An overview of the first year of the Polder2C’s project
- 06 January 2021
- Francien Horrevorts
As from the first of December, the Polder2C’s project team has been formally in business for one year! A great moment to look back on some of the highlights in 2020.
First quarter
As unimaginable as it seems now, Covid-19 had not restricted our mobility and physical events yet during most of the first quarter of 2020. So for our first Project and Steering Committee meetings we met up in Antwerp, Belgium. These events proved to be especially valuable as not so many weeks later we had to settle for online meetings. Although in March Covid-19 prevented us from many live events, thankfully, our baseline inspection exercises and some educational activities had been planned just before the actual lockdown.
See this video for an impression of the educational activities:
Second and third quarter
During the second and third quarter of 2020, our activities were held mainly online. We took this time to prepare the activities that we had planned in the polder for the final quarter. Also, we worked on this project website, prepared the Winter School and Levee Challenge and made sure that we could do as much as possible in the polder while meeting the Covid-19 restrictions. One of the research activities that was done, was the Survey, working on a digital twin.
Fourth quarter
At the beginning of the fourth and final quarter of 2020, most of the restrictions were lifted. However, the increasing numbers of Covid-19 victims caused a gradual increase of restrictions during October, November and December. Thankfully, a lot of our planned research and educational events could take place, albeit with a smaller number of people.
In October, we organised the Observer Meetings online for our observer partners in France, Belgium and the Netherlands and we improved our vlogging skills:
The 27th of October we had the Dutch Delta commissioner Peter Glas and the Flamish Director General Filip Boelaert as guests in the polder, check this video for an impression:
In November, most of the days were spent doing the Overflow Tests and finally in December we tested repairing the damaged levee, using different techniques with sandbags and foil.
Plans for 2021
We are quite proud that we were able to work together as an international team as well as we have in 2020. We have been making progress and are all set to continue with the same positive spirit in 2021. In the next few months we have several research activities planned, such as repairing techniques, failure tests and educational events. Want to follow our next steps?