Bart Schultz
In 2016, I attended a workshop on Sustainable water management in tidal areas in Tainan. Taiwan is very active in this area, as the country has many densely populated coastal areas with the associated problems in water management and flood protection. In addition, Taiwan is often confronted with typhoons, which are not trivial. Aspects of water quality, subsidence and the impact of human activities on the environment also play an important role.
The workshop itself was very interesting. In addition, to my surprise, Tainan was home to Fort Zeelandia, built by the Dutch East India Company (VOC) between 1624 and 1634. The fort is now a tourist attraction.
One of the things that surprised me the most during this workshop, however, was during the visit to the Tainan Science Park, one of the items of the workshop. The Science Park turned out to be located in the ShanHua polder of 1,038 hectares. We were given a lecture on how water management is organised in this polder. The discharge of the polder is done by a large pumping station. In such introductions, the pumping capacity is always given in cubic metres per second, or per minute. Because this does not directly say much, I always do a simple calculation: how much this would be in millimetres per day, counted over the surface area of the polder? I arrive at a value of almost 2 metres per day and think that I have made a calculation error.
After the lecture, I go to the speaker and show him my calculation. I ask him if this is really correct. He confirms it immediately, so it turns out that I have not made a calculation error. I have never been in a polder with such a large discharge capacity. For comparison: the combined discharge capacity of the pumping stations in Polder Flevoland in the Netherlands amounts to approximately 11 millimetres per day. In itself, this is not a cause for concern, because with this discharge capacity, the Water Authority is perfectly capable to properly managing the water under the circumstances in Polder Flevoland.
Back to the enormous discharge capacity of the ShanHua Polder. First of all, it is important that the park houses several computer chip factories, with the associated supply and processing companies. They want to prevent them from being flooded. A good shower in Taiwan can reach up to a metre per day, and that is not even including the very extreme showers. This explains the enormous discharge capacity they have chosen, although it seems exaggerated at first glance. All in all, an interesting and very impressive visit.
