Dear Mr. Chairman, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen,

On behalf of Delft Hydraulics and Delft University of Technology, I wish to congratulate the organizers with the initiative to hold this second International Conference on Estuaries and Coasts. I have excellent memories of the first one, three years ago in Hangzhou, and I trust this one will be at least as good.

I think it is very important for specialists on estuarine and coastal dynamics to have an international forum to discuss their progress. I also think it is important for these people to get acquainted with what is happening in one of the most rapidly developing and dynamic countries of the world, also from their specialist point of view. Not only has China a number of absolutely fascinating estuaries, deltas and coastal zones, it is also quite active in developing these areas. The time lapse between planning and realization is still very short here, the number of projects is large, and the problems are often challenging. This enables us to gather new experience and to further innovate our profession, an absolute necessity if we want to face the challenges of climate change and the ever increasing pressure on space and natural resources.

So, nothing but excellent reason to be here. I am really looking forward to this conference, where I hope to hear a lot of new findings from which we can all benefit and learn. I wish all participants an interesting, instructive, fruitful and above all pleasant conference.

Thank you for your attention.