Almost one third of the Netherlands lies below sea level. The Netherlands wages a continuous battle with the sea, fighting for every piece of land. The major hydraulic engineering projects of the last centuries, culminating in the Delta Works, are examples of victories over the sea. The Netherlands and water are thus inextricably linked. The coast is world famous and behind it is a fascinating landscape of ditches, canals, lakes and rivers. The mills, dams, pumping stations, polders and dikes are typical in the Netherlands.

Dikes must be continuously maintained and especially now, in the current time of climate change, is this becoming increasingly important. Martijn van den Berg from Meetpunt is working on a project involving the strengthening of dikes.

"Among other things, ground solutions and sheet pile structures are being installed in this project to strengthen existing dikes. We are using the Omnidots vibration monitors to monitor surrounding houses to prevent damage from the dike work. We have now started recording autonomous vibrations. This is a baseline measurement, because the work has not yet started. We are now measuring all the types of vibrations you can think of. When work begins, we will know which vibrations are normal for the environment and which are caused by the construction work.

"In terms of assembly, a SWARM sensor with MEMS technology is really easier than working with a geophone."

As soon as the work begins, my clients will get daily reports. We will additionally use Omnidots' API to get the reports into our own system.

"The batteries last about six weeks; you don't have to change them often."

In terms of installation, a SWARM sensor with MEMS technology is really easier than working with a geophone. Geophones took more time, but the installation of the Omnidots SWARM is a piece of cake. Then you just create a measuring point in Honeycomb and the rest is self-explanatory. Sometimes I ask questions on the Omnidots chat and I recieve good help. The batteries last about six weeks; you don't have to change them often.

On this project, we have not yet been able to prevent damage with Omnidots because the baseline measurement is still ongoing, but on other projects we experienced that the vibration measurement exceedance was triggered and then we continued to work in an adjusted controlled manner. That was a project in which a wooden sheet pile wall had to be driven in, but with adjusted vibrations."

Martijn van den Berg has been active in the surveying world since 2007 and has experience as a surveyor, sizing agent, project leader, business manager and monitoring specialist. In 2020 he started Meetpunt, a company for monitoring and measuring. Meetpunt helps with the preparation of a measurement plan, carrying out the measurements and making a final report.

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The benefits for Meetpunt

For Meetpunt, these are the biggest advantages of working with Omnidots:

• Easy assembly
• Saving time
• Easily create a measuring point