Album of the Day: demon daze – sports.

              Today we spent the day learning about flooding and how Rotterdam prevents it. Our day started with a small tour of Rotterdam’s city center and some of its infrastructure that relates to water management. We were shown water basins built into public spaces to allow rainwater to flow and retain if necessary to avoid the necessary parts of the street getting flooded. These areas also had an incredible amount of green space, which also displaces a lot of water from the roads and roofs. We were even introduced to a sculpture that also doubled as a set of water tanks to collect excess rainwater. Our tour culminated in a short tour of a massive rooftop garden. Having a garden of that size not only helps the residents of the building by providing fresh food and space but also helps the city by allowing the rooftop itself to absorb water instead of pooling it above everyone else, which could be dangerous.

              After our time in Rotterdam, we took a bus to the Watersnoodmuseum, which is a museum that holds relics and recounts the history of the most recent massive flood the Netherlands experienced. In 1953, the Netherlands experienced a massive flood that destroyed its water retention infrastructure, leading to massive flooding around the entirety of the south. The museum exists to commemorate the lives lost and remind the people that right at that spot around 70 years ago there was a flood so devastating that the Netherlands had to redo all of its water retention infrastructure. The museum itself focuses on presenting relics found or donated from the great flood, but also it holds sections that discuss the impact of the flood on the Netherlands and how it should move to prevent disasters like this moving forward. It even has a section discussing the delta works, which we got to visit yesterday. Overall, the museum was very interesting and remembering these disasters will ultimately keep us from repeating the mistakes of the past and will help us as engineers assess what the country really needs within its infrastructure.

Note: No miffy today due to the bad weather in Rotterdam and the serious topics discussed within the museum :/