Students

2008 Internship Martijn van der Boor

As a civil engineering student I was looking for an internship which focused on my speciality dredging and coastal works. Coastal works, and in particular flow of water and sand, I find very appealing and I was very enthusiastic when I heard about the ‘Geomatics Synthesis Project’ initiated by the Technical University of Delft. Medusa would be involved in this project as an external party.

The project focuses on the development of a novel surveying methodology which can be used for monitoring large coastal works at Delfland. Apart from these coastal works there is also a lot of research going on. One of the pilots which is currently being investigated is the construction of a huge island which should function as a natural nourishment, the sand erodes from the island and is transported to the beach, the so called ‘sand engine’. Main goal of this project, initiated by “Building with nature”, is creating a more effective nourishment in harmony with natural processes. Before this project is ready to be executed an answer to a very though question has to be found: where should we take the sand so the process is as efficient as possible? The ‘Geomatics Synthesis’ project tries to take a step in the right direction in finding the answer, by investigating which survey methodology is suitable for further investigation.

Along with a fellow student, Gijs Stoel, I was part of the research team which consisted of students from the Technical University of Delft. The research team was divided into smaller groups, each investigating a specific surveying system. Together with Gijs I conducted the survey on the beach and in the dunes of Ter-Heijde using the Medusa radioactive probe. The survey at sea was done together with a colleague. It was very nice due to the good weather and the stay in the bungalow near the beach, especially because a camera crew was filming when we did the survey.

After the survey was finished we collected the gathered data and made maps and wrote the report at the office in Groningen, the results had to be very clear because I had to prepare a presentation. The presentation would be held at the symposium in Delft where I talked about Medusa and the results of the survey. Very challenging and I was glad when the results turned out the good! Looking back I can say I was pleased with this internship, I have learned a lot about flow of water and sand and of course radioactivity and surveys in general.

2008-2009

Martijn van der Boor, Hanze polytechnic institute - Civil engineering speciality dredging and coastal works