Herman Arend Ferguson. Herman Arend Ferguson (25 February 1911 – 10 April 1997) was a Dutch civil engineer and hydraulic engineer who contributed to water management in The Netherlands. He played a central role in the recovery efforts following the inundation of Walcheren in 1944, and the works to repair the significant damage caused by the North Sea flood of 1953. He held senior positions at Rijkswaterstaat, authored several key publications on hydraulic engineering, and was awarded the Order of the Netherlands Lion.

Life and career 
Herman Arend Ferguson was born on 25 February 1911 in Voorburg, the son of George Ferguson and Francesca Hermina van den Brandhof. He was of Scottish ancestry. He graduated in 1938 with a degree in Civil Engineering from Delft University of Technology. After graduation, he joined Rijkswaterstaat (the Dutch Directorate-General for Public Works and Water Management), where he was employed in the  (Study Department) of the  (Directorate for the Lower Rivers).

During 1945–46, Ferguson was part of the  (Service for the Reclamation of Walcheren), which was established to oversee the reclamation of the island of Walcheren after the intentional inundation of the island during World War II. The character Rafelding in the non-fiction novel Het verjaagde water by A. den Doolaard is based on Ferguson.

Afterwards, Ferguson moved to Vlissingen and worked for Rijkswaterstaat's  (Service for Dike Repair Zeeland) following the North Sea flood of 1953. He became head of the  (Hydraulic Engineering Division) of the Delta Service from 1956 to 1960, and subsequently headed the  (Rotterdam Waterway District). Ferguson was appointed Chief Engineering Director of the  (Directorate for the Lower Rivers, 1962–1969) and later of the Delta Service (1969–1976), where he contributed to significant water engineering projects, including the Delta Works and the improvement of the Nieuwe Waterweg.

Ferguson was deeply involved in the design and construction of the Haringvliet sluices, which were critical for water flow regulation and flood protection in the Rhine-Meuse-Scheldt Delta. He also contributed to the closure of tidal inlets including the Haringvliet and Brouwershavense Gat, major Delta Works schemes which were required to ensure that flood risks were mitigated.

Publications 
Ferguson authored and contributed to numerous technical reports and publications over his career, including:

  (Lower Rivers in the 1960s: Personal Memories of a Chief Engineer-Director, 1995)
  (Dialogue with the North Sea, 1991), an exploration of the influence of human intervention on the Dutch Delta.
  (Delta Vision: A Retrospective on Forty Years of Hydraulic Engineering in Southwest Netherlands, 1988)
  (The Dutch Delta: A Compromise Between Environment and Technique in the Battle Against Water, 1983)
  (Six-Barge Push Towage: A Study of General and Nautical Aspects, 1983)
  (Note on the Concentration of Hydraulic Engineering Works in a Separate Service, 1972)
  (Hydrological Changes in the Delta Region and Their Impact on Water Management, 1965)
  (Wave Research in the Delta Region, 1959)
  (Hydraulic Research for the Design and Construction of Closure Gaps in the Delta Dams, 1958)
  (Salt Movement on the Rotterdam Waterway Especially During Low Surface Water Discharge, 1957)
  (Restoration and Improvement Works After the Disaster of 1 February 1953, 1954)
  (Report on the Condition of Banks and Beaches in Zeeland 1951 VI: Banks Along Keeten, Mastgat, and Zijpe, 1953)
  (Report on Observations with the "Ocean" in the Mouth Area of the Western Scheldt, 1943)
  (Introduction to Tide Calculation, 1943).
Most of these publications are maintained in electronic format by the Rijkswaterstaat archive.

Awards 
Ferguson was awarded the Order of the Netherlands Lion, and his contributions to the scientific underpinning of the Delta Works Plan earned him an honorary doctorate from Delft University of Technology in 1987.

See also 
 Delta Works
 Flood control in the Netherlands
 Rijkswaterstaat

References

External links 
 Trésor der Hollandsche Waterbouw – Digital repository of publications by H.A. Ferguson

1911 births
1997 deaths
Dutch engineers
Hydraulic engineering
Delft University of Technology alumni
Academic staff of the Delft University of Technology
20th-century Dutch engineers