VEEN

NETHERLANDS (see also List of Individuals)

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21.12.1893 Uithuizermeeden/NL - 9.12.1959 s'Gravenhage/NL

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Johan van Veen graduated in 1919 as a civil engineer from Delft Technical University to join the Rijkswaterstaat, the Dutch governmental watermanagement authority in 1929 for the rest of his career, after having been associated with various engineering offices. He was first a member of the Great Rivers office, of which he took over as director in 1933. In the 1930s, van Veen was involved in the observations relating to Zuiderzee, the large Dutch land reclamation project initiated by Hendrik Antoon Lorentz (1853-1928). In the 1950s, van Veen was also integrated in the design of the Deltaplan, Netherlands second large national work to conquer the Sea.

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Van Veen was an individual of wide interests, such as in historical geography, geology, land reclamation and scientific instrumentation. Early in his career he investigated tidal motion, sediment transport and tidal inlets along the Dutch estuary. He measured with a personally developed probe discharge, sand motion and density profiles, to understand the natural dynamics in estuaries and to improve conditions for navigation. A major issue discussed by van Veen was an interdisciplinary approach to sediment supply to the Dutch coast, as considered in his PhD thesis of 1936. The 1950 paper summarizes the results of 20 years of research in estuarine and tidal basin morphodynamics. He presented not only interesting observations but in addition tried to capture the essentials of the dynamic behavior of complex coastal systems in apparently simple sketches. This work is considered an excellent introduction to the channel dynamics of estuaries, tidal inlets and tidal basins, therefore.

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_{Ham, W. van der (2003). Meester van de Zee: Johan van Veen. Balans: Amsterdam. P}

_{Maris, A.G. (1960). Dr.ir. Johan van Veen. De Ingenieur 72(1): A1-A2. P}

_{Veen, J. van (1933). Onderzoek naar het zandtransport van rivieren. De Ingenieur 48(B): 151-159. Veen, J. van (1936). Research in the Dover Straits in relation to the condition of the Netherlands Coast. Dissertation: Leiden (in Dutch).}

_{Veen, J. van (1947). Analogie entre marées et courants alternatifs. La Houille Blanche 2(9/10): 401-416. Veen, J. van (1950). Ebband flood-channel systems in the Dutch tidal waters. Den Haag. Veen, J. van (1953). Land below sea levelhttp://www.waterstaatsgeschiedenis.nl/tijdschrift/tvw2001mei1/ten%20horn.htm . s'Gravenhage. http://www.waterstaatsgeschiedenis.nl/tijdschrift/tvw2001mei1/ten%20horn.htm http://www.delftintegraal.tudelft.nl/info/index736a.html?hoofdstuk=Artikel&ArtID=5108 P http://www.delftintegraal.tudelft.nl/info/index736a.html?hoofdstuk=Artikel&ArtID=5108 P}