Sytse Riedstra
Projecttechnician
I work in the DeltaFlume. That's a testing facility in which we recreate certain dykes or wind turbine poles to scale or one-to-one so we can test them. Using those results, we can draw certain conclusions or create other computer models. My role is to actually build the simulation and test it with waves and water flows.
The solutions we test here will be implemented within a few years. A good example of this is the Afsluitdijk, which has been renovated in recent years. It was an amazing project. Lengthy, because the Afsluitdijk is thirty kilometres across and we had to retest a large part of the dyke sections during the renovation.
With a smile on my face
This is because not every section of the dyke needs to be equally strong. Some dyke sections are located in the lee of a Wadden Island, and in some sections the water is more shallow in front of the dyke, which slows down the waves. In our Flume you can see that the Afsluitdijk changes all the time. When you’re part of that, you see that your work is very beneficial and quickly applied.
I enjoy it when the deadline approaches and the pressure is high, and that we’re successful at the end of the day. There are moments during test days that things don’t go as expected. Those are precisely the moments when I have a smile on my face. It’s when there’s pressure. In those moments, we have to come up with new and better ideas because the testing has to go on.
I certainly see things going in the wrong direction around the world in recent years. We see water levels rising and certain weather conditions becoming more extreme. But actually, I’m more impressed with the resilience of human beings than with what the weather is doing lately. We’ll come out on top. I hope we can play our part in that.
Keep seeing what we do
I work here because it's so urgent. I certainly do think you have to have a long-term vision as well. It’s important that in twenty, thirty, fifty, or even a hundred years from now, we still remain safe, both in the Netherlands and abroad. But the shorter-term application of what can be done now, and what is needed now, should also remain a priority.
The fact that I see results from my work fairly quickly keeps me motivated. If I can keep seeing what we do and why we do it, I can carry on forever.