Why are the Dutch So Good at Waterworks?
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- Опубліковано 6 лют 2025
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Do the Dutch really have the rest of the world outclassed when it comes to waterworks?
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I haven't watched a video in a long time.
But my man, the beard it looks really well on you!
Great video btw!
15:10 Fun fact: The Maeslantkering doesn't close completely. The HUGE doors would damage if they were to physically collide to try and close completely, so a gap of several cm is left (through which water can still flow landinwards)
$150 billion? lol, just rename themselves Ukraine 2.0 and the U.S. will cut them a check for the full amount, provided half of it is goes back into politicians' pockets.
ay i am from the beemster ayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy
i got the nick name kaas baas (cheese boss)
Aqua*! The word is ‘aqua’, not ‘okwar’! It’s a fking A not an O. Bloody yanks still can’t get vowels right after what, ~300 years now.
As a Dutch engineer raised in Flevoland, I want to express my heartfelt appreciation for this brilliant portrayal of the Dutch waterworks. Few people truly grasp the scale, ingenuity, and sheer audacity required to tame water and transform it into an ally rather than an adversary.
Growing up on land reclaimed from the sea, I’ve always felt a profound connection to the legacy of Dutch engineering. Flevoland itself stands as a testament to the vision and determination of those who dared to dream of a new province where there was once only water. Watching this video reminded me of the intricate balance between respecting nature’s power and harnessing it for the benefit of future generations.
The way you captured this story-the precision, the respect for history, and the acknowledgment of the Dutch tenacity-is truly inspiring. It’s not just about dikes, dams, or pumping stations; it’s about the unwavering belief that we can shape the world, even against all odds.
Thank you for shedding light on this fascinating legacy. As someone who has walked these polders, studied these structures, and lived the reality of this ingenuity, I couldn’t be prouder to see it shared with the world.
Thanks for your affirmation. Isn't it, there's much too much blablah around, about people that do not understand? Not so with this report. As a german, I am happy to be a european - with you dutch people in this community.
The Dutch had a choice of becoming really good at controlling water or really good at breathing water and apparently decided the former would be easier.
So lame they could have unlocked some really awesome evolutionary branches.
@@jacobpowell1882 maybeeee we're this tall because many live below sea level.. and we're just compensating for it lol (I'm still below average height here with 1.78m or 5 feet 10 inches).
@ did you put your height into some conversion tool or do you actually know how tall you are in feet and inches? Because I literally couldn't say my height in imperial units to save my life!
@@unvergebeneidask siri or spotlight
Pretty sure there are people who live underwater. Some tribe if my memory is right
Because they’ve mastered the art of dam good engineering
pun of the day. 😂😂
And good dam engineering!
*good dam engineering 😊
Dam, beat me to it 😂
I grew up in the UK in a little village built on a marsh. Half my village (street names, cafes, health clinics, etc) were named after a dutch engineer who came over in the 1650s to drain the land. Was commissioned by the crown up and down the country to drain the land for agriculture. They've been top of the game for some time.
Leeghwater by any chance?
Who was that engineer?
I'm curious who this engineer was..
did he do it by constructing dams and windmills?
Fenlands near Cambridge?
Most complete summary, best pronounced, best facts about this topic I have seen on UA-cam so far. Deserves a thanks! Greetings from the Netherlands. Keep up the great work!
Quite proud watching this at my desk at Rijkswaterstaat (NL Corps of Engineers)
Congratulations man that’s pretty cool
We don't pay taxes to have you watch UA-cam videos, get back to work.
@@Solidfluids i think you've skipped a few steps and jumped to a conclusion there - or u might not be familiar with taking a break whilst still sitting at your desk...
You guys can still engineer stuff without hiring consultancy firms?
@@chillenium Since you're in the process of thinking already, think about him writing that as a joke
As an American water engineering student who studied civil engineering at UConn and am now doing my Master's thesis at TU Delft in urban waterworks I have never clicked on a video faster than this one, thanks Grady!
Civil Engineering student at delft here too!
Aside from succeding I also hope u are having a good time here as a foreign student!
Aerospace student here too! All the best from AE, good luck with your thesis
Checked out the Maeslandkering yet?
Canadian geophysics student, now doing my masters in water science and management in Utrecht here as well :)
Fun fact. Along rivers you can easily spot which houses were built from before many of the water works. If the entire ground floor has a tile flooring, you know its been designed to easily clear out the water. If it has a wood floor, its from after. Also the project "room for the river" is amazing. Not only does it help with protection against water, it also creates pretty cool nature thats used to be flooded a few times a year, but also staying dry. Almost all are accessible to walk in and enjoy nature.
if you visit my area, you would see most of the houses along he river are built on stilts, and the owners park the car under the house. when the river floods, they just move the car to high ground, and stay at home for a day or two.until the water goes back down.
@@kenbrown2808 cool! Must be regional differences I guess. Also got terp houses
@randomviewer3494 I've seen a couple houses built to be flooded, but in general, it's less work to just lift it and be done with it.
I'm in the Fens (in the UK), which is also a large very low-lying marshland which was drained in the 1600s with the help of the Dutch at several points. We have a similar kind of thing in the Hundred Foot/Ouse Washes and the Nene Washes - these are low-lying areas of land next to their respective rivers (the Ouse washes are between long straight artificial drainage ditches called the new and old bedford rivers that go from one point on the River Great Ouse to another, the ditches are also called the Hundred Foot Ditches because that's the distance between the embankments) that, when the water levels on the rivers rise, are intentionally flooded. These are actually part of the original flood control structures, and are still used today for that function, as well as now being designated nature reserves.
Water mitigation there must have some
Intresting challenges
As a kid a read about the 1953 flood, I visited the Delta Works and did a presentation on them for my class. That might have been the start of my engineering career.
It's hard to say as a Flemish person, but I'm now proud to work for a 137 years old, Dutch civil engineering firm :D
Waarom is dat moeilijk te zeggen als Vlaming , waarom hebben jullie toch altijd iets tegen Nederlanders , ik vindt dit heeeeel raar , geschreven door een rasechte Brabander .
My dad departed on a ship to the USA during that massive 1953 storm and barely made it. One of my uncles worked on the original polders after the Zuider Zee was closed off. He also was involved in the Delta Works.
Another fun fact, besides the comment about tiled floors: Old farms had flood-doors, placed on the first story of the farm: when a flood was eminent, a ramp was put op and the livestock was put on the first floor, using the ramp and flood-door.
I can't think of any major water related construction world wide that doesn't have at least one Dutch consultant working on it. They really are the masters of water related engineering.
We've been doing it for 2000 years. We got good at it, and (in true Dutch fashion) we gladly share that information for the right price. Also, the Netherlands has used water in its own defenses for centuries, even during WWII we flooded parts of the country, only to lay in wait on the higher ground.
Even our King studied 6 years to be an expert in water management, so maybe he's the Kind of the (North?) Sea 🙂
@@nish8435 It probably wold have worked if those germans hadn't decided to invent tanks
@ Tanks are not that well built to handle the water. They sink in the field pretty badly. Planes and paratroopers did throw a spanner in the works.
@themacbookgamer Tanks were invented in Britain, by the British.
I love the cost comparison. That comparison to Katrina is actually fairly apt, because corrected for inflation and land value, that would roughly be the current cost were the Watersnoodramp to happen again in the same spot, maybe even more. And actually, if you add the fact that water management is a local industry and an export, those costs aren't even as high - we MAKE money doing this. Partially, at least.
Love to see this and well done on at least attempting pronunciations. And if you think our water management is world class, wait until you see our roads and other infrastructure.
Holland is awesome I've been there many times and it's just incredible how everything just works super efficiently and the people are the best.
We truly are the most engineered country on Earth.
@@thedave7760 Thanks for the nice compliments :)
@ If the rast of the world could average 50% of the efficiency and reliability of Holland we would have colonized and built canals on Mars by now.
It's not just the money, the cost of rebuilding an area repeatedly is much larger than the cost of rebuilding just the structures.
People will grow tired of losing everything and starting over repeatedly and will leave the area, leaving behind the ones that are less able to fend for themselves.
Structures also become more and more complex and the experience of maintaining it, also has to regrow when rebuilt. Adding a layer of cost that's hard to calculate.
Funny thing, water is so ingrained in our history and culture that our oldest political bodies are the regional water councils. The first big one dates back to 1255 and still exists today. Hell, water policy is so important to us the water councils daily- and general management are democratically voted for every 4 years.
*oldest still existing.
I believe there were older waterboards then the Hoogheemraadschap van Rijnland, but those no longer exist in their current form.
I believe first one founded that we still have records from is about a 100 years older then HHR Rijnland.
Also, I’m fairly certain that the Dutch waterboards are the oldest continuous and surviving democratic institutions in Europe
Here in the United States, we use dibs.
It seems like the best system for everyone who got there first.
Unfortunately, it's the worst system for everyone else. That's how you get lettuce growing in the desert.
That's the other kind of waterboarding 🙂
And to add, as water is used by everyone, even a non-citizen living in the country gets to vote on the water board!
Correct. The water council are actually a separate government. That means they can collect tax. And they posess a lot of money, so much that some years ago the national government wanted to integrate the water councils into the central governmant to lower the national debt percentage. Luckily that did not happen because the politicians would have liked to spend the money on other topics. Although with challenges the water councils always worked steadily and with balanced interests with good results for centuries. We should keep it this way because their money (which is ours) is our national water security insurance.
My time serving on a Dutch Vliegbasis was the best 3 years of my military career. The Dutch have absolutely mastered the art of controlling water, and it's everywhere you look, at least where I lived in Oss. You can literally get desensitized by it, like walking past a 2000 year old bench in Rome. I've always told my family and friends that the US is capable of, and has built great things, but we are boring compared to what the Dutch have done for their country.
As a Dutch person I notice this in reverse when I visit other countries, I can't seem to feel at home when I cant see any body of water close. There is always a little canal or a lake within eyesight when you are in the Netherlands (eyesight on a clear day aka few km's)
Oss de gekste! Speaking from Oss as we speak!
Ah you were in Volkel? I remember many us military personnel staying in Schaijk (my village) and had quite some beers in our local bar together! 🤝
Lemme guess, you were guarding nukes at Volkel AFB that officially weren’t there? 😅
I’m from Uden btw, my house is 1,5 km from the base lol
One thing no book or video can get across is the extensiveness of their engineering works. Almost everywhere you go, there's reminders of it. Every year I attend a music festival on the Flevoland, and at times you're stuck at how distant you are from any large engineering works. Then you realise that you're standing on one, a massive one that becomes obvious when you look at the soil and realise that it's dredged material from the seabed.
I'll always recommend to any engineer or student, just go there and soak up the complexity and simplicity of just a society that integrated with engineering to its core.
Edit ... only just realised that I've been under the Aquaduct Veluwemeer probably 20 times and didn't even realise how darn impressive it is. I will in future.
The soil is not dredged. In flevoland your walking on the former seabed.
One of my favorite places in NL is De Stille Kern ("quiet core/nucleus/kernel") in Horsterwold, just 10km from the Veluwemeer aqueduct. It's a nature preserve, very quiet - with wildlife and birds and lakes and trees. Then you realize you are below sea level, standing on an artificial island that is in the middle of an artificial lake (both unnamed) that is on an artificial island (Flevoland) that sits in an artificial lake (the former Zuiderzee). Even the wild horses are imported from Poland :) God created heaven and earth, but mankind created the Netherlands indeed.
@ I mean, the fact that all the stones are smoothed inland is more obvious than the sandy soil.
In the Netherlands most people treat this all for normal, without realising they are "living in a bath-tub". I often explainer to guests from abroad where they enter and exit the bath tubs. E.g. when they came by plane to Amsterdam-Schiphol airport, I sometimes tell them that they landed on the bottom of a lake.
5:45 I'm Dutch and I'm impressed that you didn't include the Noord-Oost polder in your graphic about creating the afsluitdijk, so many other educational videos from outside the Netherlands miss it because there are no border lakes around it. So you deserve praise for excluding it.
Thank you.
I believe you have "include" and "exclude" switched in your comment. "Include" means that something was added, while "exclude" means that something was left out. I just don't want your excellent comment to be misunderstood.
@@DavidAtwell The Noordoostpolder was created after the Afsluitdijk was built (just like Flevoland) so in the "before" graphic, this part was correctly excluded. blauw67 has the words the right way around :)
@DavidAtwell I meant excluded as it was not on the map (and should not have been) because in the 1930's when the afsluitdijk was made (see the timestamp) the Noord-Oost Polder was not on the little map, as it should be. However many other educational videos erroneously include it on their maps.
I am Dutch too and I praise him for including it but at the right moment(!)😉
I walked several kilometers, fresh off the plane, to see the Maeslantkering up close. Such an amazing structure! The museum onsite is very interesting too. I've visited the Netherlands several times. When I've done workouts with my Apple Watch it's always strange to see my elevation as a negative number!
that negative elevation was even a bit of a issue for the earlier aircraft safety features as you had to go to -11 below sea level to land at Schiphol.
So the flight safety systems got conflicted information. As it could not understand to go below 0.
@@sirBrouwer lol :) leuk dit soort details!!
@ ik vond het ook altijd wel grappig. Als je ooit vliegt op Schiphol en je hebt zo'n schermpje dan zie je dat ook staan.
3:43
I must note that the Netherlands are the second largest agricultural exporter by value, and not by weight.
Their valuables exports consists of expensive crops, that can grow there thanks to the soil, irrigation and climate
I'd heard that about the Netherlands being big in exports and it has always surprised me. Especially considering the land mass we have compared to other countries. Do you have any sources where I can find out more? Some brief googling reveals lists per food product or category, but not a total amount
@@PinnysVids Agricultural sector in The Netherlands is attrociiously big ( and polluting ). This is 100% because of subsidies. Our most exported goods are diary. eggs, horticultural products and meat...
If you're wondering why we have a housing crisis -> mainly because of there being to many farmers, it's 100% unsustainable but we get 'politicians' which deny AGW and want to keep their poluting industries in tact, it's disgusting tbh.
@@MarvinWestmaas
You may be overstating things ... A lot
Here are two websites putting things in perspective and showing agricultural exports by tonnage and by crop
-agricultural exports by world population review
-Aggricultural exports by outworldindata
@@squa_81 You must not be Dutch lmao... is that why you think something trivial like tonnage is the deciding factor?
But even if you would, considering the land area of The Netherlands it's still incredibly impressive...
But nowadays a lot the vegetables are grown in huge greenhouse complexes and many animals are kept indoors as well and given a supliment of soybeans and other imported products. So the relation with the land and climate isn't as strong anymore.
I always love visiting family in NL. They complain that it's so crowded, but I point out that it's an inspiring place, like visiting the future. Busy, crowded, agricultural, planned and engineered, but has this harmony with nature and the old that makes it beautiful. And the transit ❤.
Thanks. Outside perspective always gives new appreciation for my country.
At 3:31 " it's🦆"😅
They built scale models of the delta works for testing in a forest called waterloopbos. Once they were finished, they left it for nature to reclaim the land and added walking paths. You can visit and enjoy a nice walk around while seeing it all. I highly recommend visiting
Is that the same place Tom Scott covered?
@@keppycs yes it is. it's the same place.
This is right across the road from where my father works!
I did my thesis project there (Waterloopkundig Laboratorium) and was able to watch some of the mentioned projects being tested at scale. Very cool to see (and yes, I'm old).
I have friends that lived near Marknesse. They moved, so less reason to go to that area. It is still on my bucket list to see the remnants of the lab though. There are also remains of models of harbours of all over the world.
Hi Grady, in Dutch we do actually call it milling the water 'bemalen'. As a Dutch Civil Engineer it's great to see you make a video about our most famous works of Civil Engineering. Other interesting Dutch Civil Engineering works in recent years are the Salt dam at the IJmuiden sea lock by Rijkswaterstaat, the tunnel alliance (‘tunnelalliantie’) program to remove level railroad crossings by ProRail, and programs to expand the Dutch bicycle infrastructure as a viable alternative to cars and highways by connecting larger cities with ‘snelfietsroutes’.
Ever since I started watching Itchy Boots on UA-cam, I have been a fan of pretty much everything Dutch.
They are amazing people.
I would love to visit there one day for a year or so!
Just don't only visit the "coffee" shops...
@AlexFlodder I'd much rather go when all of the flowers are in bloom.
Some of the images that I have seen from there are beyond description.
I'm not saying that I won't visit them😉, but that's definitely not my main reason for the interest in the Netherlands.
I can’t speak for all Dutch people of course, but you’re very welcome to visit! Just make sure you don’t just visit Amsterdam or any of the other ‘popular’ big cities in the ‘randstad’, the rest of the country is very much worth visiting as well!
@@ericcox6764 Well..., there is the tourists-trap (imho) called Keukenhof, which atrracts a lot of tourists, but when driving around the Netherland in spring, you can see acres and acres of blooming tulips, daffodils, hyacinths in (mostly) the province of Noord-Holland and Flevoland, but also visit the Betuwe in spring (mainly the area between the rivers Rijn/Lek and Waal), when all the fruit trees are blossoming.
@Sponge1310 thank you for the invitation!
Hopefully, I'll be able to take you up on it one day soon!!
Big cities don't appeal to me. I'm retired and living in my van as I travel around the western United States.
I do my best to avoid any town with more than 2 traffic signals.
Ok I knew about this trope of the Dutch taming the sea but this is way more amazing than I realized.
20:00 the Dutch did build waterworks to keep out invaders: the Waterlinie was a series of low-lying areas that could be flooded to hamper the advance of an army.
At all the dry passes through the resulting marshlands, they built fortifications. A lot of those are still there today and the “Nieuwe Hollandse Waterlinie” is a UNESCO world heritage site…
to be fair: it didn't work out all that well for us
@@anotheret1064it did help to win when we were attacked by England, France, Koln and Munster (and our allies the Swedes were payed off to remain on the sideline). Also it helped to hold up the German army until we surrendered to the threats of terror bombings.
@@JurjenKamphorst in the disaster year we only had the old one. i was talking about the new one, which hindsight is 2020, but we really could have used some antiaircraft
When doing an internship during my studies I traveled a lot between Amsterdam and Alkmaar by train. What always creeped my out a little bit as someone from the East of the Netherlands which is situated on higher ground was watching the fields near Zaandam from the train where the grassland is only 10-20cm higher that the brooks in between. The water level in this polder was intentionally kept high there because this decreases the slow sinking of the soil over the years.
yep! bonus effect of this is that when it freezes, those ditches become very easy for sheep to walk over and onto the train tracks. a cause of delay that wasnt on my NS bingo card before xD
I live in Tiel, which is relatively high lying (only 5 m above sea level though). Just a little bit to the west the land drops to only 1 m above sea level. Go further and it drops below sea level. I was always amazed how far down the water level is in streams and canals in Tiel and the immediate area, but the further west you go the higher the water level is. Around Amsterdam in some areas the water in the canals is insanely high, it looks like it’s just 10 cm below the land. Just looking at the water level in the canals (sloten) tells me if I’m close to home or not.
🖖 From Uitgeest on that train line 😉
That's geotechnical engineering genius!!! The Japanese have started implementing different measures to address a similar problem, keeping their cities from sinking.
@@knees0cks_49 well climate change took care of that , it only freezes over once in a decade nowadays
I am envious of a country (more accurately a people) that is willing to come to together to develop solutions to the toughest challenges. We truly have more to learn from the Netherlands than just their (excellent) water engineering.
A country that listens to it's engineers 🤩
Don't overestimate us, listening to engineers is still hard for many Dutch politicians 😅
Right now we're heading to drinking water shortages, but politicians don't believe it :/
Often the Dutch follow trends in the US and follow on the same path, like our politics like many western countries have become more polarized and wrath of short term thinking. We also almost become a country for the cars instead of multi-model (having not just road network for cars, but also a pretty good network of trains, bike network, proper side walks, etc.). Reagan and Thatcher still cast a shadow over the Netherlands as well, we privatized a lot of things, including power grid, train systems, telephone systems and also (probably the worst choice of all) healthcare.
As you see above, WisdomRanger, don't get caught up idolizing any given people.
As a Dutch person I am proud of what is shown in this video but we have to be honest as well, it does help that our entire country is a river delta and that it is smaller than most of the states in the U.S.
Yes it is applicable to the rest of the world, but it might also be easier when it is a neccesity and managable size.
Appreciate the compliments though :)
Je Nederlands is super goed Grady. Je bent goed bezig.
Yes, kudos for the pronunciation! Most Americans make a complete mess of our language
I walked the 20 mile Afsluitdijk by foot while training for the 4 days marches of Nijmegen. It was not the most exhilarating of walks, but it did give me a renewed appreciation of the scale of engineering which is impressive even a century later.
My dad was an engineer on one of those mat laying ships "Cardium" I was so excited about his engineering stories as a kid. I build scale models of the dam and it's ships out of bits of wood and plaster. What you showed here is the tip if the water management iceberg. There is so much more. The entire country is a water management project. Large designated areas are earmarked to be allowed to flood if rivers raise too much for example.
Not shown: the bridge just out of view of the first aquaduct.
The bridge is for freight ships (deep but not very high) to pass under, the aquaduct is for sailboats (shallow but tall) to pass over.
I thought I remembered there being more to it than that! thanks for the reminder that it was indeed there. Wish he'd included it even in passing just to show it being even more impressive.
Dutch-Canadian here! Great to see Dutch hydrologic engineering feature on this channel. Quick and easy pronunciation note on "Zuiderzee": Dutch and English share a lot of common heritage - imagine that the vowels in that word are pronounced the same as its literal translation "Southern Sea", and you'll be spot-on.
Does you last name start with the letter grimmin by any chance??? Just asking for no particular reason
Almost, the Dutch UI and English OU sounds are slightly different and the Dutch UI sound being an unique Dutch composed vowel sound is almost comparable to no other language. (some weird french sounds maybe)
The rest of the pronounciation indeed would sound similar; Z and S, th and d, ern and er.. only to change again at sea and zee (zee being pronounced identical to the word "say" in English)
You have summoned the Dutchies
G E K O L O N I S E E R D
G E K O L O N I S E E R D
Zeg makker, geen angelsaksisch gebrabbel.
Pass 'em on the left-hand side
I N G E P O L D E R D
As a resident of Boston, when he got to the part about how the delta works cost "over $16B" my reaction was, "Only $16B? For all that???”
keep in mind that the Delta works were started in 1958, and the $16B is not adjusted for inflation.
Adjusted for inflation, it is estimated the Delta Works cost around 170 billion Euro. The initial cost estimate from the 1950s was around 3.3 billion Guilders (which at the time was around 20% of gdp).
Without massive corruption and with competent engineering, it's not that insanely expensive. Although it still was very expensive. But luckily the Netherlands is a very rich country. One of the richest in the world per capita.
@@zounds010 no it is. Today it would be much more expensive
Love your videos! As a Dutch engineer, I especially love this one. We have some great engineering solutions for seemingly impossible problems. Thanks for highlighting some of those challenges to the rest of the world!
Always a good day when Grady releases a new video. Such a smart and talented engineer and teacher. Thank you so much for sharing all of this amazing information!
if people wonder if the water bridge could collapse due to a heavy boat the answer is no. a boat only displaces the same mass of water as it weighs itself to float so the weight on the water bridge never changes from boats crossing
incredible
I wonder if that makes it more durable in a way, since a normal bridge will experience a more dynamic load from the traffic
7:19 - The IJsselmeer is typically written with the I and J both capitalized, as "IJ" forms essentially one letter in modern written Dutch, so the whole of that first "letter" is capitalized in the place name.
Blame the auto"correct" 🤔
Same as IJmuiden 😉
Yep IJ is one letter in Dutch.
Zo is dat, want een Ei hoort erbIJ🎉
We solved the IJ problem by making it a Y
@@NielAlexander we like our IJ :)
Grady, you're rad. I'm a theater electrician and designer so infrastructure isn't exactly my thing (ok, maybe truss design counts) but I must say: your enthusiasm for engineering really shines through. You make learning about "the things we see around us everyday" a lot of fun. And your series on the sewage transfer build was awesome. If I ran a school I would just put your videos on. You should consider making vids for education. I'm nearly 50 and you've already taught me more than any college course I took that related to building things. Thanks Grady!
Being Dutch myself as well as a big fan of your channel I'm honored to see a video about Dutch engineering. I live at the end of the second dike you mentioned meant to create the Markerwaardpolder. Great intro by the way!
I was visiting Kennedy Space Center in Florida and during the bus tour past one of the launchpads, the guide said “this is a very unique launchpad, since it’s partly below sea level”. All I could think was, half my county is below sea level, so what :D
How many launchpads does your county have?
@@Duiker36 Lol, none.
That was "all" you could think?
Like your comment, it's pretty funny. Unfortunately, the reply function selects for people with a predilection to be unfunny smarta-,es.
@@johnl5316 There's not much special about a single LC below sea-level compared to more than half a country. Countries all over the world hire the Dutch to fight water.
Erg leuk om te zien dat wij nederlanders zo gewaardeerd worden voor onze kennis omtrent water beheersing .
Not me as a Fleming, thus speaking almost Dutch, only now realizing half these water engineering words came from Dutch to English, not the other way round :o
Sluice, polder, dike, and other ship related words are almost literally the same in Dutch!
As a citizen of the Netherlands, most of the time, i just take the waterworks for granted. It's here all the time. Wherever you look, you will be able to see some form of waterworks. Even as a construction engineer, i forget what we have achieved as a country. Seeing other people be amazed of it, always reminds me of the privilege we have to live in the best engineering country of the world.
Loved your video. Enjoyed it 🎉🎉🎉
I used to live in Zeeland and I've cycled across the Oosterscheldekering a bunch of times. It's one of the coolest things I've ever experienced. It's a bit terrifying too.
Ooh the wind must be really strong!
You eat the wind for breakfast like a boterham met hagelslag. Nothing, even high winds can’t stop the Dutch cycling across the Oosterscheldekering. 💨
Isn't that also where the yearly NK tegenwindfietsen (Dutch championship cycling-into-the-headwind) is held?
I’m reminded of Tom Scott’s video a few years ago about the Dutch folks who sold a bond in 1648 to raise money to repair their dams. They didn’t put an expiry date on the bond (a relatively new idea), so their descendants pay interest on it to this day.
my next over city still has to pay people about €0.83 a year on intrest to a guy as his familie helped to pay for a windmill.
Now a days all Dutch municipalities can only borrow money from the VNG bank (Dutch municipalities organisation)
Yes, the bond was issued by a waterbord, an early administrative body to deal with water issues that have existed since the 11th century and were quite democratic.
Very high quality video. The only points I'm still missing are about the water boards (They are older than the Dutch government, have their own elections, taxes, etc. Their power is equal to the national government) and the waterlinie (until the invention of the airplane, it was the most powerful defense work)
The Waterlinie indeed, I live near Fort aan den Ham, very interesting history and you can cycle all around the Linie 😉
Still on my list, quite long 🤔
One of the main goals of the Markerwadden was to improve the quality of the water of the Markermeer as it was basically a huge stagnent lake with deteriorating habitat quality.
Since it's construction the water quality has increased significantly
Wow, what I never knew as a design engineer. This was totally awesome to watch. Thank you Grady for sharing! Super video! As an American design engineer, I have got to say congratulations to the Dutch on their brilliance in design and engineering. I thought I was doing something when seeing this, how miniscule my efforts have been. Hats off to these genius people!
Proud dutchman here! :)
You have every right to be proud. 👍
Hope you are not living in a house in the south that sank 9cm into the ground
Some nice hubris from a plaque on the Oosterscheldekering: Here rule over the sea: The Moon, The Wind and We. (It rhymes better in Dutch). For anyone wondering how sea level rise will impact the sea defenses: The dikes are the level they are at because that's the height they were determined to need, not because that is the highest we *could* build them. Funding the projects to raise the dikes won't be a problem either. There are many things to dislike about Dutch politics, but I don't think I've ever heard a politician propose to spend less on water management. The institutions that do dike management are known as a "waterschap" and they are well staffed and well funded.
More accurately, it says: "Here rule over the tide, the moon, the wind and we."
It's a minor distinction that makes all the differences; we're not claiming to have mastered the entire sea!
@@AviertjeNot yet, anyway. It’s a work in progress.
Waterschap is a seperate government entity and with full autonomy, voted on every 4 years. Older than our modern form of government and therefore never really a debate.
I'm not fond of the word 'rule' here. The Dutch word 'gaan' is far more casual. Not like a king's domain, but like the portfolio of the beancounter on the fifth desk.
@PleegWat yeah it's more "decide over" than "rule". I do think the Dutch version has a definite sense of "the sea can't do whatever it wants here anymore", which makes sense as that's the whole point of the deltawerken.
Excellent video, very interesting. And, your Dutch pronunciation is excellent!
The Dutch have put enormous amounts of thought and labor into their home.
There's that old saying, "There wouldn't be much without the Dutch."
His pronunciation is good for an American but that doesn't mean much.
EXCELLENT video. I lived in Netherlands for 5 years and there are many examples of Dutch engineering to deal with water. And it's holistic from subsidised swimming programs (to help people survive falling into canals etc), to carrying glass hammers in cars to aid in escaping if your car ends up in a canal.
Man that ad was really clever, and your dutch was pretty impressive, still I laughed.
I just ordered your book and some time ago I started a civil engineering study, which I think will be one of the best decisions of my life.
I wanted to let you know you’ve been a true inspiration for me for the past years.
Great video!
Well done! As a dutch engineer I can see you did proper and good research! Very nice imaging and animation work.
Funny detail is that you 1800 map (at 11:33 min) contains much more dry land then it had in the 1800's.
Somehow when I read this, I thought of the 1800 series hydrological charts from the Dutch Navy's service for hydrographics. Just some coincidental confusion I thought I'd share.
When the coastline gets added to that 1800 map at about 11:40 and 12:30 actually not enough is shown. Apart from the Lauwerszee that another commenter mentioned elsewhere, there are some eight islands in the southwestern delta surrounded by tidal waters that are not included in the 1800 coastline. A few more could be added at a smaller scale. As a result the reduction of the Dutch coastline is still understated by the map comparison at 12:30.
your dutch introduction was pretty good i must say as a native dutchman
Mee eens ;-)
I actually had to replay it 3 times before I could understand he was trying to say veluwemeer😅
I think Veritasium’s recent Strandbeest video had the best Dutch pronunciation of a big science youtuber. But his producer is a Dutchie, so he was kinda cheating. Grady heeft z’n best gedaan!
Dutch people in general have no idea
@@DrLoverLover About what?
Dank je wel, Grady!
I am dutch, and I can confirm that 1- you are very well informed 2- you present it excellently 3- your pronounciation of the dutch words is cute...
Informed, A+. Presentation, A+. Pronunciation... Good try! :D
Anyone who speaks foreign words sounds funny. I guarantee you say things weird to my ears in my language and the same for me if I tried to speak yours. what is amusing? It’s not surprising it’s literally how life works
@ life works in amusing ways mr President
There's a plaque at the Deltaworks reading “Hier gaan over het tij, de maan, de wind en wij“ (“Here the tide is ruled by the moon, the wind and us”) which is incredibly badass imo.
I worked with a Dutch PhD student on a major research project in civil engineering, all about wind generated wave production, specifically in shallow water, it was very interesting, and you can see why that is an area of interest for the Dutch.
We instrumented Lake George, just outside of Canberra in Australia.
We were trying to make the shallow water predictions equation more accurate. Was fun.
This was actually the reason for the Markerwadden to be built (and placed where they are). They help redirecting currents and catching sediment.
Yeah, this makes me proud. Know that there is plenty of us (Dutch) out there who'd be willing to hop on a call and help you with the pronunciation, but you are off to a good start. Thank you for putting in good effort to try :D
🤮
Even your compliments sound like insults
@lcdjr85 Haha. We leave sugarcoating to others
Lekker Nederlandse comment haha. Een compliment én als bonus een gratis verbeterpunt. Lekker direct, eerlijk en niet lelijk bedoeld, maar om te helpen de ander beter te laten worden. Goede eigenschap van onze Nederlandse makkers.
@@Diegotheparrot Dankjewel!
Pretty sure you'll be getting TONNES of Dutchies watching this. We love videos about ourselves. And we'll probably correct your pronouncations (ignore that). Great video again Grady!
Hahaha you are 100% correct on this.
Yeah it's funny. If a tourist tries to speak Dutch, the Dutch will answer back in English. Just to save from misunderstandings, and so on time. Me included. 😄
@@ToTheGAMESwhen people are really trying to learn Dutch, they hate being answered in English!
Then they'll never learn...
@@MeteorMark That's cool, but not my problem in that case. No offense, of course.
@@ToTheGAMESSounds like the Japanese. But a bit better.
Pronounciation pretty well done, Grady! Excellent work. Been a fan of your videos for years and now, as a Dutchman I can confirm everything in this video is really accurate and you even taught me new things. Regards from the Netherlands. Hope you come and visit the Delta Works.
As a Dutchman I love this episode. I drive through the Harderwijk aquaduct twice a week at least and across parts of Flevoland as well. I knew most of the stuff told here (as it’s ingrained in our general knowledge as Dutch) I still learned some new things! And truly amazed you gave our unpronounceable language your best shot! Thanks Grady!
So inspiring what large infrastructure projects can accomplish.
Dankjewel grady
Fun to see the thumbnail image appear online every once in a while. I live 10 minutes away from there, always a nice reminder that it's a pretty unique thing :)
Absolutely fascinating documentary. The quality of your videos never ceases to impress.
As someone who has lived just across the North Sea from all this all my life, I was amazed (and humbled) by just how much I didn't know about the country just next door.
my wife is dutch, she was very impressed with your pronounciation. dutch is one of the most difficult languages in the world so its hard to even get close to sound understandable but she tells me you did great.
she was lying lol
@rutgerhoutdijk3547 the part ar 1.59 was pretty good.
And with regards to the rest I've heard way worse pronunciations from English speakers.
@@rvdb7363 Yes I don't expect him to pronounce it well, this is not a language channel after all. But his pronunciation of "Veluwemeer" 0:01 and "Afsluitdijk" 6:48 was pretty bad, on the other hand ,"Oosterscheldekering" 12:39 and "Maeslantkering" 14:23 was almost perfect. So yes could be worse.
@rutgerhoutdijk3547 I agree with you on that one. The only reason I understood it right away is because I used to live nearby, so I recognised the aqueduct and its surroundings before he said Veluwemeer.
Dutch is the easiest language for an english speaker to learn. Well, Frissan.
This video is insane. So much stuff I never needed to know all in one place and its amazing
finally a video that's not about US infrastructure ! please keep them coming
As a Dutch Hydraulic Engineer, I have to compliment you on doing your homework. The accuracy of this video and the level of detail is top notch. thank you!
Man, you have no clue how proud it is to be dutch after seeing your video. We are so used to all the water works that we more or less take it for granted. Thank you for for the video!
Yepp, the Dutchies take at least two things very seriously: water management and everything bicycle. Their engineering skills really are on another level! 😎🤘
Got little sad at your pronunciation of Veluwemeer and Harderwijk, but you made up for it at 1:59. I quite enjoy your videos from 3 meters under the sea!
Love the vids. They are very Practical.
I ❤ only the almighty Donald J. Trump.
Well- engineered!
I'm watching this from the Beemster! I grew up here, and as a kid it didn't occur to me how special this place actually was. But again and again I learn more about my hometown. When I was in primary school, we visited museums and watched documentaries about polders. There was a certain episode of a Dutch series called Klokhuis, where they research stuff and explain it in a kid-friendly way, about the Beemster and I dare to say I've seen it at least 10 times in school. But still I just took it for granted. It wasn't that special to me, because I lived there and to me it was nothing more than any other town. Then I went to high school, in a big city, not expecting to hear anything about the Beemster's history ever again. But who would have guessed... We had not one, but two school field trips to the Beemster! I felt so proud saying I lived there, haha. One of the field trips was an exclusive behind the scenes look at the electrical pumping station that keeps the water out. Standing there, just looking at the machine that literally keeps me, my family and my house from being underwater was so impressive. Now as an adult I still walk or ride my bicycle around the Beemster regularly and I realise how beautiful and special it really is. Greetings from the Beemster! And give our cheese a try, it's really good!
Grady, I floated over and drove under an aquaduct many times 1971 - 73. In Florida. Walt Disney World. I'm sure Roy had a Dutch engineer over for that one.
Great episode, as always. 👍
0:53 it wasn’t his finger
Lool
😂
What was it?
Haha 😊
😂
0:41 deep breaths... I am a mature adult, I am a mature adult... Deeeeep breaths...
Lol, I watched it last night n
imagine giving such a heroic fingering that a whole nation think of you as a national hero. what a guy.
Same 😂😅
Very nice video! I used to live in the Netherlands, and their water works is one of the most impressive things I have ever seen. Beautiful, functional and a fascinating cultural heritage. Dank je wel, Grady, en uitstekend gepraat!
Het zeewater is nog geen mm gestegen.
In the oosterschelde there is a sand island thats only accessible with low tide. Sea lions use this as a resting platform and thousands of birds rest and feed there.
Because of the oosterscheldekering the tide became slower. Making it that the island slowly corroding away because the sand is washing away, but no new sand gets added.
Luckily every few year new sand gets manually added for the preservation of this resting place.
I love the oosterschelde. Its a beautiful place and I regularly dive there with my father.
Thanks for your amazing video.
I congratulate you on your pronunciation. Our language is not easy and your willingness to tackle it while also expertly explaining our achievements is commendable.
Wow Grady. I've never wanted to emigrate so badly before. I love the US, but as a Brevard county Florida public works employee with an interest in civil engineering and a fascination for Dutch water management, I'd love to go there and be involved in building and maintaining awesome infrastructure like that.
Brevard county is not high above sea level either and near the sea. So, you could do good work there too. But, you could indeed emigrate. There are some Dutch companies specialised in that kind of work. For the time being, planning and policy will be a bit difficult to get to. Rijkswaterstaat is a government institution, so you have to have Dutch citizenship to work there.
@@tricker42agreed
If you're serious about this: working in the Netherlands as a highly skilled worker ("kennismigrant") is actually relatively simple. You have to be hired by a physically Netherlands-based company that has a covenant with the Dutch immigration service (IND). Most larger companies have. When your paygrade is above a certain level, the "skilled" part is automatically assumed. For work in engineering mastering the Dutch language is in a lot of cases not mandatory or necessary (but obviously better). For more info about this you could visit the IND website or perhaps contact a Dutch lawfirm specialized in immigration.
@ronaldderooij1774 really?
@@ronaldderooij1774 You can also work for Deltares, they have quite a few foreign employees. They even have a US branch.
New practical engineering vid dropped let’s go!
The fun is, that most dutch don't know this story of Hansje Brinker. And the story is originally not from the Netherlands eather. When the book from Mary Mapes Dodge was translated in 1867 by a Dutchman, it apparently contained a lot of errors. Therefore a disclamer was put as a preface in the translation, since all Dutch juveniles would not believe any of it ;-)
I am consistently amazed by the graphics and visuals in your videos. Your writing and narration are top-notch, and the visual aids you include to illustrate them make all the very-detailed explanations so easy to grasp. The aerial shots of the Netherlands are particularly beautiful here.
Nice video and kudos on the pronunciation of the Dutch words! I have another video idea for you: the waterloopbos. It is a former outdoor laboratory area where they tested scale models of waterworks in a small stream of water. They did not only test models for Dutch projects, but also some studies for work they did abroad. The area is nowadays a nature area and the decaying models are being restored.
As a Dutchy I am proude to see this.
I also can confirm that the ship at 13:40 is still alive. It was rebuild as the Svanen to build a bridge. After that it was sold it was builiding offshore windturbines and it's been recently rebuild to be even higher.
I’ve always been told that it’s scrapped. Curious for your sources.
Ostrea was scrapped (according to wikipedia some parts (bridge, winches and engines) were used for the Svanen)
@ I tought the hull was also used. But that is from memmory
@@hollander133 Same info on a Dutch Wiki: nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ostrea_(schip,_1982) (My other reaction with the info from the archives of the shipbuilder is deleted, apparently...)
@@hollander133 (posted again, previous reaction was deleted) Shortly after, in October 1984, the ship left the Oosterschelde and was laid up at the shipyard in Rotterdam. Despite many attempts, it was not possible to use the vessel for other purposes. Rijkswaterstaat sold it in August 1987 to Smit Internationale BV and Van Splunder Funderingstechniek (Royal Volker-Stevin Group). They dismantled the ship in November 1989, the usable parts were sold and the rest was scrapped in Schiedam. (Translated from Dutch, info from the archives of the RDM, the shipbuilder)
7:30 Dutch theoretical physicist (and 1902 Nobel Prize winner) Hendrik Lorentz used hydrodynamic equations of motion to calculate the disturbance of the tidal flow the Afsluitdijk would cause. One of the two sets of locks in the Afsluitdijk was named after him.
An aquaduct isn't the only thing we have in the Netherlands.
A compact railnetwork, a large network of bikepaths ETC.
We have 4 floating bridges in North Holland. The only floating bridges in europe.
Assuming you are referring to what the dutch call 'vlotbruggen', Wikipedia tells me there are actually five of them (Koedijkervlotbrug, Rekervlotbrug, Burgervlotbrug, Sint Maartensvlotbrug and the one located in 't Zand.). Key difference with ordinary pontoon bridges is that these are designed to be able to open for ships. If it is purely about floating, a bridge like the Nordhordland Bridge in Norway also has a huge floating component to it.. although that is still a very different beast purely due to the scale. I'd love to some day see a dutch vlotbrug at that scale, even if it won't ever happen!
@@Aviertje Yes, I'm talking about the 'vlotbruggen'. For years we only had four vlotbruggen.
The rekervlotbrug is the newest. It was also the bridge with the biggest problems. First they used the wrong materials to build the pontons ('boxes' they use to make it float) and then they had to fix it often. The oldest one is the 'koedijkervlotbrug'. That one has the least amount of problems.
It's still the bridge that's in use from the year it was build. The only thing it needed was to maintain it. And fix it after it got hit by a ship.
They have one 'vlotburg' close to my hometown. In a town called 't Zand. About 8km (20 min of cycling) from home.
8km is a short distance for me. Even while I only travel by E-bike (not on a 45km/h but, a legal 25km/h E-bike).
For me is a distance of 20km or more far away.😅
I'm a dutchman and like to cross a vlotbrug.
Grady, retired marine engineer here, who has friends in Rotterdam and Venice. I've maintained since forever that if Venice and New Orleans were really serious about dealing with their water issues, both would be engaging Dutch engineering firms. The comments are spot on, the Dutch "do" do it better!
My family is all from Holland and we also lived in Holland for a time, so I've been aware of the Durch capacity for waterworks all my life. In fact, my late uncle had a hand in working on the original polders when the Zuider Zee was closed off. He also was involved in the earlier Delta Works. He took us around the pump houses and explained how it all worked. It was fascinating.
My dad actually left on a ship to the USA during that awful storm in 1953 that caused devastating flooding in Holland. He said it was a terrifying crossing, but thankfully he made it across the Atlantic otherwise I wouldn't be here!☺
I worked as a Control System Engineer on the GIWW West Closure Comlex pump station near New Orleans. They used the design from the gates at 14:25, and it worked well!
19:10 shows a small one
@@DeKempster, good catch! That's actually the project I was referring to, but didn't watch far enough before I had to leave to see it.
I spent several years at that pump station, one to three times per week sometimes depending on what was being done or any issues that came up.
That was a great experience.
man, I always love it when people try to say dutch words. A+ for effort! Also I'm sure you can make it a company expense to travel to the Netherlands and come look for yourself :)
In America you often hear they cannot afford to do stuff like this.
However, the question should be, how can you afford not to do this?
If you think safety is expensive, try paying for the consequenses and see if you like that better.
Well, see, if we do this, some billionaires might be slightly less rich. If we _don't_ do it, on the other hand, some peasants will drown, and peasants aren't really people (according to said billionaires).
@@alaeriia01 amazon up until recently with some tax changes took out "dead peasant insurance" on their low level employees so they actually got paid when they died. They are of course replaced instantly. It's win win win!, tax break, get paid, workers know their pace. This is a real documented thing btw.
20:23 Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson *did* make up that story. He is one of the best liars in UK history - but then he was an American born in New York.
Grady is the absolute best. As always the information is accurate, detailed enough to keep this earthen dam designers interest, while simultaneously keeping it high-level enough for a broader audience.
I would love for Grady to create webinars or seminars that could be taken for PE continuing ed credits....added bonus if you take something like the Dutch levy system or SF Millenium Tower and work in ethics to cover those hours as well (ethics PDH's are alwasy so dry and boring).
Very well informed video. Being Dutch, I even learned something (why the Veluwemeer exists). Pronunciation is admirable, just that Beemster sounds something like baymster.