a high
tide caused flooding in many parts of the province.
Santa Rosa town in Laguna province also
declared a state of calamity, with most of its
neighborhoods flooded, said its mayor,Arlene Arcillas.
Weather forecasters said more rain
was expected in coming days as tropical
storm Trami moved north towards Taiwan.
(Reuters)
The graduation process:
A spaghetti mess...?
Druppel magazine received some indications from students that starting the graduation process can be
a bit confusing. What must be arranged, which forms should be filled in? A stepwise approach is presented
here to create some order in the “spaghetti of the graduation process”.
In advance:
During the MSc-thesis:
Step 1
Have at least 60 ects, 70 ects is recommended by
the Department
Step 2
Find a topic: you can go to the professors and
companies, but don’t be fooled: Other lecturers and
PhD students also have interesting topics available!
Step 3
See your graduation coordinator (also known as
Wim Luxemburg)
Step 4
Stepwise approach 8
Fill in the form “Application start MSc-thesis (this
can be found on the TU Delft website) and hand it
in at the Servicedesk Citg
Step 5
Arrange your committee. The minimum is three
academic members of staff from Delft University
from at least two different sections. The charmain
of the committee must be a professor from CEG.
External committee members can be added. Inform
the coordinator about the composition of your
committee.
Step 10
Have regular meetings
Step 11
Attend colloquia (at least 8) and give one
presentation for a colloquium
Step 12
Make an appointment with the coordinator at least
three months before your graduation to prepare
your “Graduation Chart” (list with courses).
Step 13
For fieldwork equipment: contact Wim Luxemburg
or Thom Bogaard
Step 14
Set the date of your defense: arrange lecture
room and announcements. For Sanitary, go to the
secretariat for reproduction of your MSc-thesis.
Step 15
Inform the Dispuut about the date of your
graduation. They will mention in on their website.
Step 6
Read the “Graduation Guide” (http://www.
citg.tudelft.nl/en/about-faculty/departments/
watermanagement/education/master/msc-thesis/ )
Step 7
Prepare a document for the website of
Watermanagement and send it to Koen Hilgersom
(water resources) or Wim Luxemburg (hydrology))
Step 8
Add your name to the colloquium list (Saket Pande
or R. Shange)
Step 9
Arrange a working place, you can go to Ronald van
Nooyen (Hydrology and Water resources) or the
Sanitary secretariat
When graduated:
Step 15
Become an old member of the Dispuut, so you keep
receiving the Druppel!
This stepwise approach is based on the graduation
checklist that can be found on the water management
website:
http://www.citg.tudelft.nl/en/about-faculty/
departments/watermanagement/education/master/
msc-thesis/
Koen Wenker
Title: The influence of fissures on landslide
hydrology
To characterize the hydrological behaviour of
a landslide and especially of the fissures and matrix,
fieldwork was conducted on the Super-Sauze landslide
in the French Alps. A rainfall simulator has been used
to sprinkle 35 mm h-1 of artificial rain on the landslide.
In total 8 plots have been tested where water levels,
electrical conductivity and moisture contents have
been measured during and after the experiment. Also
the fissure distribution at the Super-Sauze landslide
has been mapped. This fissure map is compared to
earlier surveys and is furthermore used for modelling
purposes.
STARWARS is used to model the behaviour of
the Super-Sauze landslide. This is a spatially-distributed
finite element model for landslide hydrology taking
into account both saturated and unsaturated zones,
but also explicitly defines matrix and fissure fractions
and their interactions.
Moreover,
a
hydrological feedback
mechanism is used
to determine the
connectivity
of
fissures
between
adjacent
cells,
depending on the
moisture
content
Gert Mulder
Title: Monitoring the surface and groundwater
bodies of Northern-Iraq from space
Within some years making a sound hydrologic
model will be as simple as following: You start up
a supercomputer, select the region of interest,
download and analyze some satellite data and run
the model. Impossible? I agree, but I still like the idea
and it is where I`m partly working on.
My main goal is to monitor the surface water
and groundwater bodies of Northern Iraq using
of the unsaturated zone in the matrix. A mechanical
feedback mechanism is used to change the total
amount of fissures in a cell, which is dependent on the
factor of safety of the specific cell. The factor of safety
is the ratio between the driving forces and stabilizing
forces. It is conceptualized that if the factor of safety
is larger than 1, the slope is stable, and if the factor of
safety becomes less than 1, it starts to move. A low
factor of safety assumes a large amount of movement
and a large factor of safety assumes limited or no
movement. In this concept, when the factor of safety
is low, the fissure fraction is high and when the factor
of safety is high, the fissure fraction is low. However,
conceptually this feedback mechanism is disputable,
because fissures occur due to movement and not due
to (in)stability of a cell as calculated from a balance of
forces. That is why in this thesis another approach is
proposed and evaluated using the calculated velocity
of the cell and adjacent cells within a landslide.
A model has been written for testing this velocitybased approach. Two fictive slopes have been tested (a
straight and a concave slope). The fissure fraction is
now dependent on the difference between the upslope
and downslope velocity. A dynamic effect appears for
the amount of fissures per cell and across a landslide (a
large amount of fissures is moving up and down, same
for a low amount of fissures). This approach seems
promising for modelling the amount and influence of
fissures on landslide hydrology. 
the GRACE satellite
mission. In the past
measuring groundwater
by satellite was almost
impossible because it
was not possible to ‘see’
it. But that`s exactly what
GRACE doesn`t. Instead of radiation it measures
the gravity of the surface, which can be translated
to groundwater levels. But unfortunately this
method causes a very coarse resolution (100-200
km). Therefore I try to combine data from different
satellites to come up with a water balance and a
hydrologic model of the area.
And sadly, or luckily, I need some ground data…
Which is the best reason to go to North Iraq. I hope
that I’ll go there the next months, but I am not sure
yet. Further some advice: Try to get a place at the
department to work on your thesis. You will work
faster and get some understanding when you`re
bored. 
Graduates Overview 9
Graduates Overview
Graduates Overview
Marleen Heidekamp
Graduates Overview 10
Title: Mild Desalination of Cooling Tower Blow
Down Water with Electrodialysis and Membrane
Capacitive Deionization: A Comparative Study
The world is facing a water shortage and besides
water reuse in the urban water cycle, efficient water
management in the industry is becoming more of
interest. Dow Chemical Company in Terneuzen
wants to reduce its water consumption and is
therefore exploring the option of mild desalination
of cooling tower blow down. Aim is to desalinate
this concentrated and salty (3.6mS/cm) water
stream down to a conductivity of 1.0mS/cm.
For my master thesis I investigated the
desalination of cooling tower blow down water with
two electrochemical technologies. Electrodialysis
Ravina Binol
Title: One Size Does Not Fit All
Right behind the exquisite Soekarno Hatta
International Airport, you will find rural communities
that are oblivious to the basic (according to the
‘normal’ standards) sanitation needs. They have
mobile phones,Yes;They own motorcycles,Yes;They
own televisions,Yes (even I don’t have a TV in Delft);
but the majority of them do not own a toilet at
home. For them the best place to do number ones
and number twos is... out in the open.
“There’s no need.What for? You have rice fields
and streams”, is the common answer you will get
and membrane capacitive
deionization
are
both
desalination
technologies
which separate dissolved
ions from water based
on an electrical potential
difference. I have carried
out different experiments
in the lab to investigate the
operational parameters of
both systems. Main goal of the thesis was to compare
the technologies for the treatment of cooling tower
blow down water, based on energy consumption,
ion removal and current efficiencies.
Main outcome was that electrodialysis has a
lower energy demand compared to membrane
capacitive deionization. Longer term effects such as
membrane fouling and scaling need to be investigated
in further (pilot) tests.
Working on two electrochemical technologies,
a new field for me, was quite challenging. Besides
the new material I had to get acquainted with, I also
participated in the project team working on this
topic. The meetings and discussions of this project
team created an experience for me from which I
learned a lot. 
when asked whether they would like to have toilets
installed in the area.
For my thesis project I came up with a nonconventional design that mimics the current habits
of the locals. In addition, the temporal nature of
the design allows the users to have a trial period,
whereby a favorable (or unfavorable) attitude will
be formed towards the design. Those who feel
that it fits their criteria could decide to continue
adopting the toilet.
Just think of it this way, could you remember
the last time you had to purchase a mobile phone
(because your old one was stolen, fell into the canal
or got smashed onto the asphalt for whatever
reason)? I am sure that you would have scrolled
through pages and pages of online reviews, asked
around, and tried out different phones to finally
choose one that is suitable for you (and well within
your price range). Sometimes all it takes is a trip to
the store and the chance to get the full hands-on
experience with the mobile phone you want to help
you come to your decision.
Be it a mobile phone or a toilet, people ought
to have the opportunity try before choosing to
invest their money for it right?
Wu Kai
Title: Measurement of organic halogen in boiler
feedwater of power plants
In natural surface water and water treatment
plant effluent, there exist some organic halogen
compounds from industry and pesticides. Most of
the organic halogens will degrade in the boilers and
release halide ions when the power plants generate
steam from feedwater. The ions could lower pH
in the boiler and cause stress corrosion cracking
of the boiler, which could increase safety risks and
decrease the life-time of boilers and tubes.
Unlike halide ions in the cool water, organic
halogen compounds can’t be removed by ion
exchange. So it’s necessary to measure the thread
compounds correctly. Existing measurements
including Adsorbable Organic Halogens and Gas
Chromatography are not convenient, accurate or
reproducible enough, meaning that a new method
should be developed. In this research the option
of destroying the organic compounds to release
the halide anions and measure them with ion
chromatography was studied. So it’s important to
find the best way to destroy the organic compounds
and release the halides anions.
Six organic halogen model compounds were
tested, including both aliphatic and aromatic
compounds. Organic fluorine, chlorine and bromine
are all included. Two main methods were studied:
UV/vacuum UV (VUV) photolysis or photocatalysis
and wet chemical oxidation with K2S2O8. Three
several pro’s and con’s
compared
to
the
university.
Finances
are more important in
business life, limiting
the possibilities for
the
experiments/
equipment you want
to use. You have to
mediate between your
prof and the company, as the focus of the university
is more fundamental, whereas most companies are
more practice oriented. On the other hand I had
to drive in very nice lease cars for collecting the
sludge (a. o. Alfa Romeo Giulietta). Because you will
meet a lot of people, a company also enables you
to enlarge your network with a lot of professionals,
both clients, engineers and professors. 
kinds of lamps were applied:
VUV, low-pressure (LP)
lamp and medium pressure
(MP) lamp. H2O2 and TiO2
were used as a catalyst. The
experiments were executed
with both single compounds
and mixed compounds.
The whole research includes: studying different
UV lamps and oxidants on the target compounds
and find the optimal combinations, trying different
dosings of K2S2O8 and find the difference, testing
halide release of target compounds in power plant
conditions.
The results show that the organic fluorine is
the hardest to degrade while organic bromine is the
easiest. Aromatic compounds are easier to degrade
than aliphatic compounds. This happens not only in
AOP process, but also in power plant conditions.
The recovery of bromide and chloride in most
methods could reach 95%, while aliphatic fluorine
can only reach at most 70%.
It can be concluded that MP/H2O2 is the
most effective method in the study for the threat
compounds since it requires less time and less energy
consumption, but wet chemical oxidation also has
the advantage of simple equipment and universality.
The method with the slowest degradation is UV/
TiO2 
11
Title: Enhanced digestion and alginate-likeexopolysaccharides extraction from Nereda
sludge
The last seven months I spend most of my time
on laboratory work. The project I did was initiated
by RoyalHaskoningDHV. The last decennium they
have developed the Nereda technology together
with TUDelft. The special characteristic is that it
enables growing bacteria in granules rather than
flocs, which saves a lot of costs in the wastewater
treatment. However, not
much was known about
the treatment of this
sludge. I investigated several
technologies for digestibility
enhancement
and
the
interaction with alginatelike-exopolysaccharides
extraction from Nereda
sludge.
Doing your graduation
project at a company has
Graduates Overview
Anthonie Hogendoorn
Water drijft ARCADIS
Wat drijft jou?
Ondernemen in een complexe
Waterveiligheid, wateroverlast, watertekort, water-
omgeving maar met overzicht,
kwaliteit en vaarwater. Stuk voor stuk belangrijke onder-
betrokkenheid en verstand van
werpen die mee bepalen hoe we wonen en werken in ons
zaken. Resultaatgericht: iedereen
zegt het, slechts enkelen maken
het waar. ARCADIS: infrastructuur
– milieu – gebouwen. Los van elkaar
maar ook integraal. We geven de
laaggelegen land. ARCADIS werkt actief aan de meest
relevante watervraagstukken in Nederland en daarbuiten.
Van de Deltacommissie tot de Tweede Maasvlakte, van
Water in de stad tot de stormvloedkering in New Orleans.
samenleving vorm door creatief te
zijn in onze oplossingen en
daadkrachtig in de uitvoering.
Als medewerker van ARCADIS
verlaat je gebaande paden. Je bent
onderdeel van een netwerk van
zakelijke professionals. Ingericht
Met veel plezier en vol energie pakken we die watertaken aan.
We maken graag het verschil. Als water ook jouw drijfveer is,
neem dan contact op met René Teiken, recruiter divisie Water
tel. 06-5073 6710. Kijk voor mogelijkheden voor (afstudeer-)
stages of vacatures op onze website:
www.werkenbijarcadis.nl
ARCADIS heeft haar kennis op het gebied van water gebun-
rondom klanten, zodat deze direct
deld. De divisie Water adviseert en begeleidt opdrachtgevers
profiteren van onze kennis en
en partners op het gebied van kusten & rivieren, havens &
ervaring.
vaarwegen, regionaal & stedelijk water. Sterk in strategisch
Wij brengen ideeën tot leven.
advies, technisch ontwerp, planvorming, inrichting, model-
Jij ook?
studies, procesmanagement, uitvoering en besluitvorming.
Gericht op het resultaat. Dát drijft ARCADIS.
Imagine the result
Symposium:
‘Water, the elixir of life’
“The stone-age did not end
because of a lack of stones”
After the break, Thom Bogaard (TU Delft)
guided the panel discussion with three professionals
of different backgrounds. Lambèr Paping had a
unique way of participating in a discussion. Besides
a few extraordinary one-liners such as: “The stoneage did not end because of a lack of stones” and
“f#ck the system” he also got the message across
that students should be well aware of serious
obstacles in realizing their dreams. Cees van de
Guchte (Deltares) stressed the need for knowledge
development for the long term future. As more
research is currently paid by companies, the
long-term focus is partly lost. Dick van Ginhoven
underlined the importance of students educated
in engineering/water management. The need for
analytical employees will rise significantly; we as
students should be well aware of our capacities
in this respect. The closing words of the panel
discussion were from prof. Damir Brdjanovic, asking
the student to think of the way in which we want to
realize our dreams: entrepreneurial, in an engineering
company or in the fundamental research?
The symposium was closed by Tom de Boer,
chairman of the dispuut. All speakers and panel
members were thanked for their participation.
During the finalizing drinks we enjoyed drinks and
snacks, while elaborating further on the topics
discussed, even the speakers stayed until the bar
closed at 11pm. This symposium was again an event
underlining the importance of our daily practices
and future career! 
13
“Water the elixir of life” was the topic of the
water management symposium held in May 2013 at
Unesco-IHE. The fact that water is essential in the
existence of life on earth is known to many people.
But what people do all over the earth to cope with
water related problems is for many still unknown.
This symposium was there to show how people
in different parts of the world creatively handle a
variety of water problems.
After a strikingly professional introduction by
Kenny Wang, the key-note speaker of the evening
got our attention. Prof. Dr. Ir. Damir Brdjanovic
(professor in sanitary engineering at UNESCOIHE) gave his view on paradigm changes in the
urban water cycle. Instead of using drinking water
for all processes requiring water within our houses,
we should shift to a more diverse supply. Seawater
can be used for toilet flushing; used water is suited
for agricultural/industrial purposes. Using seawater
for toilet flushing enables us to build compacter
wastewater treatment plants and a more easily
recovery of phosphorus. Prof. Brdjanovic elucidated
his view with the example of Hong-Kong; where a
system, in which seawater is used to flush the toilets,
is operational since the 70’s. He even collected
evidence of this himself by tasting the water from
the toilet cistern (stortbak in Dutch). He closed
his talk by saying the inspiring words: ‘In an era of
rapid urbanization it is required to think beyond the
known boundaries!’
The subsequent talk given by Dr. Ir. Rutger
de Graaf was a very nice addition to the key-note
speaker. In an enthusiastic and dynamic way, Rutger
presented the sea as a major solution for urban
growth in delta areas. Oceans are not only useful
for living, also agriculture and aquaculture can take
place. With the floating delta center in Rotterdam
as a first start; the vision of Deltasync started to
become a reality.
The third lecture, given by Dr. Ir. Jasper van
Kempen (Rijkswaterstaat), was about river basin
management. Although problems with the beamer
provided us with incredible color changing effects,
Jasper van Kempen still managed to share his view
on the European Water Framework Directive.
Starting from a conflict on water quality between
Belgium and the Netherlands, he revealed the
missing aspects within the European laws.
Symposium
Onno Ebbens
is on Facebook now, stay
up-to-date about events and
activities!
Join the Facebook Group:
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I
Online educationWatermanagement
Online education?
Studying
online
offers you the possibility
of studying wherever
and
whenever
you
want. In 2007 the first
courses about water
treatment were offered
as
OpenCourseWare
(OCW). An OCW
is a free and open
digital publication of high quality university-level
educational materials. OpenCourseWare are free
and openly licensed, accessible to anyone, anytime
via the internet.
Thus, OCW is course material, but not a
course with a start date and an examination. This
is changing! The newest development is MOOCs.
A ‘Massive Open Online Course’ (MOOC) is an
online course aiming at large-scale interactive
participation and open access via the web. In
addition to traditional course materials such
as videos, readings, and problem sets, MOOCs
provide interactive user forums that help to build
a community for the students, professors, and
teaching assistants. More than 10000 students
are already (end of July) registered in the MOOC
CTB3365x Introduction to Water treatment
starting on September 16th. Finally, we hope to
welcome 20000 students in our MOOC. This
is massive! The free course is open to everyone,
without prior education or entry examination.
So, students don’t need to pay for attending
this course, but they will not get supervision of
our lecturers. When they pass the exam, they
get a certificate of attendance, not a diploma.
Our MOOC is also a deficit course for external
students interested to join our MSc and as such
much easier accessible from September onwards.
The availability of the MOOC CTB3365x means
that the lecture series CTB3365 will become much
more interactive. Transfer of textbook information
is readily accessible, so why to repeat this in the
lecture room? The MOOC development is a next
step in modernizing education at TU.
Students aiming at a MSc diploma, and who
preferable study online, are also welcome in
September at the MSc track Water management.
Online MSc education is intended as alternative for
everyone who is considering the on-campus MSc
education offered by TU Delft. This means that
everyone who fulfills the educational requirements
for starting our MSc can start online. This might be
a regular student or a life-long learner who wants
to expand his/her knowledge in the disciplines
that are offered. Registration is possible for the
complete online MSc programme or for one or
more Master courses. This creates the possibility
to acquire an MSc within a series of subsequent
years.
How does an online MSc look?
The first year of the MSc track Water
management consists of courses. Most of these
courses will be offered online. All lectures will be
recorded by collegerama and exercises can be
done from home via the internet. This will all be
facilitated through Blackboard. Special attention
from the lecturer or professor will be given to the
online-student by e-mail and skype.
Only for laboratory work and the examination
the students have to come to the campus. This
moment at the campus is important for students
to meet professors and fellow students as well as
for arranging a thesis subject for the second year
of the MSc. The second year consists of project
and thesis work, which cannot be done online, but,
as is already the case, can be done at any location,
suitable for performing MSc thesis work.
What will change?
We expect that the student population at
our MSc track will change in coming years. We
expect more life-long learners, who are students
with working experiences, bringing added value to
the (virtual) class room. In addition, worldwide,
students now have the opportunity to follow our
water management courses and in the meantime
they can give feedback regarding the situation in
other parts of the world. The discussion board will
be used more often to connect with the online
students and to learn from their knowledge and
opinion.
To be more of service for the online students,
the didactics of the courses will change in the
coming years. Lectures will be recorded by the
professor in the studio and discussed in the lecture
hall or discussion board. Things are changing, not
tomorrow, not in September 2013, but continuously.
Have a look at the MOOC CTB3365x
Introduction to water treatment at the edX
platform in September, to see how an online
course will look like! You can register now: https://
www.edx.org/course/delft-university-technology/
ctb3365x/introduction-water-treatment/786
Do you have questions or comments don’t
hesitate to contact me: [email protected], room
4.48.
Online education Watermanagement 15
Anke Grefte
Last year, in the beginning
of July I started my PhD
research about rainfall runoff
modelling. I had worked at the
hydrology section for four
years as a student assistant
and the topic of my MSc
thesis was closely related to
the proposed topic of my PhD
research. So, I didn’t consider
beginning my job just before
the holidays as a problem at all. However, within
two weeks it became really quiet at the faculty. My
main task those first weeks was reading additional
literature on my study area and figuring out how my
research for the coming four years would look like.
Unfortunately I am not very good at the first one
and for the latter it is very useful to discuss with
other people.
It might sound that doing a PhD is terrible. This
is certainly not true, but the first months it might
be a bit though. But by the end of the summer I
had written a research plan and collected the first
pieces of data. Especially the availability of some data
enabled me to start with a data analysis and with my
first model experiments.The latter really gave some
flow to my research.
“The first months might be a
bit tough”
As I said, the topic of my research is rainfallrunoff modelling. And to be more specific, the
added value of distribution in rainfall-runoff models
for the Meuse catchment. This distribution can
be of any kind and basically refers to any variable
which cannot be considered equal for the entire
catchment. For example, spatially distributed rainfall
data, differences in land use over the catchment, or
different dominant runoff processes, which require
different model structures.
Last year I have mainly worked on the effect
of spatially distributed rainfall data. In the remaining
three years I will stepwise investigate the effect of
different levels of distribution. In this way I hope to
be able to point out which distribution level adds the
largest degree of realism to the model structures.
I think that the main advantage of doing a PhD is
that on one hand you have a lot of time to really dig
into stuff and find out whether your ideas actually
make sense. On the other hand you can do much
more than only programming models behind your
computer. First of all, as a PhD researcher you can
supervise students for their additional or MSc thesis.
Each research has many side tracks, which you can
never do all by yourself. However, many of these
side tracks contain interesting research questions
and can be confined into nice MSc researches.
In addition, it is very difficult to model the
hydrological behaviour of an area only based on
observed time series. However, already when you
visit the area shortly, you gain a lot more knowledge
of the hydrological behaviour. Therefore, I have
visited the Ourthe catchment three times this year,
in different seasons.
Although as PhD researcher you have your
own research topic, I certainly do not have the
feeling I am doing my PhD completely on my own.
First there is off course the contact and discussion
with colleagues. I am doing my PhD research
in cooperation with Deltares, so I can discuss
my research both with fellow scientists at the
university, but also with people more focussing on
the operational side of modelling and forecasting.
I like it a lot that we also get the opportunity
to present and discuss our research with the
international scientific community. For example last
April I visited the EGU General Assembly in Vienna,
where I presented my first results with an oral and
a poster presentation. Especially during the poster
presentation I talked with a lot of experienced
international hydrologists.
The Ourthe catchment
A PhD; digging into stuff
Tanja Euser
17
A PhD; digging into stuff
The Kosi River Floods: Part II
Kosi River Floods 20
Prof. ir. J.B.M.Wiggers
Druppel Magazine published in the last edition an
article of prof. Dhrubajyoti Sen from the Indian Institute
of Technology Kharagpur about the Kosi River floods in
2008. Druppel recieved a reaction on this from prof.
Wiggers, who worked for Doctors without Borders in
Bihar (India) in 2008 when the floodings occured. He
wrote a report about the floodings and Druppel is more
than happy to publish his view on these floodings as
well.
The Kosi is a River that crosses the border
between Nepal and India. The river drains a large
part of Nepal before it enters into India. The area
it drains is mountainous. The gradients of the three
rivers that are on Nepalese territory drain the
area, are steep. As a consequence the river carries
huge amounts of eroded material to the border.
The transported material consists roughly of 30
% pebbles and stones, 40% of sand and 30% of silt
(clayey material).
In essence the river is a perennial river which
means that it shows a high flow during the monsoon,
which is from July until mid October and a low flow
during the other months.
At the point where the Kosi enters the Ganges
floodplain, it has formed a huge deltaic area. This
is a very exceptional phenomenon. Normally rivers
form deltas when they pour into oceans or sees
(The Mississippi, Amazon, Orinoco, Rhine, Nile,
Ganges and many more rivers end up in a delta
when reaching a see or an ocean).
It seems that the formation of the land delta
of the Kosi River is related to the fault zones
that roughly are laying in a north south direction.
Originally the river followed an eastern course.
When the river had silted up the (little) depression
that was in line with the tectonic fault, it shifted its
course to the west. In historic times this shift to
the west has occurred many times. In 230 years the
river migrated 210 km to the west.
In pre- and in colonial times, many attempts
have been made to tame the river. These attempts
were not very successful. Many times the river
breached the banks that were meant to keep it on
its course, causing devastating floods. The reason
that the breaches occurred was that the riverbed
year by year was silting up. Eventually the river took
a new course destroying whatever infrastructure
came in its way.
The taming of the river
In the 1950th, in the wake of the independence
of India when there was a demand for grand
public schemes, it was decided that at the place
just before the Kosi enters India, a barrage should
be constructed. The barrage would have a double
purpose. The first one was that it made the
production of electricity possible. The second had
to do with the hope that the migratory nature of
the Kosi River could be tied up.
In 1961 the barrage and adjacent structures
were ready. The latter consisted of two huge
embankments that started at the left and right side
of the barrage and curved into northerly direction.
These dykes should prevent the river to change
its course as it had done in the past. Perpendicular
to the dykes spurs (groins) were constructed that
should force the river to keep a deep channel.
Downstream of the barrage, on the average
every five year, there were major collapses of
dykes along the river. The cause was neglect of the
necessary maintenance of the dykes.The responsible
officials however said before the parliament of the
State of Bihar that nature could not be tamed. It
was the foxes and the rats that undermined the
foundations of the dykes, they said!
The catastrophe
On the 18th of August 2008 part of the eastern
embankment collapsed. The consequences of this
collapse were devastating. The water stored in the
reservoir between the two embankments hurled
itself with great force and at high speed into the
area downstream. At least five villages were wiped
from the globe. At the moment of writing it is not
yet known how many people were killed by the
raging waters.
What caused the collapse of the embankment?
The answer is simple but has a horrific facet.
It is human greed, leading to corruption and gross
What in a technical sense caused the collapse?
In the years since the building of the structures
the reservoir between the embankments gradually
silted up. The level of the bottom was in 2000
already 6 m above its original depth. At this stage
the spurs could not do their work. They were
overflown by the river water. The river started a
meandering course through the silted up area. One
of the bends in the meander touched the toe of
the eastern embankment and started undermining
the toe of the structure. The engineers responsible
for the maintenance knew about the thread and
tried to shore the toe of the endangered part
of the embankment with rocks. The work was
tremendously delayed because of the fact that the
road on the dyke was in a very bad shape, again
due to embezzlement of funds and corruption, that
made it difficult to get the big rocks in place.
Then the dyke breached. The breach occurred
when the flow in the river was roughly one sixth of
the normal flow in the rainy season!
At the moment of writing the water has
receded considerably. At most places the fields
are void of water. It now becomes quit clear that
the damage to the infrastructure is tremendous.
Roads have been swapped away, bridges collapsed,
irrigation structures are demolished. In a large area
the rice harvest has been destroyed. The second
crop in the dry season is barley or wheat. The soil
however is too wet to do the tilling. It has to be
feared that hunger will strike the population of
whom the larger part has meanwhile gone back to
their villages.
What can be done?
Two solutions are cropping up in the press and
in reports.
The first one is to accept the situation as it is.
This however makes it necessary to take measures
along the many branches that the Kosi has reopened
in its delta. Now and then there will be (controlled)
inundations but never that extensive as the last one.
The second one is to repair the breach and start
the dredging of the area between the embankments.
Both solutions seem to be viable but the long
term success of the operations depends on the
willingness of the responsible people in all ranks of
the government, to set aside their greediness. 
Kosi River Floods 21
neglect of the necessary maintenance.The last years
many warnings had been sent to the responsible
authorities that a catastrophe could occur. The
warnings were simply neglected. Money allocated
for the repair and maintenance never arrived
at the proper place. Even three days before the
breach occurred, engineers working at the dykes
had warned the Government of Bihar and the
authorities in Delhi that a collapse of the dykes
was imminent. In the year 2000 the International
Commission on High Dams had also warned the
Indian Government that there was a real danger of
the collapse of the embankments. Also this warning
was not taken serious.
‘Een project is nooit
een kunstje dat je
kunt herhalen.’
Micheline, projectleider serious gaming
Deltares is een onafhankelijk kennisinstituut voor deltatechnologie. We
werken wereldwijd aan innovatieve oplossingen voor water-, ondergronden deltavraagstukken, die het leven in delta’s, kusten riviergebieden veilig,
schoon en duurzaam maken. We doen onderzoek en geven specialistisch
advies aan overheden en marktrelaties in binnen- en buitenland. Kennis
ontwikkelen, toepassen en delen staan daarbij centraal. We streven
naar een duurzame inrichting van de leefomgeving met hoogwaardige
technologische oplossingen waarvoor draagvlak is in de maatschappij.
Vind jij het leuk om grenzen te verleggen en zoek je een functie bij een
topinstituut met een internationale reputatie? Wij bieden afwisselend
werk waarin je je talenten ruimschoots kwijt kunt. Geïnteresseerd? Kijk
dan bij de vacatures op onze site. We hebben ook plaats voor stagiairs en
promovendi.
www.deltares.nl
Pradeep Rathore
The
Masters
course in Water
Management
at
TU Delft is one
of
the
highest
ranked
courses
globally.
Students
from all over the
world attend this
course leading to
exchange of Ideas
and Knowledge. This
makes it essential
to not only uphold the standards but to improve
them in order to keep ourselves ahead of the
curve. To keep pace with changing requirements,
the course structure, facilities, curriculum etc.
needs to be updated from time to time. Bearing
this in mind, the Water management track decided
to make some changes in the course structure this
year which will be put into effect from fall 2013.
“If you look for perfection,
you’ll never be content”
First and foremost change consists on reducing
the number of compulsory courses from six to
four. This provides more flexibility to students in
choosing the courses that meet their interests.
They get to specialize in their fields while at the
same time they will be also prepared for dealing
with multidisciplinary problems through attending
the compulsory courses. The compulsory courses
provide a basic taste of different disciplines of
the water management track such as urban
drainage, water treatment processes, hydrological
Processes and integrated water management. All
the compulsory courses are shifted to the first
quarter making it easy for students to decide which
specialization they want to follow and choose the
elective courses accordingly.
Second, the curriculum has also been
changed to make the compulsory courses more
general. This allows students to get a feel for the
different aspects of Water Management rather
than developing a specialized skill set. Some
specialized courses are thus replaced with more
basic courses in the list of compulsory courses.
For instance, the course ‘Hydrology of Catchment,
Rivers and Deltas’ is going to be replaced by
‘Hydrological Processes and Measurements’ as
compulsory course. The former is becoming an
elective course for the students who wish to gain
advanced knowledge in Hydrology. ‘Fundamentals
of Drinking Water and Wastewater’ changes to
a more general course named “Fundamentals
of Water Treatment”. Courses are going to be
shifted across periods in order to keep the work
load consistent for students over the time: courses
are going to be arranged across periods in such a
way that no period has too many courses where
students have to put in extra work hours.
Other than these internal changes, the water
management track is also taking part in MOOC
(Massive Open Online Course), an initiative of TU
Delft. We are proud to mention that the course
‘Introduction to Water Treatment’ is one of the
first two courses at TU Delft offered via MOOC.
This coming academic year, the Faculty of Civil
Engineering and Geosciences starts providing the
MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) course
using the international ‘Edx’ platform. MOOC
is free to everyone with no prior education
requirements or entry exams. Furthermore, the
whole Watermanagement master track can be
taken online or individual subjects from this Msc
can be selected. Students wishing to participate in
the online Msc have to pay tuition fees, register
at TU Delft and meet the admission requirements.
This is a huge step towards making good university
education accessible to all. More information
regarding the online courses offered can be found
on the webpage of CITG under TU Delft website.
We hope to see the positive impact of all
these changes in the coming session. As usual
the Watermanagement track will continue to be
a torchbearer for other programs at TU Delft .
We are never content and continually strive for
excellence and perfection. As Leo Tolstoy puts it:“If
you look for perfection, you’ll never be content”. 
Curriculum Changes 23
Curriculum Changes
Getting to know...
Luis S. Ruiz & Frans Willem Hamer
Another edition of ‘getting to
know a staff member’, this time
Druppel Magazine had a little chat
with Jules van Lier. Now you can
finally get to know everything you
always wanted about Jules van Lier.
Getting to know Jules van Lier
24
Q
Can you introduce
yourself?
My name is Jules van Lier, and I
am holding the Chair of Wastewater
Treatment / Environmental Engineering, though I try to
abandon the term wastewater. I’d rather speak of ‘used
urban water’. This also illustrates my view on the field.
I am also chairing the Section Sanitary Engineering that
comprises more chairs. There are two full-time chairs,
Drinking Water and Wastewater Treatment, and there
are some additional chairs: Innovative Water Purification
processes, Water & Health and Sewerage. My view on the
Sanitary Engineering field is that we should integrate the
chair groups, approaching the urban water chain more as
an integrated cycle.Traditionally, and in most places of the
world, the chair groups on drinking water, wastewater
and sewerage are still working rather independently,
but I would rather establish an integrated sanitary
engineering group with of course room for in-depth
specialization. Particularly in the interdisciplinary fields
there are advancements to be made, and I also expect
the innovations there. I came to Delft in the end of 2008
and followed up the part-time chair of Jaap van der Graaf.
He was a wastewater treatment professor. Before that, I
worked for 20 years in Wageningen at the department
of environmental technology. There, I was chair holder
of a particular type of treatment, namely anaerobic
wastewater treatment.
Q
How does a regular week look like for
you? How do you distribute your time?
Well, I don’t live in Delft and that characterizes
me a bit. I’m living in the south of Limburg, in the
“mountains” of the Netherlands. Since that is more
than 200 km away from here, I decided to have a room
in the center of Delft, at the Verwersdijk with a view
on the canal. So on Monday I come to Delft and leave
on Thursday evening. One day per week I am working
at home, which is generally Friday. I am also working at
UNESCO-IHE one day per week.
Q
What were your professional expectations
when you became a young graduate?
I’ve had a very strange career. I started my academic
career in (micro)biology at the Radboud University in
Nijmegen. But when I was a student in microbiology
I felt that I wanted to use this for something, and I
went to Wageningen University to do my masters in
environmental technology. The subject of my final thesis
...Jules van Lier
was about using microbes in engineered systems. Part of
that MSc was a practical period, which I spent as a kind
of consultant in Colombia for seven months, though not
being graduated. There, I became inspired to work on
developing technologies that not only solve a problem,
but also give benefits to the ones using the technology. In
my case it was the biogas, the stabilized organic matter,
the nutrients, etc., which I tried to collect from the waste
streams and at the meantime solve the environmental
problem. When my professor, Mr. Lettinga, asked me to
stay, I did not hesitate a moment provided I could work
on that topic. I became involved in two projects, one
of two years and one of three years, on which I wrote
my PhD thesis. The topic was thermophilic anaerobic
treatment which was oriented on closing the water
cycles within industries.
Q
What are the key projects you are
involved in right now?
The current projects are mostly about developing
environmental technologies for resources recovery,
including water from used urban streams and industrial
streams. A project that we are involved in now is with
Evides Industriewater at Harnaschpolder. It is about the
reclamation of treated effluent to be used in greenhouses
for irrigation purposes. The regulations are very strict
and we also see that the technology is rather expensive.
An alternative to distributing the treated water to
greenhouses is to use it against intrusion of subsurface
salty water near Delft. This application, however,
requires the highest level of treatment. Another project
is the maximization of the energy recovery from sewage
sludge using anaerobic technology, in order to obtain a
treatment system which is energy neutral.
There are international projects as well. One
is about anaerobic membrane bioreactors where
we work together with the University of Valencia in
Spain. Another project is about the development of
the treatment system of the future together with two
Dutch universities and 7-9 Spanish universities.
Q
What about your family life?
Unfortunately, there is a large distance between
my family house and myself so I can only meet them
‘life’ in the weekends. But we are all digitally connected,
updating ourselves with our family app. I have three
children: my son Luc will be 25 in September, he is
studying ICT Management at the University of Applied
Sciences (HBO) in Heerlen. My oldest daughter,
Lieveke, is 22 and she is studying at the conservatorium
in Maastricht for becoming a music teacher; her
major instruments are violin and piano. My youngest
daughter, Janine, will become 20 and has just decided
to study Oriental Business in Maastricht, in addition to
Economics and Communication she will learn Chinese.
Q
And how do you spend your spare time?
Any hobbies?
I do not have much spare time. If you are in a
position like this you are working at least -60 hours
a week. So the spare time that you have is just a little.
But, for instance, on Sunday mornings I try to go cycling
on my racing bike, go to the forest on my mountain
bike, or just walking with my wife, etc… In the past,
when I was 20 or so, I played guitar in a band but not
anymore. And I like to go to carnaval in South Limburg
and “play” the trumpet, or at least make some noise
with it...
Q
Based on your experience, any advice for
our readers, both the new students and
those ones close to graduation?
Well, what drove me in my choices when I was
a student is that I felt that what I was doing should
really matter.You get your motivation and your passion
from there. For instance, I also like to be involved in
the work of UNESCO-IHE, to contribute to actual
information exchange to developing countries. At
present you see that this is not exclusively the terrain
of UNESCO-IHE anymore, since now universities
are internationalizing very rapidly and the differences
between the course-programs of UNESCO-IHE and
TU Delft is a little bit vanishing. Our current research
items are dealing more and more with global issues
rather than only with Dutch issues. For the students,
Q
Then, how do you see the future of the
water sector?
Water will remain very important but there are
two things about competitiveness I would like to say:
one is that the students now at TU Delft are not the
only ones who are working in this field. So you have
to be good, really understand the topic in order to
put something on top of it that differentiates you. For
instance, China is extremely eager to learn and to
develop at accelerated speed. They are really pushing
on their own development creating a very competitive
student population. At the same time, I sometimes see
the attitude here, even expressed by my own children:
‘Let’s have first some fun and later we will do the
work… but first, fun’. Be careful because a lot of people
are waiting to have important positions and they are
really working very hard to get those positions. Not so
long ago, in The Netherlands in the largest companies
only one out of ten of the workers were foreigners.
Now, only one out of ten are Dutch. Companies like
Shell, DSM, Dow… they take the best people they find
and they are not necessarily Dutch. So, as students you
should realize about this growing competitiveness. And,
in the meantime you must like what you do. This is the
reason why passion is so important.
Q
Which ones do you think are the hot
topics in waste-water? And the trends?
I think that here in Delft we have a very unique
position: this is the only place where drinking water,
wastewater, sewerage and conveyance systems are
all in the same location. This is the only place in The
Netherlands where that happens. And this gives us
strength and assets. That is also because we have
started Delft Urban Water. A further integration in
the urban water cycle will surely become a trend
worldwide. Delft has the possibility to be on top of
that development.
Q
Finally, are there any projects students can
get involved in?
All of them. Now we have 50-60 PhD students
so we have a lot of possibilities. All of them can work
with MSc students. In addition to that, depending on
the wishes of the student, we can think on additional
projects.
25
Q
What kind of activities do you like to do
during your holidays?
No, well, in the past years I combined it with
some work that I promised I would do, for instance, in
Mexico. I was two times there, giving a course in July
and I had the opportunity to stay some weeks after.
Last year I discovered sailing and this year I am going
two weeks to Greece. But I like South America a lot,
it’s a very nice continent.
with the knowledge that you gain and the career that
you choose you can do something that makes this world
a little bit better. My experience is that with everything
you do, you must feel passion inside, because you need
to get your energy from somewhere. If you can get
it from your passion, that’s fine. And that is also what
makes travelling nice because when you travel you can
reflect on what you do and you can feed your passion.
Passion is important. But you have to work.You have to
invest time. It costs a lot of time. The world is getting
more and more competitive.
Getting to know Jules van Lier
Unfortunately, no one is interested in my working field,
though I tried hard, but apparently children always want
to do something different than their parents do…
International student
from 1600m above sea level
It has been roughly
a year since I left South
Africa to begin my studies
at the TU Delft. With
four terms behind me it is
a good time to reflect on
an amazing experience
so far. I boarded the
plane in Johannesburg at
1600 m above sea level
and arrived at Schiphol below sea level – this was
just the first of many new experiences!
Before leaving South Africa I was given an OV
Chipcard by a colleague who had recently been
to the Netherlands and was told that the Dutch
system is, and I quote, ‘very, very, very good’. Public
transport is not South Africa’s strong point and
a nationwide OV Chipcard-type system is like
something from another planet. On my second day
I decided it was time to use this supposedly magical
card. My first taste was as a wide-eyed African
taking a bus to this incredible store called Ikea (no
Ikeas back home). The next day another ‘fresh off
the boat’ South African and I took a train for the
first time in the Netherlands (we had been picked
up from Schiphol in busses). Along came the train
right on time and in I stepped … but to my surprise
there was no OV scanner on this train. I thought
the OV scanner would be on the train just like on
the bus I took the day before – I don’t know what I
had been thinking and I don’t know how I failed to
notice everybody else scanning their cards on the
platform. Despite being true, the conductor was
not impressed with my story. It took quite some
explaining and pleading (plus showing my South
African drivers licence) to avoid a fine. After this
initial blunder, the public transport system has been
absolutely brilliant!
not ideal for a lazy English-speaker to learn Dutch.
I plan to take some Dutch classes and try harder
after the summer break.
One of the best things about studying at the TU
has been the opportunity to meet so many different
people from all over the world. It has been great to
make friends amongst such a diverse and talented
group of students and lecturers. The courses so
far have been a lot of work but I have also learnt a
great deal. I have also used Delft’s good location to
explore the Netherlands and parts of Europe. It is
so easy to travel and explore here with everything
so close by!
Of course the weather has been a challenge at
times especially with the ‘late’ spring this year. But
it is strange how quickly I have become used to low
temperatures – I never thought I would consider
anything over 10 degrees as warm! From cycling to
stroopwafels to water everywhere, the Netherlands
has been a great experience. Perhaps one of the
best things has been the chance to walk anywhere,
at any time of day or night and feel safe. This safety
is something I really wish South Africa (and other
parts of the world) had – it completely enhances a
society for the better and the Dutch should hold on
to their safe country with pride.
All in all it has been a great year and I am
glad I chose to study in the Netherlands. Studying
overseas definitely broadens one horizons and it
has been an enriching experience to live in a new
country. I am now looking forward to the challenges
and opportunities of my second year! 
“Of course the weather has
been a challenge at times”
I studied Afrikaans (a language derived mostly
from Dutch) for 12 years at school in South Africa
but it was always my worst subject. Upon arrival
I was quickly reminded that I am very much an
English-speaking South African as I struggled to
follow Dutch conversations – this was rather
disappointing. However, being able to read signs,
food labels and understand a little is still a good
advantage over other international students. The
Dutch speak very good English which is great but
International Student 27
Struan Robertson
Urban WaM Trip and “Sailing” weekend 28
Urban WaM Trip
Frans Willem Hamer
Master courses are not only about attending
lectures, writing papers, and other situations where you
remain seated. Luckily not! Apart from lab-work there
are also other moments where you can stretch your
legs and even see the world outside the CEG-building.
In the fourth quarter of the past academic year a two
day excursion was organized by two students, Mieke
and Jose, for the course Water management in Urban
Areas lectured by Frans van de Ven.
The excursion took us to residential areas in
Gouda, Culemborg and Nijmegen. Actually, in Gouda
we visited a construction site of a new residential
area. This residential area will be situated in a polder.
Therefore, the only thing we saw at the site was a layer
of sand to make the soil “build-ripe”. The presentation
gave us a better insight into the plans. One of the
plans was to give the houses that were standing in
the water at the rear and facing a dike a reinforced
wall, to withstand a flood wave in case of a dike-burst
. These measures for possible hazards are one of the
many topics addressed during the course.Applying soft
solutions in urban drainage is another important topic
of the course. Especially in Culemborg we saw many
so-called SUDS (Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems),
as this residential area was built in a groundwater
extraction zone.
After we stayed in a hostel in Germany, where we
had a very nice barbeque and many nice weizenbeers,
we left for an old blast-furnace factory in the
“Landschaftspark” in Duisburg. While the old factory
was kept in its original state as much as possible, the
rainwater that eventually flows into the open sewer
canal was treated by settling tanks to reduce the
pollution.
Finally, we paid a visit to waterboard De Dommel
in Brabant and one of their wastewater treatment
plants. The Dommel is a small river that runs from
Belgium through Eindhoven to the Wilhelmina canal.
In summer, the discharge from the WWTP is up to
50% of the discharge in the Dommel. According to the
European Water Framework Directive, the current
pollution load is too high. To find the best possible
solution, the impact and costs of different measures
in the catchment, the sewer system or the WWTP are
being modeled. The last day ended in Delft where we
had a nice supper and could reflect on a pleasant and
informative excursion. 
“Sailing” weekend
Frans Willem Hamer
The weather forecast showed excellent sailing
conditions: sunny and a strong wind. However, amongst
the participants there was only one who had adequate
sailing experience. Therefore, we didn’t spend the first
day on open water, but went “sailing” in the canals
of Leiden instead. After the sailing we visited the
Hoogheemraadschap van Rijnland with a private guide,
who was particularly well informed on water law and
organisation (aka Erik Mostert). After a nice dinner
in Leiden we closed the day with some drinks at the
campsite and headed for our cosy accommodations.
The next day it was finally time for sailing. The
intention was for all of us to go sailing. However,
when we arrived at the boat rental, they immediately
saw that we were complete nitwits and land lovers
(quite shameful for water managers). Luckily we had
someone with the looks of captain Haddock but also
with the ice cold nerves of captain Iglo: Dirk.With only
him as a real captain we decided to rent just one sailing
boat and one motorboat.
One would expect that with such a strong
wind, everyone would be fighting to join the sailing
boat. However, when we arrived at the point where
we would pick up the others, almost all of them had
already joined the motorboat and weren’t bothered to
switch. Spending the day on the water in a motorboat
with some rosé wine and your sweater knotted around
your neck is something you’d rather do when you are
50 years or older… On the positive side, this gave the
rest (including undersigned) the chance to have a nice
full day of actual, proper sailing. 
Fitterij: serious fun
seconds, what is a very good time. The winners of the
combined competition were Erik and Maik. They won
the prize of 150 euro and of course the eternal fame.
As a surprise they were also invited by the members
of the KNW to join the national fitterij competition
during the Waternet-fair.
The awards ceremony and the nice drink
afterwards were a good end of the beautiful day. I think
it is good to make a tradition of such a nice event.
This time it was made possible with the help of several
sponsors, namely: Saint-Gobain, Buelco, Conval and
KNW. 
Hydrological Fieldwork
Pradeep Rathore
If there is one course students wait for the
whole academic year, it has to be the Hydrological
Fieldwork conducted every year in the fourth quarter.
The anticipation is huge and people start planning
the trip from the third quarter itself. Having attended
the course, one can confirm that all this fuss is well
founded. The Hydrological Fieldwork brings out the
real hydrologist in every student as they get a taste
for the work they can do if they choose to pursue
hydrology as a career option. All this while enjoying
the beautiful scenery of the Luxembourgish landscape,
carrying out measurements in the lap of Mother
Nature itself.
There were 25 masters students this year with
a few bachelor students as well. The students were
divided into five groups of five students each wherein
each group was supposed to be responsible for one of
the experiments and make a report on that experiment.
Each experiment was assigned one supervisor to guide
the students. So there were five experiments in total
and each group had to do every experiment (except
their own) once. Every group had to do their own
experiment twice.
The day started at 7AM with one of the groups
preparing breakfast. Lunch was also packed in the
morning itself and carried along. After breakfast, the
students did the assigned experiment followed by
lunch and then another experiment in the post lunch
session. The setting for the experiments extended
from very small streams (solute transport) to medium
ones (rising bubble), from flat agricultural lands
(evaporation) to hill-slopes (tracers).Once done with
the experiments, a presentation had to be made for
that day’s activity. After dinner, the presentations were
held and the day ended with a beer or two (or more).
The trip ended with the whole group going for a
fun evening. Everyone went bowling and then joined in
the camp for beer. The next morning, the group was
ready with their luggage to leave Luxembourg with
memories and friends for a lifetime. If you are reading
this, add the Hydrological Fieldwork to your bucket
list. This is one experience you will never forget. 
Dutch water managment related projects around the globe. [Source: dutchwatersector.com]
Fitterij and Hydrological Fieldwork 29
Arjan de Kloe
On a sunny day in June, the second fitterij
competition was organized. Thirteen pairs went into
battle with each other to win the two games: ‘fitten’
and ‘kraantje drukken’ (tap-pushing). In the morning
the teams got an explanation and they could exercise.
The competition was opened by prof. Dr. Ir. Luuk
Rietveld with a short speech about the importance of
the dispuut as well as practical things like organizing
the fitterij.
Then the competition began. For the laymen
amongst us I will first explain what fitten is. Actually
it is very simple to explain: you install a tap in a
pressurized pipe. But in reality it is not so simple, with
two men you have a hard job to set a good time. But
with the help of good coaches (people from Waternet
and Waterbedrijf Groningen) every team placed a tap
in the pipe. The best time was set by Erik and Maik,
they did it in 5 minutes and 44 seconds.
The teams had not only to ‘fit’, but also to ‘kraantje
drukken’. Each participant had to push a tap in a
spectacular squirt of several meters high. Fortunately
it was a sunny day. The best time for the tap-pushing
was set by Walter and Mark, they did it together in 34
MDE Mind Spinsels
Frits Dankers
“It’s only the
short one” I told
people in the months
before the MDE
took off when they
asked me about trip
we were organizing.
Of course strictly
speaking a ten-day
journey is barely half
of the three-weektrip that is organized every other year, but seriously,
it feels like we have been away for at least a month!
Very rapidly we interchanged our environments.
Eye-opening visits to local companies, on the spot
bus-ride-lectures from Thom Bogaard about karstic
landscapes while driving right through them, parties
on boats on the Donau, freezing fresh and roaring
rivers, hard working border crossing officials, scenic
towns, the beautiful Adriatic coast, somehow it all
fitted in the given time span. Happily I’ll take the
opportunity of this article to recapitulate a few of
the warm memories I keep of this trip.
that has been caused during the civil war. We got
an elaborate round tour and they were also open
to show us the place where the wastewater was
currently entering the large water cycle. Not a
pleasant sight: Details up to the level of floating toilet
paper could be seen as the wastewater mixed with
the clearer water of the main river. -In all places
we have been they acknowledged the bad status of
some of their watermanagement responsibilities
and the knowledge and willingness to address these
problems were most obviously present, however
the countries are restricted by a very limited
budget. For me that was a new perspective: To have
the mindset and all the abilities to manage primary
conditions for the functioning of a society, but only
being able to adopt your skills in some 20% of the
issues due to financial shortages.-
MDE 30
“It feels like we have been
away for at least a month!”
One of the things that were most impressive to
me was definitely the water management tour we
got in Sarajevo. Amila Ibrulj, who used to be a PhD
student in Delft, had arranged a complete program
for us. First we got a presentation about the works
of the water management in the region in the office
building.After half an hour we left the air-conditioned
and drinks-supplying oasis and went (together with
Amila) on our bus to visit a wastewater treatment
plant that is currently not working due to damage
I realize that I’m getting terribly off topic, but this
seemed like the right moment to add this significant
insight I gained during the trip. However, the
wastewater treatment plant was not the final stop
of the day.We continued upstream where a drinking
water plant was located. The water that was taken
in there, needed only little treatment before it was
suitable for distribution. The final place where Amila
took us was the source of the river. Very beautifully
situated in a park, the water came out of the rocks
as crystal clear sprinkling water. The affiliated places
that we visited during this day all being very well put
into each other’s context by Amila, really created a
complete picture of how water management goes
about in Bosnia and Herzegovia. This made that for
me it was the most interesting that I got to learn
about water related issues in the Balkan.
The second thing I want to share is the day
that we headed for Montenegro. It was an early
wake up before got on the bus. Driving through
the mountains with low hanging clouds that
sometimes released some rain made our approach
to the border special. Crossing the border was the
first point of excitement of the day. The border
was a bridge. For the readers who did do a civil
engineering BSc: concrete strength calculations did
not apply to this bridge. Only calculations about the
combined strengths of some 20.000 little wooden
boards could maybe say something about whether
or not it could hold a bus containing merely less
than 30 students... We decided to adopt the trial
After everyone had well arrived back at the
base and a nice traditional Montenegrin lunch was
enjoyed, we continued to the centre of the country.
Zabljak, which is located in the middle of Durmitur
National Park. Google maps says it takes 1.5 hour
drive, but we needed at least five stops to stand
on a tremendous dam, take pictures of (Europe’s
Deepest) Tara Canyon, slide from glaciers and take
pictures of various mind boggling other picturesque
scenic sights, plus the bus could most of time drive
no faster than 30 km per hour because the roads
were very windy, so we arrived only after the
dark! Luckily we were welcomed by another nice
traditional Montenegrin meal, so everybody could go
to sleep very well fed. The reason for choosing this
second memory is undoubtedly the overwhelming
beauty of Montenegro. Certainly one of the most
impressive nature I’ve ever seen is out there.
“This was epic!”
OK, before I am going to get in too much trouble
with the Druppel committee I’ll have to put an end
to this story. I hope you enjoyed my mind spinsels,
more will certainly follow from all the participants
during the coffee breaks upcoming year! 
H2O
MDE 31
and error approach and luckily we could conclude
that the bridge was strong enough.
On the other end of the border a thrilling
white water rafting trip was waiting for us. This
was EPIC! Going down a broad river in a rubber
boat and peddling was only necessary for steering,
progress was all arranged by the huge river flow.
Swimmers and non-swimmers (brave Pradeep), all
took a dive in the icy water halfway the trip from a
5 meter high rock.
WHEN YOUR CAREER COUNTS...
...JOIN FUGRO
engineering
survey
consultancy
investigating planet earth
www.werkenbijfugro.nl
Historical Water Figure:
Julius Sextus Frontinus
The water in Rome was distributed according
to the head, discharge and water quality. Poor quality
water was used for irrigation or flushing of the sewer
system. Fountains, the drinking water source for
people without a household connection,
and public baths used average quality
water. Frontinus no longer allowed the
water from different sources to be mixed,
to maintain a good water quality and to
be able to better monitor the discharge
of a single aqueduct at every point.
His work was so detailled, that it
could be used by the pope in 1453 to
rebuild one of the aquaducts.
Like a true high society Roman, he was also
in the military as a general. With his and others’
experiences he also wrote a book about tactics. An
example from his book is the diversion of a river by
Lucius Metellus, causing a flood in the enemy’s camp.
This indicates that he was also interested in water
management in conflict situations. 
Historical Water Figure 33
Frans Willem Hamer
Julius Sextus Frontinus was a Roman Water
Commissioner under emperor Nerva. Before
becoming a Water Commissioner in 95AD, Frontinus
was a Praetor (a minister under the emperor) and
was later sent to Britain as governor.
Frontinus is renowned most for
his report in two books on the history
and state of the Roman water supply: de
aquaeductu. It is the earliest surviving
official report on Roman engineering
made by a distinguished citizen. His
report also includes the laws related to
use and maintenance.
When appointed as a Water
Commissioner, he first produced maps and wrote
down the cross sectional areas of the whole water
supply system in and to Rome to assess their
condition. It was not only the condition of the pipes
and channels that he was concerned about, but
especially the water theft by farmers, tradesmen
and domestic users.
Dispuut Puzzles
Remko Nijzink
Sanitary Crossword
Find all the words from left to right, right to left, up and down, diagonally and find the solution!
M
E
M
I
U
P
R
E
N
R
E
L
F
S
N
Y
U
S
O
V
I
E
L
O
N
Q
H
L
P
O
T
M
I
N
N
P
T
O
I
O
D
A
O
T
I
I
O
N
D
O
E
C
H
T
I
I
D
C
W
T
D
N
A
C
I
T
A
N
A
T
S
L
C
W
A
I
O
G
N
T
R
B
A
R
A
I
H
U
A
N
B
D
R
O
A
E
O
M
E
N
N
E
L
S
O
R
E
O
I
C
A
R
P
A
I
F
J
A
T
Z
U
B
O
T
I
T
T
E
S
R
E
K
T
E
O
T
R
R
A
F
M
I
M
E
O
C
P
I
W
E
U
E
C
T
I
E
N
Y
W
L
T
H
O
A
C
A
T
I
O
R
N
T
Z
E
H
I
P
N
T
O
S
L
M
L
T
T
U
N
R
C
O
R
Y
E
L
B
I
O
F
I
L
T
E
R
R
N
N
O
R
I
L
F
W
D
N
O
I
T
A
L
U
G
A
O
C
AERATION
BIOFILTER
CHLORINATION
COAGULATION
CRYPTOSPORIDIUM
DISINFECTION
DWF
ECOLI
ENZYME
FILTERBED
FLOCCULATION
FLOTATION
ION
IRON
KJEHLDAHL
MANHOLE
MICROORGANISM
MONOD
Dispuut Puzzles 34
SOLUTION: __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __
Hydrology Puzzle
Across
6. Tracer
7. Measuring device
8. River Basin
Down
1. Hydrologically closed area
2. Measuring device
3. Low intensity rainfall
4. Hydrological model
5. Flux
NITRIFICATION
NITROBACTER
OZONATION
PH
PIPE
RQ
SEWER
TREATMENT
TURBIDITY
UASB
UV
WASTEWATER
WWTP
Board and Committees
Druppel Comic
53th Board:
Joris de Vos - President
Damian Allen - Vice-president
Frans Willem Hamer - Treasurer
Pradeep Rathore- Comm. Education
Mark de Weerd - Comm. Public Relations
Marlies Barendrecht- Secretary
Druppel Committee:
Frans Willem Hamer - Editor in Chief
Pradeep Rathore - Editor
Vacancy
Vacancy
Vacancy
Vacancy
Vacancy
Vacancy
Vacancy
Vacancy
Dispuut Agenda
Symposium committee:
Vacancy
Vacancy
Vacancy
Vacancy
Vacancy
Keep an eye on the Dispuut Facebook, website and
pinbord to hear about the latest activities
September - Start of the year BBQ
November - General Assembly
December - Christmas Drinks
April/May - Symposium
May - General Assembly
May/June - Sailing Weekend
May/June - Fitterij competition
June - End of the year BBQ
July - Multiple Day Excursion (GVR)
Activity committee:
Vacancy
Vacancy
Vacancy
Vacancy
Vacancy
Dispuut Agenda, Board and Committees 35
MDE Committee:
Retouradres:
Dispuut Watermanagment
Stevinweg 1, k. 4.74
2628CN, Delft
The Netherlands
The Agenda
2013-2014
oing to
’s what we’re g
re
e
h
,
w
ie
v
re
So, as a little p
ar:
deliver this ye
BBQ
rt of the year
ta
S
r
e
b
m
te
Sep
mbly
General Asse
November
nks
Christmas Dri
December
Symposium
April/May
mbly
General Asse
May
d
iling Weeken
a
S
e
n
u
/J
May
tition
Fitterij compe
Q
May/June
of the year BB
d
n
E
rsion (GVR)
June
iple Day Excu
lt
u
M
July
Join one of the
committees!
The Dispuut is
fully organised
by students. Six board
members take
care of the
main tasks of th
e board, but ther
e are
also five comm
ittees organisin
g
va
activities all ar
rious
ound the year:
Druppel: Interv
iewing students
and staff
for our really n
ice magazine.
Activity: The co
mmittee for th
e main social activities, li
k
e
ic
r:
a
ee
sk
y
d
at
n
e
a
in
th
s
g
t
or bowling.
GVR/MDE: org
ch lecture
Throughou
anising a great
activities, lun
l
a
ci
so
f
o
s
far trip,
d
or a multiple d
- All kin
ay
ex
cu
rs
io
s,
n
ay
outside the
Netherlands
s on Frid
excursions.
of exam drink
d
n
(E
s
.
k
.)
n
tc
ri
e
d
Symposium: Th
- Lots of
ar drinks,
e yearly sympo
rinks, New Ye
d
r
e
b
m
sium on
e
M
va
e
rious interestin
Activ
r.
g
a
to
e
y
p
ic
a
s
sls
is
e
e
n
p
o
d
rg
p
anised by
this committee.
ak on We
- Four Dru
us cookie bre
o
m
fa
e
th
s,
e
Fitterij: The fitt
- And y
erij-competitio
n has
b
een organised
s.
day
twice now, and
it is
getting more p
o
p
u
!
la
w
r
o
ea
n
k
ch
year.
Well, now you
Want to join on
e of the comm
ittees?
Let us know!
Check our web
site for more in
fo:
www.dispuutwat
ermanagemen
t.nl

Theme: The Graduation Process Online Education MDE Mind Spinsels

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