Description
Keynote: Drought in a country below sea level
Speaker: Hans de Vries
Hans de Vries is chairman of the Dutch national crisis advisory team, that acts in times of serious drought and freshwater shortages. In the summer of 2018 he and his team worked 24/7 for about three months, in order to help mitigate the effects of the drought. In his key-note speech he will share his experiences of that summer.
De Vries (1958) originally studied chemical engineering. Starting from the field of water quality and environment, he became an expert in all aspects of watermanagement, including ICT and data for watermanagement. He now works for Rijkswaterstaat, the national waterboard that is part of the Ministry of Infrastructure and Watermanagement.
In 2018 The Netherlands, like many other European countries, faced a serious drought crisis. Temperatures were high, hardly any rain fell, water level of the river Rhine was extremely low for five months, and many social sectors experienced problems. From a central office in Lelystad, a national advisory team monitored the situation, built scenario’s and advised regional and national decision makers.
De Vries’ key-note will focus on various aspects that are not directly related to the drought issue itself, but nevertheless extremely important. Things like information overload, time pressure, internal and external communication, teambuilding (or -problems), fatique, tunnel vision, et cetera.
