HSB

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The Hydrographic Society Benelux (HSB) held a workshop entitled ‘Hydrography and geophysics: close neighbours’ in the Department of Geomechanics, Ghent University, Belgium, on Friday 22nd April 2005. The programme consisted of four presentations giving the 27 attendees an opportunity to learn more about the geology of the North Sea, the impact of geotechnical studies on the construction of a new dock in Antwerp, geophysical measurement techniques and the use of these techniques for research and water management.

The first presentation was by Cees Laban of TNO-NITG, the Geology Division of the Netherlands Institute of Applied Geoscience-TNO. He gave a brief outline of the genesis of the present North Sea, beginning with the Tertiary period of about 65 million years ago. At that time the position of the coastlines were far to the east and south and low-lying countries such as The Netherlands and Denmark were covered by the North Sea. The filling of the North Sea basin was influenced by a number of factors: subsidence of the North Sea basin created space for build-out of the deltas of the major North European river systems. These processes have been responsible for an alternating sequence of fluvial, marine and glacial sediments in the North Sea basin.

Gauthier Van Alboom, director of the Department of Geotechnics of the Flemish Community, then gave a detailed presentation on the impact of geotechnical measurements and studies on the design and construction of the Deurganckdok, a new dockyard in the port of Antwerp. Marco Griffioen, Grontmij, gave a lecture describing how geophysical techniques such as ground radar and high-resolution seismic were used in the research projects STOWA (Stichting Toegepast Onderzoek WAterbeheer) and Geowaters. He concluded that the use of these two techniques resulted in a quick and reliable method for investigating the bottom in an up to 300m-water column and penetration of the soil to a depth of more than 10m.

The last speaker was Niels Kinneging, senior consultant at Rijkswaterstaat, who gave a detailed description of the different methods for investigating the bottom. Bottom research could be looked at from a broad angle, he said. There was the bottom surface or geometry, there were objects upon the surface of the bottom; there was also bottom-penetrating research, which looked at layers of sediment and, finally, there was bottom-penetrating research to find objects in the bottom. These techniques where illustrated with the research projects IMAGO and RoxAnn.

As usual, the day closed with an informal get-together.

The organising committee would like to express its thanks for the hospitality and generosity of the Department of Geomechanics, Ghent University.

Copies of the presentations are available for download from HSB website www.hydrographicsociety.nl

Report: Luc Boehme

Agenda
HSB forthcoming society workshop: 24th June 2005 in Scheveningen, The Netherlands.

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