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.