Development of Control Systems for Drainage in Polder Landscapes: a gap in the process

The development of a new RTC system for a polder landscapes whose geography and current management practices developed over a time span of hundreds of years is a complex undertaking. The results to be achieved are generally formulated in terms of policies instead of clear requirements. Both in the literature on controller design and in practice the full process needed to transform policy statements into a control system that best serves those policies is somewhat neglected. Part of the problem is the rapid development of technology in general and resulting new options for automatic control. This is especially problematical in an environment where this path should be traversed together with the stakeholders. An analysis is presented of present Dutch practice and a proposal is made for a new approach that may well be applicable to RTC development for other complex water systems.