Dear MEL Topic Readers,
The Netherlands vs the sea: The race to hold back rising waters
About a quarter of the Netherlands lies below sea level, and major coastal
cities Rotterdam, the largest seaport in
Europe, sits at -4 meters, and Amsterdam, the capital, at -2 meters. But unlike
New Orleans (Vol.5166), the low-lying nation has long been protected by massive
storm-surge barriers called the Delta Works for decades from the rising levels
of the North Sea and overflowing rivers. Completed in 1997, the 1,000km long
protective system consists of dams, dikes, levees, sluices, and pumps. However,
as sea levels rise faster and storms become fiercer, the protective system is
feared to become unsustainable. The country is already spending about 1% of its
GDP annually on building new structures and maintenance and operation of the existing
system. It took more than 1,800 lives in the 1853 North Sea Flood to initiate the
Delta Works project. How will the Netherlands cope with the rising danger?
Read the article and learn about how human ingenuity has been protecting
the Netherlands’ low-lying land.
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