This subsidence means that in a low-lying nation famous for engineering its way around rising seas , the ground is also sinking lower, creating huge problems for the structures built on top.
At a certain point, building foundations begin to crack, sinkholes appear, roads destabilize, and the risk of flooding increases. More construction results in more pressing down of the peat — and more subsidence.
That accounts for a large part of overall CO2 emissions in the agricultural sector. At the moment, however, it is unclear which government agency is responsible for preventing further subsidence.
Martine Coevert bought her first apartment in in the port city of Rotterdam, which is sinking 1 to 1. A year after she moved in, a neighbor made an off-hand remark about having issues with his foundation, and she decided to look into the problem.
Once she convinced her neighbor to pay for a consultation, the contractor discovered the entire block would need to be reinforced within the next two years. Otherwise, she and many of her neighbors would have had to directly foot the bill.
Older houses are especially vulnerable. Many buildings constructed before were built on wooden pilings beneath their brick foundations. If those pilings become exposed to air, they rot. To help prevent damage, new trees get foundations. He says that requires digging out a byfoot ditch, putting in posts, and making a platform. Around B. That, in turn, led to an increase in demand for land. Since about one-third of the country is below sea level, the Dutch soon began to construct dikes, or low walls, to protect crops from flooding.
The dikes eventually grew larger and more elaborate, and were increasingly used to push back the sea. By , the country had created a connected system of sea and river dikes. To provide the agriculture needed to support a larger population, the Dutch created ditches to drain water from the peatland, and windmills were built to drain large tracts of land for cattle grazing and planting.
In , they created an entire province after spending decades reclaiming land from a lake. Over time, the Dutch have developed a sophisticated water management system to which the rest of the world regularly turns to address similar issues in their own countries.
But while the system keeps Dutch feet dry, as the local saying goes, there has been much less focus on keeping the land from sinking. The sinking can occur naturally: Around 0. But human activity can also cause the land to subside. Generally, this occurs for three reasons: extraction of natural resources like water or gas; added weight from the construction of buildings and roads; and ground water drainage, which in the Netherlands exposes the peat to air and causes it to break down through oxidation.
The Dutch have gas fields in the northern part of the country, and gas extraction has been responsible for problems such as earthquakes. As a result, the government has been slowing the rate of extraction and will stop it entirely by But the draining, now by pumping stations, is a far bigger factor in subsidence. Living below sea level is not something that keeps us occupied as we live our lives.
But, to be honest, we enjoy one side of this coin tremendously because you can best explore the Netherlands by boat. There are so many canals and rivers that connect different lakes that it never gets dull.
Therefore, I highly recommend renting a boat in The Netherlands but keep these four important points in mind before renting a boat in The Netherlands. The Dutch have devised ingenious two-step water and hydraulic management system to create and hold on to their land below sea level. This is because the Dutch have a particular relation with water.
Water is continuously pumped to higher canals, which, in their turn, transport the water to the rivers to allow it to flow back to the sea. In the lower-lying parts of the country, hundreds of pumps are working day in day out to pump the water out and keep it out.
The Youtube video below provides excellent visualization of the entire process of land reclamation. It is a fantastic video with already more than 1,2 mln views. This process can never stop, or the water in these parts of The Netherlands will flood the land again.
Fortunately, they have backup pumps in case one or more pumps run into technical issues. I understand that it is hard to visualize land lower than water. It does not make much sense at first sight.
Therefore, I have taken a picture to show you what it looks like when water is higher than the land. This picture is taken close to my home and demonstrates how water can be above the land itself. This picture is taken on top of a drainage canal, looking downwards to the reclaimed land.
Since water is pumped continuously into the drainage canal, the land below the drainage canal will not be flooded and will stay dry. This word is derived from the necessary cooperation between polders to keep them all dry because they would flood if one polder was not draining enough. Hanging together is precisely what the Dutch have done over the centuries and intend to do in the future to keep their low-lying land safe and dry.
Pim has lived his entire life in The Netherlands in various parts of the country. Pim enjoys writing this blog because it is a wonderful excuse to revisit all the parts of the Netherland that he liked and rediscover all the activities that he enjoyed. Well, yes. About one third of the Netherlands lies below sea level, with the lowest point being 22 feet 6. Meanwhile, the highest point is about a thousand feet above sea level. That gives you an idea of what the landscape of the Netherlands looks like.
Well, there is an extensive system in place that keeps the country safe. Through a complex system of dikes, pumps and sand dunes along the coast, the Netherlands stays above water. In fact, it has one of the most sophisticated anti-flood systems in place anywhere in the world.
Therefore, go ahead and enjoy your visit without fear of floods.
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