City Of Delft Research Articles

How Trees Shape Urban Spaces: Multiplicity and Differentiation of the Urban Forest Viewed from a Visual-Spatial Perspective

Abstract Background The field of urban forestry encompasses many dimensions, of which that of visual-spatial perception, addressing the spatial relationship between city and trees, has received little attention. Analyzing the urban forest from a visual-spatial perspective is needed to understand relationships between different components as well as site-specific qualities. Methods Tree configurations describe the relationship between form and space, determined by the relative disposition of the trees which result from an interaction between design and the development over time. Based on field observations, with the city of Delft in the Netherlands as a case study, 35 generic tree configuration types have been defined. With this “vocabulary,” specific tree configurations and their relations are researched, describing the urban forest from an eye-level perspective as an essential level on which the spatiality of the urban forest can be understood. Results Unraveling the urban forest components by comparing two emblematic ensembles of tree configurations allows an understanding of their heterogeneity as well as their coherence and dynamics. Conclusions The relationship of the tree vocabulary with the specific location exposes their role as an ordering structure and a carrier of the identity of Delft, and their differentiation and site-specific qualities, revealing a composition of wooded areas each with their own characteristics, shows both urban and forested areas as equivalent components of an urban forest mosaic. This differentiation can be used as a tool for strengthening relations between the different components as well as diversity and heterogeneity in urban forests.

Third party risk modelling of Unmanned Aircraft System operations, with application to parcel delivery service

Commercial aviation distinguishes three indicators for third party risk (TPR): i) Expected number of ground fatalities per aircraft flight hour; ii) Individual risk; and iii) Societal risk. The latter two indicators stem from TPR posed to population by operation of hazardous installations. Literature on TPR of Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) operations have focused on the development of the first TPR indicator. However the expected increase of commercial UAS operations requires an improved understanding of third party risk (TPR). To support such improvement, this paper extends the existing TPR model for UAS operations with societal and individual risk indicators. The extension is developed both at modelling level and at assessment level. Subsequently the extended approach is applied to a hypothetical UAS based parcel delivery service in the city of Delft. The results obtained for the novel UAS TPR indicators show that this aligns commercial UAS operations with land use policies and standing TPR regulation for airports and hazardous facilities.

A Classification-Segmentation Framework for the Detection of Individual Trees in Dense MMS Point Cloud Data Acquired in Urban Areas

In this paper, we present a novel framework for detecting individual trees in densely sampled 3D point cloud data acquired in urban areas. Given a 3D point cloud, the objective is to assign point-wise labels that are both class-aware and instance-aware, a task that is known as instance-level segmentation. To achieve this, our framework addresses two successive steps. The first step of our framework is given by the use of geometric features for a binary point-wise semantic classification with the objective of assigning semantic class labels to irregularly distributed 3D points, whereby the labels are defined as “tree points” and “other points”. The second step of our framework is given by a semantic segmentation with the objective of separating individual trees within the “tree points”. This is achieved by applying an efficient adaptation of the mean shift algorithm and a subsequent segment-based shape analysis relying on semantic rules to only retain plausible tree segments. We demonstrate the performance of our framework on a publicly available benchmark dataset, which has been acquired with a mobile mapping system in the city of Delft in the Netherlands. This dataset contains 10.13 M labeled 3D points among which 17.6 % are labeled as “tree points”. The derived results clearly reveal a semantic classification of high accuracy (up to 90.77 %) and an instance-level segmentation of high plausibility, while the simplicity, applicability and efficiency of the involved methods even allow applying the complete framework on a standard laptop computer with a reasonable processing time (less than 2.5 h).

Solving the User Optimum Privately Owned Automated Vehicles Assignment Problem (UO-POAVAP): A model to explore the impacts of self-driving vehicles on urban mobility

Interest in vehicle automation has been growing in recent years, especially with the very visible Google car project. Although full automation is not yet a reality there has been significant research on the impacts of self-driving vehicles on traffic flows, mainly on interurban roads. However, little attention has been given to what could happen to urban mobility when all vehicles are automated. In this paper we propose a new method to study how replacing privately owned conventional vehicles with automated ones affects traffic delays and parking demand in a city. The model solves what we designate as the User Optimum Privately Owned Automated Vehicles Assignment Problem (UO-POAVAP), which dynamically assigns family trips in their automated vehicles in an urban road network from a user equilibrium perspective where, in equilibrium, households with similar trips should have similar transport costs. Automation allows a vehicle to travel without passengers to satisfy multiple household trips and, if needed, to park itself in any of the network nodes to benefit from lower parking charges. Nonetheless, the empty trips can also represent added congestion in the network. The model was applied to a case study based on the city of Delft, the Netherlands. Several experiments were done, comparing scenarios where parking policies and value of travel time (VTT) are changed. The model shows good equilibrium convergence with a small difference between the general costs of traveling for similar families. We were able to conclude that vehicle automation reduces generalized transport costs, satisfies more trips by car and is associated with increased traffic congestion because empty vehicles have to be relocated. It is possible for a city to charge for all street parking and create free central parking lots that will keep total transport costs the same, or reduce them. However, this will add to congestion as traffic competes to access those central nodes. In a scenario where a lower VTT is experienced by the travelers, because of the added comfort of vehicle automation, the car mode share increases. Nevertheless this may help to reduce traffic congestion because some vehicles will reroute to satisfy trips which previously were not cost efficient to be done by car. Placing the free parking in the outskirts is less attractive due to the extra kilometers but with a lower VTT the same private vehicle demand would be attended with the advantage of freeing space in the city center.

Propagation of positional error in 3D GIS: estimation of the solar irradiation of building roofs

While error propagation in GIS is a topic that has received a lot of attention, it has not been researched with 3D GIS data. We extend error propagation to 3D city models using a Monte Carlo simulation on a use case of annual solar irradiation estimation of building rooftops for assessing the efficiency of installing solar panels. Besides investigating the extension of the theory of error propagation in GIS from 2D to 3D, this paper presents the following contributions. We (1) introduce varying XY/Z accuracy levels of the geometry to reflect actual acquisition outcomes; (2) run experiments on multiple accuracy classes (121 in total); (3) implement an uncertainty engine for simulating acquisition positional errors to procedurally modelled (synthetic) buildings; (4) perform the uncertainty propagation analysis on multiple levels of detail (LODs); and (5) implement Solar3Dcity – a CityGML-compliant software for estimating the solar irradiation of roofs, which we use in our experiments. The results show that in the case of the city of Delft in the Netherlands, a 0.3/0.6 m positional uncertainty yields an error of 68 kWh/m2/year (10%) in solar irradiation estimation. Furthermore, the results indicate that the planar and vertical uncertainties have a different influence on the estimations, and that the results are comparable between LODs. In the experiments we use procedural models, implying that analyses are carried out in a controlled environment where results can be validated. Our uncertainty propagation method and the framework are applicable to other 3D GIS operations and/or use cases. We released Solar3Dcity as open-source software to support related research efforts in the future.

'Most rare workmen': optical practitioners in early seventeenth-century Delft.

A special interest in optics among various seventeenth-century painters living in the Dutch city of Delft has intrigued historians, including art historians, for a long time. Equally, the impressive career of the Delft microscopist Antoni van Leeuwenhoek has been studied by many historians of science. However, it has never been investigated who, at that time, had access to the mathematical and optical knowledge necessary for the impressive achievements of these Delft practitioners. We have tried to gain insight into Delft as a 'node' of optical knowledge by following the careers of three minor local figures in early seventeenth-century Delft. We argue that through their work, products, discussions in the vernacular and exchange of skills, rather than via learned publications, these practitioners constituted a foundation on which the later scientific and artistic achievements of other Delft citizens were built. Our Delft case demonstrates that these practitioners were not simple and isolated craftsmen; rather they were crucial components in a network of scholars, savants, painters and rich virtuosi. Decades before Vermeer made his masterworks, or Van Leeuwenhoek started his famous microscopic investigations, the intellectual atmosphere and artisanal knowledge in this city centred on optical topics.

Detailing Concrete Structures of a Top-Down Built Urban Tunnel Using Diaphragm Walls

The existing railway viaduct that cuts the city of Delft into two halves is being replaced by a new 2,4 km long four-track railway tunnel including an underground railway station and an underground parking space. The article focuses on the tunnel part situated in Phoenix street, as this is the part where the new tunnel will be realized close (3,00 m) to historic buildings. Owing to scarcity in (working) space and the constraint to ensure free car/train and tramway traffic during the whole construction period, a phased top-down building method using diaphragm walls is applied. Apart from providing an introduction explaining the geotechnical calculation methods and applied monitoring and mitigating measures (prestressed struts, etc.) to secure the neighbouring buildings from unacceptable damage, the article also treats concrete-related aspects. The first point of interest is the dimensioning of the longitudinal reinforcement to avoid unacceptable crack widths in the slabs poured between (zero shrink) diaphragm walls. The calculations performed, comprising different crack models, execution details, and the results obtained are shown. The second point of interest is the modelling of the joints between the horizontal slabs (roof and floor) and the diaphragm walls. In the first phase of the work, completely fixed joints were modelled, resulting in heavily reinforced joint sections and thus risks of possible bentonite inclusions. Investigation methods used to check the quality of the diaphragm walls before excavation are discussed briefly. Owing to the problems encountered, the structural model of the second phase tunnel part was modelled using hinged connections between the diaphragm wall and slabs. The impact of this alternative design on the concrete work in the second and first phases is explained.

Creative City Policy and the Gap with Theory

The creative city concept is popular among researchers and policy-makers. On the one hand, academic literature elaborates, on a conceptual level, the importance of creativity and innovation for urban competitiveness; on the other, numerous cities develop and implement creative city policies in practice. The connection between these two is rather weak and, accordingly, creative city policy tends to be ad hoc. Our purpose in this paper is to narrow the above-mentioned gap between theory and practice, by addressing the question of how conceptual insights into the creative city can be converted into an elaborated operational approach for local policy practice. We propose a three-step approach: (1) to position a city's current creative places and communities within the context of social and economic structures, urban narratives and prevailing governance structures and style by means of a systematic analytical framework; (2) to assess the spatial, social and symbolic place qualities of the creative production and consumption; (3) to identify options for effective policy intervention. We further examine how these steps may be applied in practice, and use the city of Delft in the Netherlands as an example. A discussion of the applicability and implementation of this approach concludes the paper.

Delft blues: the long road from university town to knowledge city

Besides their teaching and research tasks, universities are increasingly expected to valorise knowledge into innovation. This involves new products, but also transdisciplinary knowledge exchange with people, technologies, firms and markets. This relates to knowledge-based urban development through a variety of locally-specific variables and features. This paper discusses the role of knowledge capacity in the development of the Dutch City of Delft. It emphasises the role of Delft University of Technology as a main player of Delft’s knowledge capacity, the qualities of the local production and consumption milieus and the role of local knowledge city policy. It explores the role and impact of knowledge capacity in urban development in a setting with mixed advantageous and disadvantageous qualities. The results suggest that the reason for the disappointing employment creation in Delft may be found particularly in the triple helix cooperation between government, knowledge institutions and industry.

Home Zones: A Planning and Design Handbook by Mike Biddulph

Children, Youth and Environments Vol. 14 No. 1 (2004) ISSN: 1546-2250 Home Zones: A Planning and Design Handbook Biddulph, Mike (2002). Bristol, UK: The Policy Press; 74 pages. $25.00 (paper). ISBN 186134371X. Since the 1970s when a new residential street called aWoonerf was first introduced in the City of Delft, The Netherlands, it has been regarded as one of the most innovative design concepts for neighborhood streets. Contrary to the conventional street layouts that tended to separate pedestrian paths from auto routes, the Woonerf, creates “shared streets,” boldly integrating walking and driving through reduced automobile speeds and more street amenities in the public spaces immediately around the homes (BenJoseph 1995). However, except for in a number of northern European cities, especially in the Netherlands, Denmark, and Germany,Woonerf remained more of a desirable street concept than a regular neighborhood design practice. The Woonerf schemes were more often discussed among researchers for their potential than among practitioners for their implementation in most countries outside the European continent.[1] Home Zones, the English-language expression of Woonerf, has been published as a part of the UK’s recent efforts to implement the Dutch concept into the British setting. This book is a reflection of the increased demand for more livable residential neighborhoods. The author, Mike Biddulph, an urban designer and lecturer in the Department of City and Regional Planning at Cardiff University in the UK, largely draws from his professional experience with 14 pilot home zone projects implemented during the 1990s in various parts of the UK. In essence, Home Zones is a design handbook, a very useful tool kit that charts how to promote Woonerf in ordinary 267 residential neighborhoods from pre-initiative phases to postimplementation stages. Within its nine chapters, Home Zones: A Planning and Design Handbook delineates both the planning processes and design strategies of the Woonerf system in an easy-to-follow format. After the initial chapter, which provides brief background information on this approach to street design, Chapter 2 defines what home zones are; Chapter 3 explains the history of the home zone concept in the UK and how the government has supported it, while Chapter 4 provides a practical set of criteria to assess the suitability of a home zone area. Chapter 5 briefly summarizes what can (and cannot) be achieved through introducing home zones to residential neighborhoods. Chapter 6 and 7 touch on planning processes for residents and designers to follow; Chapter 8 contains home zone design details; and Chapter 9 suggests principles to sustain home zone ideas and practices in the UK. Home Zones’ main audiences are residents, city officials, engineers, developers, planners, landscape architects, and architects. The author did a fine job of compiling relevant and useful step-by-step guides for these readers. This kind of comprehensive yet succinct guideline is a welcome reference for both practitioners and students of streets. One of the strong points of this handbook, in the reviewer’s judgment, is that it effectively articulates the critical dynamic between the planning process, the stakeholders’ participation, and the funding sources, as well as the referable design standards of Woonerf configurations. This book will be most useful to those who need practical guidelines for promoting home zones in their neighborhoods. Along with this handbook, a recent video, called Home Zones: The UK Experience would be a good visual supplement for community meetings.[2] For those who desire more in-depth discussion on this subject, beyond the practical checklists, Biddulph elaborates on the concepts in a separate, researchsupported article (Biddulph 2003). 268 The UK agencies that were involved in the publication ofHome Zones- Children’s Play Council, Transport 2000, Sustrans and the Architectural Foundation- represent the current players promoting home zones in the UK. The participation of another major institution, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, known for its social policy and social housing development in the UK, subtly indicates the social motivations driving the home zones. Indeed, this Home Zones handbook is published not by a conventional publisher of architecture or urban design, but by the Policy Press, which focuses its publications on social equity issues and other public policy matters. An insight from the UK experience with home zones...

Home Zones: A Planning and Design HandbookMike Biddulph

Children, Youth and Environments Vol. 14 No. 1 (2004) ISSN: 1546-2250 Home Zones: A Planning and Design Handbook Biddulph, Mike (2002). Bristol, UK: The Policy Press; 74 pages. $25.00 (paper). ISBN 186134371X. Since the 1970s when a new residential street called aWoonerf was first introduced in the City of Delft, The Netherlands, it has been regarded as one of the most innovative design concepts for neighborhood streets. Contrary to the conventional street layouts that tended to separate pedestrian paths from auto routes, the Woonerf, creates “shared streets,” boldly integrating walking and driving through reduced automobile speeds and more street amenities in the public spaces immediately around the homes (BenJoseph 1995). However, except for in a number of northern European cities, especially in the Netherlands, Denmark, and Germany, Woonerf remained more of a desirable street concept than a regular neighborhood design practice. TheWoonerf schemes were more often discussed among researchers for their potential than among practitioners for their implementation in most countries outside the European continent.[1] Home Zones, the English-language expression of Woonerf, has been published as a part of the UK’s recent efforts to implement the Dutch concept into the British setting. This book is a reflection of the increased demand for more livable residential neighborhoods. The author, Mike Biddulph, an urban designer and lecturer in the Department of City and Regional Planning at Cardiff University in the UK, largely draws from his professional experience with 14 pilot home zone projects implemented during the 1990s in various parts of the UK. In essence, Home Zones is a design handbook, a very useful tool kit that charts how to promote Woonerf in ordinary residential neighborhoods from pre-initiative phases to postimplementation stages. 285 Within its nine chapters, Home Zones: A Planning and Design Handbook delineates both the planning processes and design strategies of the Woonerf system in an easy-to-follow format. After the initial chapter, which provides brief background information on this approach to street design, Chapter 2 defines what home zones are; Chapter 3 explains the history of the home zone concept in the UK and how the government has supported it, while Chapter 4 provides a practical set of criteria to assess the suitability of a home zone area. Chapter 5 briefly summarizes what can (and cannot) be achieved through introducing home zones to residential neighborhoods. Chapter 6 and 7 touch on planning processes for residents and designers to follow; Chapter 8 contains home zone design details; and Chapter 9 suggests principles to sustain home zone ideas and practices in the UK. Home Zones’ main audiences are residents, city officials, engineers, developers, planners, landscape architects, and architects. The author did a fine job of compiling relevant and useful step-by-step guides for these readers. This kind of comprehensive yet succinct guideline is a welcome reference for both practitioners and students of streets. One of the strong points of this handbook, in the reviewer’s judgment, is that it effectively articulates the critical dynamic between the planning process, the stakeholders’ participation, and the funding sources, as well as the referable design standards of Woonerf configurations. This book will be most useful to those who need practical guidelines for promoting home zones in their neighborhoods. Along with this handbook, a recent video, called Home Zones: The UK Experience would be a good visual supplement for community meetings.[2] For those who desire more in-depth discussion on this subject, beyond the practical checklists, Biddulph elaborates on the concepts in a separate, research-supported article (Biddulph 2003). The UK agencies that were involved in the publication of Home Zones- Children’s Play Council, Transport 2000, Sustrans and the Architectural Foundation- represent the current players promoting home zones in the UK. The participation of another major institution, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, known for its social 286 policy and social housing development in the UK, subtly indicates the social motivations driving the home zones. Indeed, this Home Zones handbook is published not by a conventional publisher of architecture or urban design, but by the Policy Press, which focuses its publications on social equity issues and other public policy matters. An insight from the UK experience with home...

The River Rhine as a source of micropollutants in the canal sediments of the city of Delft (The Netherlands)

This paper presents a statistical analysis of the pollution levels for heavy metals and organic micropollutants at 182 sediment stations in the city canals of Delft. High pollution levels were especially observed in the inner city canal sediments, probably related to the import of polluted river Rhine water. In contrast, the more-or-less isolated outer city sites were generally much less polluted. Regression analysis on the database generally showed highly significant correlations between individual heavy metal contents. The heavy metal contents were usually significantly correlated with polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) as well. This points to one or more common sources for these micropollutants. Factor analysis and the K-means cluster analysis technique were applied on the above database; it showed a large cluster of stations, nearly all located in the outer city of Delft, characterized by relatively low heavy metal and organic micropollutants' contents. Another cluster of 18 stations, mostly located in the inner city of Delft, possessed intermediate pollution levels, directly related with the supply of river Rhine water. Finally, the stations of a third cluster, situated in the inner city as well, were highly polluted, especially by local pollution sources. The above hypotheses were further supported by a more detailed statistical analysis for a number of inner city stations, together with 10-year river Rhine pollution data.

Using the male gamete for assisted reproduction: past, present, and future.

Using the male gamete for assisted reproduction: past, present, and future.

Ground-Based Remote Sensing of Stratocumulus Properties during CLARA, 1996

A method is presented to obtain droplet concentration for water clouds from ground-based remote sensing observations. It relies on observations of cloud thickness, liquid water path, and optical extinction near the cloud base. The method was tested for two case studies (19 April 1996 and 4 September 1996) during the Clouds And Radiation experiment (CLARA). The CLARA experiment was designed to observe clouds using a variety of remote sensing instruments near the city of Delft in the western part of the Netherlands. The measurement of cloud thickness is dependent on the detection of cloud base by lidar and cloud top by radar. It is shown that during CLARA it was possible to detect cloud base with an uncertainty of less than 30 m using current lidar techniques. The agreement between in situ and remote sensing observations of droplet concentration was reasonable. An error analysis indicates that this method is most sensitive to uncertainties in liquid water path and the unknown effects of multiple scattering on lidar signal returns. When the liquid water path is very small the relative error of the liquid water path increases to unacceptable levels, so that the retrieval of droplet concentration becomes very difficult. The estimated uncertainty in the strength of multiple scattering can explain differences between observations and retrievals of droplet concentration on one day, but not the other.

Pollution assessment of the canal sediments in the city of Delft (the Netherlands)

Pollution sources for the deposited sediment material in the canals of Delft (the Netherlands) were investigated by detailed monitoring at 51 stations during the period 1991–1996, both in the inner city and the outskirts of the city. The sediment samples were all analysed for (heavy) metals, PAHs, PCBs, pesticides and mineral oil. According to the pollution classes used in the Netherlands, ca. 95% of all inner city stations in Delft were in the highly polluted classes 3 and 4, necessitating sediment dredging followed by disposal under strict conditions. In contrast, only 33% of the sediment samples in the Delft outer city fell into these pollution classes. Factor analysis showed that the inner and outer city sediments could be divided into two different clusters, each with their own characteristics. The chemical components mainly responsible for the sediment pollution were Cu, Zn, DDT, PAHs and Pb. For the latter two parameters, this points to traffic-related pollution loads whereas the main sources of copper and zinc are probably related to the corrosion of metal structures. Mass balance calculations for the Delft inner city canal system show that, of the accumulated heavy metals, around 65% of Zn and Pb and even 85% of Cu originate from outside the Delft inner city, viz. via open inlets with the main Rijn–Schie canal. In view of the decreasing contents in the sediment top layer, it is anticipated that, with the various pollution abatement measures being taken, a gradual improvement of the Delft canal sediment quality will take place.

Universities and knowlegde-based economic growth. The case of Delft

Knowledge about new technology is a main determinant of the competitiveness of cities and regions nowadays. It reduces the amount of uncertainty of companies in their daily operations. In addition, it is a basis for the establishment of new companies and the restructuring of old ones. The availability and use of knowledge has thus a major influence on the development of urban and regional economies. An amazingly small amount of research has been done on the knowledge capacity of cities to date, i.e. urban potentials to generate, store, transfer and use knowledge. This article explores therefore, the urban knowledge capacity in a theoretical and empirical sense. Attention will be given to essential urban knowledge activities, and to the comprehensive and complex nature of the phenomena involved. In addition, various planning tools aimed at knowledge-based economic growth will be considered, with a focus on differences between the actors involved, and opportunities and constraints for success. In the empirical part, the city of Delft in the Netherlands will serve as an example, particularly regarding local policies for knowledge-based growth. Delft is an interesting case given the abundant availability of new technology and the relatively low level of local new firm formation.

Assessment of heavy metal pollution in inner-city canal sediments

The spatial distribution of heavy metal pollution of canal sediments (City of Delft, The Netherlands) was investigated in the framework of a mass balance study. Heavy metal pollution in the accumulated dredged sediments showed marked spatial and vertical variations. In the sediment top layer of 10 to 15 cm thickness, copper levels varied from 45 to 281 mg Cu/kg, lead from 218 to 562 mg Pb/kg and zinc from 216 to 1400 mg Zn/kg. Values in the sediment bottom layer of 10 to 15 cm thickness were 20 to 50% higher, indicating a diminishing pollution load over the past years. Significant statistical correlations were found between the Cu, Pb and Zn contents, pointing at (a) common source(s) of pollution for these metals. Particle size analysis showed substantially enhanced levels of heavy metals in the fraction smaller than 106 μm. Results of preliminary mass balance calculations indicate that the quality of the surface water used for flushing the city canal system has a predominant effect on the inner-city sediment accumulation and pollution rates.

Assessment of heavy metal pollution in inner-city canal sediments

The spatial distribution of heavy metal pollution of canal sediments (City of Delft, The Netherlands) was investigated in the framework of a mass balance study. Heavy metal pollution in the accumulated dredged sediments showed marked spatial and vertical variations. In the sediment top layer of 10 to 15 cm thickness, copper levels varied from 45 to 281 mg Cu/kg, lead from 218 to 562 mg Pb/kg and zinc from 216 to 1400 mg Zn/kg. Values in the sediment bottom layer of 10 to 15 cm thickness were 20 to 50% higher, indicating a diminishing pollution load over the past years. Significant statistical correlations were found between the Cu, Pb and Zn contents, pointing at (a) common source(s) of pollution for these metals. Particle size analysis showed substantially enhanced levels of heavy metals in the fraction smaller than 106 εm. Results of preliminary mass balance calculations indicate that the quality of the surface water used for flushing the city canal system has a predominant effect on the inner-city sediment accumulation and pollution rates.

A Passage to Indonesia

A long story could be told about the educational institutions where young Dutchmen were trained for an administrative and legal career in the Indies. This educational process started with the foundation of the Javanese Institute (Instituut voor dejavaanse taal) in Surakarta in 1832. Ten years later this institute was closed and the training of Dutch civil servants was transferred to the city of Delft in the Netherlands. A Royal Academy for Engineers has been established in that town and was subsequently made subservient to this overseas task too. The study of language at an engineering academy reads strangely but was done for reasons of economy. In the words of the Minister of the Colonies (J.C. Baud) who was responsible for this decision: the arid and unpleasant study of Oriental languages could better be accomplished in a cold climate than in the hot climate of Java which was not at all conducive to hard work and study! In 1864 the instruction of civil servants for Indonesia was transferred to a state institution in Leiden (Rijks-instelling van onderwijs in Indische taal-, land- en volkenkunde). But the municipal authorities of Delft were unwilling to lose the young hopefuls for the Indies and their wealthy parents, many of them with a colonial background themselves, who, for the sake of the education of their children, had taken domicile in Delft after their retirement. In the same year 1864 the municipal council of Delft established a local Indies Institute (Indische Instelling) of its own that turned out much more successful than the Leiden state institute which soon disappeared. On the other hand, the training of Indies lawyers and judges became a firm monopoly of Leiden University after the passing of a new law on Dutch universities in 1876.