Standing beneath the Maeslantkering storm surge barrier on the Dutch coast, it’s onerous to know its scale unexpectedly. Two metal arms, every so long as the Eiffel Tower is tall, relaxation open over the Nieuwe Waterweg close to Rotterdam. When the North Sea rises past a vital threshold, they swing shut, sealing off Europe’s busiest port from the ocean.
The metal colossus is, in flip, one of many largest transferring buildings on the earth. It is unapologetically bodily. And but, Maeslantkering can also be one of the software-dependent items of infrastructure on the planet.
Its operation relies on a gradual circulation of knowledge from tide gauges, wind sensors, river discharge factors and climate techniques. Long earlier than the arms transfer, fashions assess situations and undertaking outcomes. Closure follows an outlined sequence as soon as thresholds are crossed.
That orchestration depends on a digital community that behaves like infrastructure quite than background IT. It connects sensors, management rooms, operators and fashions throughout the nation, permitting bodily techniques to be coordinated as a single complete.
The organisation coordinating this exercise is Rijkswaterstaat, the Dutch authority answerable for roads, waterways and flood defences.
The identify interprets as “national water state”, a phrase that would simply belong in a dystopian science-fiction novel. Yet, Rijkswaterstaat is considered one of Europe’s oldest constantly working public establishments, based in 1798 to handle a harsh actuality for the Netherlands: water is an existential drawback earlier than it’s a political one. Numerous floods in the previous few centuries left 1000’s useless and a whole lot of 1000’s homeless.
That lengthy institutional reminiscence nonetheless shapes how the Netherlands approaches infrastructure. Roads, rivers and ports had been by no means handled as separate domains. They advanced collectively, pushed by geography, commerce and survival, lengthy earlier than digital techniques entered the image.
Today, these influences are expressed by means of software program layered onto bodily belongings that also do the heavy lifting.
“The network connects that all, and that’s what makes this orchestration possible,” mentioned Michiel Koolen, chief community architect at Rijkswaterstaat, throughout a briefing at Maeslantkering this week.
The facility is one component in a far broader operational panorama. On a traditional day, Rijkswaterstaat management rooms observe river ranges alongside the Rhine, visitors density on nationwide highways, wind masses on bridges and the working standing of locks feeding Europe’s busiest port.
Across the nation, greater than 10,000 staff function considered one of Europe’s most complicated infrastructure portfolios. Roads, tunnels, bridges, waterways, locks and storm surge limitations run constantly in a rustic that relies on them.
“At a fundamental level, we call these roadways, waterways and water systems our three major networks,” mentioned Adriaan Schutte, Rijkswaterstaat chief know-how officer. “What’s often less visible, but just as critical, is that every physical asset is now part of a digital system.”
That digital layer spans 1000’s of kilometres of fibre and connects a whole lot of places, linking area sensors, management rooms and operational platforms. Internally, it’s usually described as a fourth nationwide community, sitting alongside roads, waterways and water techniques.
“Historically, infrastructure was about objects: building dikes, tunnels, barriers, constructing bridges, operating water locks,” Koolen mentioned. “Over time it became clear you cannot manage a country like the Netherlands asset by asset. You must manage it as a system.”
Much of that system intelligence comes from infrastructure that predates the software program now working on prime of it. Fibre-optic cables initially put in for communications double as steady visitors sensors, revealing automobile density and motion by means of vibration patterns. River gauges, wind sensors, lock controls and climate information feed into shared platforms that mannequin downstream results in close to actual time.
Taken collectively, this creates a constantly up to date operational image: a sensible digital twin used to anticipate strain quite than reply after the actual fact.
A key supplier of this digital layer is Cisco, the US-based know-how group greatest often known as world chief in networking gear that carries web and information visitors between organisations, cities and international locations. While the model is commonly related to company IT, its core enterprise has lengthy been large-scale, mission-critical networks utilized by governments, telecom operators and utilities.
Cisco has labored with Rijkswaterstaat for greater than 20 years, supplying and supporting the spine community that hyperlinks management centres and area techniques throughout the Netherlands. Around 1,000 Rijkswaterstaat websites, together with Maeslantkering, are linked by way of Cisco know-how, forming a nationwide service-provider-style community spanning virtually 5,000 kilometres of fibre-optic cable.
This community underpins day-to-day operations that appeal to consideration solely when one thing goes incorrect. Nearly 60 visitors management centres managing bridges, tunnels and roads depend upon it for real-time decision-making, whereas greater than 5,000 roadside cupboards feed information into 17 management centres coordinating visitors and water techniques. The {hardware} footprint alone runs into the 1000’s, with roughly 1,500 routers and greater than 6,000 switches deployed nationwide.
Rijkswaterstaat additionally makes use of Splunk software program – now owned by Cisco – to watch community behaviour and system well being alongside visitors and water information. This offers engineers and operators early warning when situations start to degrade.
This method displays how the Dutch state thinks about infrastructure extra broadly. Roads, waterways and flood defences will not be managed as separate belongings, however as a single operational system. The digital layer is predicted to be predictable and observable. Not to say, resilient underneath stress.
For the Netherlands, that considering is essential to nationwide continuity. More than 1 / 4 of the nation lies beneath sea stage, and a far bigger proportion – round 40% – is floodable. Ports, airports and logistics corridors underpin an financial system constructed on being Europe’s gateway.
The relevance to South Africa is clear. The nation manages nationwide roads, freight corridors, ports, water techniques and energy transmission throughout far better distances, however with virtually no coordination between accountable entities. Flood harm in KwaZulu-Natal, congestion alongside Gauteng freight routes and repeated port disruptions have proven how rapidly bodily breakdowns translate into financial ones.
The nation has a proper National Water Resource Strategy, now in its third iteration, and a legislative framework that recognises water as a strategic nationwide asset. However, implementation is lacking in motion. Institutional fragmentation, abilities erosion, infrastructure failure and political interference have weakened execution, whilst local weather disaster intensifies. South Africa’s problem lies within the absence of functionality: turning coverage into sustained stewardship at a second when water safety is turning into a defining constraint on financial and social stability.
Rijkswaterstaat highlights the answer: coordination by way of digitalisation.
Digital representations more and more information how bodily danger is managed, however solely whereas information stays accessible and reliable.
That locations management, quite than know-how, on the centre of the dialogue.
“If you don’t know the water is coming, you don’t close the gates,” mentioned Christian Korff, vice-president for strategic gross sales, technique and planning for EMEA at Cisco, throughout our go to to Maeslantkering. But the true check, he mentioned, lies additional upstream.
“Forty years ago, people made the decision to put fibre into the ground. Our generation now has to make the right decisions for the infrastructure we require.”
Rijkswaterstaat (RWS) reality sheet
Aside from sustaining the Netherlands’ fundamental infrastructure, RWS can also be answerable for:
- 24 lighthouses and 325 movable bridges.
- 3,642 km of canals and rivers
- 7,372 km of carriageway
- 90,192 km² of floor water
With Cisco and different enterprise companions, Rijkswaterstaat has constructed a strong, nationwide infrastructure that serves because the “invisible force” behind Dutch mobility and security. It includes:
- 1,500 routers and over 6,000 switches deployed nationwide.
- 5,000 roadside cupboards and 17 management centres to handle visitors.
- A Cisco spine community comprising virtually 5,000 km of fiber-optic cable and 100+ Points of Presence.
- Cisco infrastructure connecting almost 60 Traffic Control Centres for bridges, tunnels, and roads, supporting real-time choice making.
* Arthur Goldstuck is CEO of World Wide Worx, editor-in-chief of Gadget.co.za, and creator of “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to AI – The African Edge”.