A Letter from Monique de Vries, Vice Minister of Transport, Public Works, and Water Management

Some time ago, Martin Reuss informed me about an interesting initiative, taken far from the Netherlands, to prepare a special issue of Technology and Culture dealing with Dutch water history. Naturally, I became most interested in this endeavor. Having had the opportunity to see drafts of the articles and essays for this issue, I can say that they cover the important developments in the history of Dutch water management. Of course, the whole story is too long and complicated to be analyzed comprehensively in a few pages; that history, after all, covers a millennium. Thus, this issue emphasizes some essentials.

The authors refer in particular to areas in the western part of the country, the land between Amsterdam and Rotterdam. Although today several meters below sea level, this flat area constitutes the Netherlands' most important economic region. At the same time, its wetlands are important natural areas that must be considered in any water management plan. Many important lessons relating to water management have emerged here from the thousand years of technological, social, and political experimentation. They are elaborated in this issue in articles dealing not only with technical developments but with organizational and financial aspects and with the ways local, regional, and national institutional reforms have periodically emerged. All are worthy of consideration, even by people outside of the Netherlands. That alone testifies to the importance of this special issue, an initiative all the more wonderful because it comes from abroad!

Clearly, past water management in the Netherlands resulted from a process of trial and error, perhaps particularly so in the application of technology. We know that limited theoretical knowledge constrained engineers. Practical on-the-job experience, such as that developed in the wet lowlands over the centuries, shaped water management, making even more remarkable the innovations analyzed in this issue. In addition, human intervention and development on the soft, water-saturated, alluvial soil produced an irreversible effect on land subsidence. Along with the increase in sea level, this intervention created a situation in which long-term failures almost invariably followed short-term successes, making almost any engineering project controversial locally, nationally, or both. This situation will not change in the future but rather will certainly continue, in part because climate change is expected to lead to further sea level rise.

This special issue addresses some of the essentials of the remarkable story of Dutch water history, which has led to today's comprehensive water management. I recommend it to anyone interested in the relationship between technology, socioeconomic aspects, the environment, and water management, particularly as applied to low-lying alluvial coastal regions with water-saturated soft soils, such as characterize the Netherlands.

Monique De Vries
Vice Minister of Transport, Public Works,
and Water Management
The Netherlands