The Kring of Coastal Engineers

In 1954, after the North Sea flood of 1953, the water boards of the Netherlands, Belgium and England founded the network of the Kring of Coastal Engineers. The urgency and need to share knowledge, insights and experiences in the field of Water Management and Emergency Response had become painfully evident. Over the years, other countries joined the Kring, such as Denmark, Sweden, Poland, France and Portugal. Also, participation is not limited to countries alone, Hamburg is part of the network as well, because of their port complex. 

"The Kring is a very informal network, we all know each other quite well. We are already looking forward to see each other next year."

Ludolph Wentholt

Meet up in 2022

Ever since the founding of this Kring, the delegates of the participating countries meet up in the third week of September. This year, the Dutch organisations Rijkswaterstaat and STOWA hosted the annual meet up. They welcomed the Kring in the Netherlands, Rotterdam and Belgium, Antwerp. Ludolph Wentholt, part of the organising team, underlines the value of the Kring. “The Kring is a very informal network, we all know each other quite well and the Kring acts like a catalysator of collaborations such as the Polder2C’s project. Half of the Polder2C’s partners knew each other from the Kring.” he says.

Programme

Around 80 people from various countries were present during this year’s event. The programme consisted of both lectures and a field visit to Polder2C’s Living Lab Hedwige-Prosperpolder. Among the topics that were covered were Knowledge transfer to Young Professionals, Emergency Exercises and Sand scaping. In the Living Lab several informative lectures were given in the Field Station and Animal Burrow Detection and Inspection Exercises took place in the field. 

Unique opportunity

Ludolph explains that it was a unique opportunity to welcome the Kring to the Living Lab in this stage of the project. “As the transformation of the Hedwige-Prosperpolder is reaching its final stages, the polder is constantly and rapidly changing. Our guests were really impressed by the dynamics of this area. They witnessed the continuous changing of the landscape live. Also, it was an eye opener that this huge and seemingly robust levee, is quite fragile at the same time. All in all, a great event and we are already looking forward to meeting up next year.”