We had a wonderful day tour today with the theme of “What makes the Netherlands, The Netherlands” and it is about water management.
In the 1500’s, The Netherlands had a flash flood killing 2000 people. The Netherlands is the lowest point of the European land gradient, meaning if the water overflows in Europe, the water drains through The Netherlands. You can imagine with Climate Change this situation isn’t getting better. 40% of The Netherlands is below sea level.
So, what do you do? You build a water management organization which moves and manages the distribution and draining of water.
In the 1700’s, the Kinderdijk windmills were built that used a system to move water in three stages from the low lands to the river and out to the North Atlantic. These windmills are still operational today. And are majestic.
Now today, Delta Works. No more a finger in the dike. This is an engineering masterpiece. Fully automated, When sensors sense that the water levels from the North Atlantic will drown the countryside, giant arms move out an automated, fill the dam structure to sink it, blocking the water from flowing. It is amazing to see.
https://www.rijkswaterstaat.nl/en/water/water-safety/delta-works
The world around me 