The Netherlands response to climate change

Recent political decisions made

·        2005 – decided to ‘climate proof’ the country. 200 year plan

·        Two thirds of population live below sea level

·        December 2007 – increase of $20 billion on sea defence and water quality

·        $4 billion on flood/river defence

·        Previously $680 million was used on maintaining and improving the water defence system. The dutch have been doing it for over a millennium.

·        €100 per Dutchman.

The possible effects

·        Climate models show that more abrupt showers will occur in the Rhine catchment area – goes through Netherlands

·        Rise of 30 inches or around 2m in sea level in next 100 years

·        2m sea level rise with nothing done – Rotterdam, Alkmaar, Breda, Groningen under water.

·        5m “” – over half of Netherlands below water. Roosendaal. Bremen, Hamburg, Calais, Brugge.

·        9m – three quarters under water. Copenhagen, Aalborg, Antwerp, Portsmouth, Hull, Blackpool, Malmo, Helsingborg.

Strategies and why they were implemented

·        Recent strategies have been to pump sand into strategic offshore locations where the North Sea will create sand dunes and re-establishing minor waterways and channels.

·        However experts say these ideas will only work until a rise of 5ft in sea level

·        Long terms strategies have included altering the course of the Rhine to a more gradual slope towards the sea. Or creating ‘breaker islands’ as a defence against storm surges.

·        Once such surge occurred in 1953, where water levels rose over 13ft breaching the defences and killed over 1,800 people. 100000 evacuees

·        After hurricane Katrina the government also decided to re-think their plans for a worst case scenario in terms of evacuation.

The Delta Works

·        After the 1953 disaster the Netherlands started work on the Delta Works. It was started in 1958 and completed in 1997. One of the 7 modern wonders of the world.

·        Largest dam – Oosterscheldedam – hour and a half from Amsterdam. Situation in Zeeland. 3km long, has 65 pillars which can slide 62 flood gates, each weighing 300-500 tonnes. In addition to the road above, load bearing beams below and the hydraulic mechanisms.

·        Each pillar is 38 metres in height and 18000 tonnes in weight.

·        Also protects a nature reserve.

·        This particular dam was built to stop too many fresh water areas building up in the area. Reduce major flooding to once every 10,000 years from once every 4,000.

The next 5 maps that are on show will give you an idea of how vulnerable the Netherlands actually are. Here is a link to the satelite imaging system we used to display the affected areas of sea level rise in euorpe: http://geology.com/sea-level-rise/netherlands.shtml