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Before the levees break: A plan to save the Netherlands

Posted by: Maven on December 24, 2008 at 5:00 am

From Wired News:

On a late fall afternoon on the western edge of the Netherlands, coastal engineer Marcel Stive stands atop a 40-foot dune. He stares out beyond the posse of wet-suit-clad surfers wading into the breakers of the North Sea. Where the surfers see inviting waves, Stive sees dry land—and a distant storm. He points south toward Rotterdam, Europe’s busiest port. Arm outstretched, Stive rotates 180 degrees to face the shoreline running north. “As far as you can see, in both directions, we’re going to push the coast out 3, maybe 4, kilometers,” he says. “We have to—to keep the water out.”

The dunes here alongside the village of Ter Heijde are among the weakest links in the complex network of natural barriers, dams, levees, canals, pumps, and storm-surge barricades that keep this lowest of low countries dry. More than half of the Netherlands sits below sea level, and if a megastorm were to break through these not-so-formidable dunes, the water could inundate Rotterdam and surrounding cities within 24 hours, flooding thousands of square miles, paralyzing the nation’s economy, and devastating an area inhabited by more than 2 million people.
More than half of the Netherlands sits below sea level, and if a massive storm were to break through the dunes, Rotterdam would be inundated in 24 hours. Photo: Ralph Hargarten

Stive is part of a Dutch team charged with reducing that risk. Narrowing the gap between the Netherlands and North America by a couple of miles would be a start, and as a bonus it would create valuable new real estate for recreation and development. Also on the drawing board are massive new storm-surge barriers and reinforcements around cities like Rotterdam and Dordrecht, built on the marshy delta where the Rhine and Meuse rivers meet the sea. “If you see a certain future, you must react,” Stive says. And as he sees it, that future looks wet.

Read more from Wired News by clicking here.

December 24, 2008 · Filed Under International Water Issues

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