Water Management

In a coun­try which lies large­ly below sea lev­el, water man­age­ment is a cru­cial aspect of life. The Dutch have been experts in keep­ing their feet dry ever since they set­tled in the marshy lands sur­round­ing the Rhine delta. To pro­tect against flood­ing, the Nether­lands has devel­oped an advanced sys­tem of dikes, dams, and flood­gates. Today many coun­tries and cities around the world call in help from Hol­land when­ev­er they face a water-relat­ed challenge.

 

Since the real­iza­tion of the Delta Works, a large sys­tem of dams, dykes, locks and storm surge bar­ri­ers in the South­west of the coun­try, the seafront is safe. The Delta Works were built in response to the dev­as­tat­ing 1953 North Sea flood, which killed over 1,800 peo­ple and caused wide­spread dam­age. Today, a big­ger chal­lenge than hor­i­zon­tal water is ver­ti­cal water: salty ground­wa­ter push­ing through the pold­ers, but main­ly the increase in pre­cip­i­ta­tion due to the cli­mate change.

The Dutch approach this chal­lenge in an equal­ly inno­v­a­tive and prag­mat­ic man­ner, with projects includ­ing land recla­ma­tion, water reten­tion squares, under­ground rain­wa­ter stor­age and float­ing neigh­bour­hoods. The mit­i­ga­tion mea­sures also include the use of green infra­struc­ture, such as nat­ur­al flood­plains and wet­lands, which can absorb excess water and reduce the impact of flooding.

 

Our 10-minute video ‘Liv­ing on Water’ tells you more about water man­age­ment in Hol­land, before tak­ing you to four float­ing hous­ing projects in Amsterdam!

 

You can vis­it the projects in the video on our tours of IJburg and Buik­sloter­ham. Make sure to also check out our oth­er tours on water management!

Water Management Tours

Water management Netherlands Holland tour
Ams­ter­dam

Water Management in North Holland 

Ams­ter­dam  Dura­tion: 3–4 hours  Date and time to be defined  max. 25 par­tic­i­pants per guide  by bus  Con­tact us for a quote “God cre­at­ed the world, but the Dutch

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Rotterdam Architecture Tour
Rot­ter­dam

From Harbours to Highrises 

Rot­ter­dam  Dura­tion: 3–4 hours  Date and time to be defined  max. 25 par­tic­i­pants per guide  on foot, by bike  Con­tact us for a quote “Ams­ter­dam is a city with

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