Metronome

On January 9th I visited the ‘Metronome’, a tidal facility on the Faculty of GeoScience at Utrecht University, in which the behaviour of rivers and estuaries is simulated in order to investigate long-term effects on this landscapes and in the future perhaps can predict the changing form of our coastline.

Professor Maarten Kleinhans has commissioned the construction of a huge machine measuring 20 metres by 3 metres that slowly tilts to and fro. The tilting mimics the ebb and flow of the tides. In addition, a river flows in the container and storm waves are generated that crash against the coast. In the Metronome, every minute is the equivalent of a day in the real world.

Today I followed the 4th Christiaan Brunings Lecture at UU with lectures given on research about rivers, estuaries and sea-level(rises).