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The Netherlands Centre for Geodesy and Geo-Informatics (NCG) is the successor to the National Commission for Grade Measurement and Leveling (1879-1937), the National Geodetic Commission (1937-1989) and the Netherlands Geodetic Commission (1989-2014).
National Commission for Grade Measurement and Leveling
The National Commission for Grade Measurement and Leveling was established by Royal Decree on February 20, 1879, based on advice from the then Royal Academy of Sciences. Her task was to carry out, scientifically supervise and coordinate the accuracy leveling and triangulation of the Netherlands.
National Geodetic Commission
Its successor, the National Geodetic Commission, was established in 1937 to continue the Commission’s task and also to act in general coordination vis-à-vis the various government services in the geodetic field. The executive work had now been taken over by government services.
Netherlands Geodetic Commission
As part of a reorganization, the National Commission, which until then fell under the then Ministry of Education and Science, was transferred to the Royal Academy of Sciences. During this transition in 1990, the name of the Commission was changed to the Netherlands Geodetic Commission. When the then Academy Council for Earth Sciences of the Royal Academy of Sciences was established in 1990, this commission obtained the status of a permanent committee of the ARA. On January 1, 1994, it was included as an institute in the research organization of the Royal Academy of Sciences. As of January 1, 2004, it was part of the Physics department of the Royal Academy of Sciences.
In 2004, the 125th anniversary of the Netherlands Geodetic Commission and its predecessors was commemorated.
Netherlands Centre for Geodesy and Geo-Informatics
Since the end of 2013, the Netherlands Geodetic Commission is no longer part of the Academy and therefore ceased to exist. Since the commission plays an important role in the field, a number of important players in the field established the Netherlands Centre for Geodesy and Geo-Informatics (NCG) on January 1, 2014. In principle, this NCG continues the activities of its predecessor.
Prof. F.A. Vening Meinesz (1887-1966)
From 1927 to 1966, Felix Andries Vening Meinesz was a member of the then permanent National Commission for Grade Measurement and Water Passing and its successor, the National Geodetic Commission. From 1937 to 1947 he was chairman of the Commission.
In a series on historical places of Dutch science, an article about a trunk belonging to Prof. F.A. Vening Meinesz was published in the Science supplement of the Dutch newspaper ‘De Volkskrant’ of August 18, 2001. Until 2014, the suitcase was in the archives of the Nethelands Geodetic Commission in Delft. When this Commission ended in 2013 and its successor, the Netherlands Centre for Geodesy and Geo-Informatics, was established, the archive was transferred to the State Archives. Vening Meinesz’s suitcase is therefore at the State Archives and contains results of his gravity measurements carried out in a submarine in the 1930s.
Prof. J.M. Tienstra (1895-1951)
Jacob Menno Tienstra started his career as a surveyor at the land registry in his hometown of Sneek. In the 1920s he was appointed head of the newly established urban surveying department in Amsterdam.
In 1931, Tienstra was appointed lecturer in cadastral technology, land consolidation, applied arithmetic and error theory at the National Agricultural School in Wageningen, where he was responsible for the surveyor course.
On January 1, 1939, he was appointed professor of surveying, spirit levels and geodesy at the Technical College in Delft (now TU Delft) and in 1946 he was appointed rector magnificus. In 1949 he managed to set up a university a geodetic engineer course, which made it possible to obtain a doctorate.
In addition to his academic career, he was chairman of the Dutch Surveying Federation from 1936. He was also a member of several government committees in the field of surveying. From 1937 he was a member of the National Geodetic Commission. He was secretary of the Commission from 1945 to 1947 and chairman from 1947 until his death in 1951.
In 1998, the Prof. J.M. Tienstra Research Prize established by the then Netherlands Geodetic Commission on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the geodetic engineering course at TU Delft. The aim of the prize is to promote and make visible research in the Netherlands in the field of geo-information and geodesy.
Prof. W. Baarda (1917-2005)
Willem Baarda was a member of the National Geodetic Commission from 1952 to 1996 and an honorary member from 1996. He was Secretary of the Commission from 1957 to 1980 and Chairman of the Commission from 1980 to 1987. He was an honorary member of the Commission.
With his scientific contributions, Baarda has left an indelible mark on contemporary geodesy. His theories were tested nationally and internationally and practical but rigorous solutions were proposed for geodetic practice. He was, directly or indirectly, a teacher of many and his ideas are now referred to as the ‘Delft School’. He has also enriched the geodetic vocabulary with his work. His calculation methods have become indispensable in current software systems, whether they are used for cadastral, geodynamic or earth observation purposes.
In addition to various honorary memberships, Prof. Baarda was a Knight in the Order of the Dutch Lion, Officer in the Order of Oranje Nassau, member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, honorary doctor of the University of Stuttgart and bearer of the Levallois Medal of the International Association of Geodesy (IAG). In 2004, on the occasion of the 125th anniversary of the NCG, the first biennial Prof. Baarda lecture was held and a bust of him was unveiled.
Prof. J.E. Alberda (1926-2010)
Jouke Alberda was a member of the Netherlands Geodetic Commission from 1980 to 1997 and he held the position of secretary from 1980 to 1992. In this position he had to deal with the transition from the Netherlands Geodetic Commission to the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW). He prepared and supervised this transition on January 1, 1990 in an excellent manner. Jouke Alberda was also a member of the Working Group on the History of Geodesy of the Netherlands Geodetic Commission and its predecessor, the National Geodetic Commission.
Alberda played an important role in the realisation of the European height system in the 1960s. Together with his colleagues from the Laboratory for Geodetic Computing Technology he carried out the calculation, analysis and validation of the European level network. Alberda managed to combine his scientific work with various administrative positions.
Prof. M.J.M. Bogaerts (1934-2017)
In 1976, Theo Bogaerts was appointed professor in the ‘Theory of Real Estate Systems’ at TU Delft by Royal Decree. The chair was unique worldwide and put the field on the map globally. Later his professorship was called ‘Real Estate Information and Cartography’ and paved the way for fields such as ‘GIS technology’ and ‘Geo-information’. As a result of this uniqueness, the lecture material had to be built from scratch.
He was involved in a master’s degree in Geomatics (later converted into a master’s degree at the faculty of Architecture and a track at the faculty of Civil Engineering) and the inter-university MSc Geographical Information Management and Applications (GIMA). Approximately 100 students have graduated under him and nine PhD students have obtained their doctorates under his supervision. For his tireless efforts in the field of education, the Land Surveying Society Snellius granted him honorary membership.
In 1985 he founded the Study Center for Real Estate Information Foundation (SSVI), a joining of forces between government institutions, science and companies, resulting in, among other things, the Photographic Registration for Analog Image Processing and Map Production, in which a ‘horizon camera’ was further developed.
His expertise was also more than appreciated internationally. That started in (Dutch) Suriname, to which he was dedicated for the rest of his life, with the realization of a land registry. Partly at the request of the World Bank, projects followed in Colombia and African countries.
Bogaerts was dean (during 1977-1980 and 1992-2002) and was also active in many bodies outside TU Delft. He was, for example, a member of the National Geodetic Commission and chairman of the Working Groups ‘Uniformation’ and ‘Topography and Pipes’ in the context of the Administrative Consultation Committee on Government Automation.