Livable Lowlands • Similar picture of another part of the boulevard • working in the enormous holes in the sea wall • The next morning, people trying to reinforce the exposed part of the sea wall Livable Lowlands • The flooded town, the next morning • Church elders and the parish priest making their way to dry land • See the debris floating on the water Livable Lowlands • People on one of the other flooded island being ferried in a rowing boat to dry land • Most of them with very little of their belongings • The day after the flood was reasonably calm allowing such operations Livable Lowlands • This was the way many areas of the south western parts of the Netherland looked the days after the storm • The picture was probably taken at low water Livable Lowlands • The tidal difference between low and high water could run up to 15 feet • A small village built around the church totally flooded Livable Lowlands • Flooded farm house in the snow. • The weather worsened causing many of the houses to collapse Livable Lowlands • North Rona, Scotland • Foula, Shetlands • Sandette, a sand bank in the eastern entrance of the English Channel Livable Lowlands • The flooded areas in early 1953 • Some of the islands were completely flooded • 1836 people drowned overnight Livable Lowlands • Week three, • The Delta Works, working together with water • The works in the SW of the country • Comparison with US floods • Hurricane Sandy, Southern Louisiana Livable Lowlands • The disastrous floods of 1953 caused the creation of the Delta Plan • The plan consisted connecting the many islands in the SW with dams Livable Lowlands • This would reduce the length of the dikes exposed to the sea by 430 miles. • The access to Rotterdam and Antwerp would remain open to allow ships to reach those ports • The dikes along those waterways would be heightened and strengthened Livable Lowlands • It was estimated that a complete failure of the coastal defenses when completed would be between 10.000 and 20.000 years. • This estimate has shown to be too optimistic, as rise of sea level, due to global warming was under estimated. • The expectation is that the rise of the North Sea by 2100 is 1.3-1.8 meters and by 2200 4 meters Livable Lowlands • Meanwhile there have been a number of alterations made to the Delta Plan • The Ooster Schelde closure was originally to be a dam, this would have caused major environmental problem with the loss of a seawater basin. Environmentalists and fishermen persuaded parliament to change the original plan • Agreed was to construct a storm surge barrier Livable Lowlands • This also resulted in additional dams and locks on the eastern side of the Ooster Schelde to limit the effect of salt water and safeguard an inland water way route between Rotterdam and Antwerp Livable Lowlands • An expensive system of gates were constructed which can be closed off when the sea level is expected to rise 3 meters or more above the mean sea level • The system consists of 65 side supports and 62 steel doors of each 42 meters wide Livable Lowlands • Oosterschelde storm gates • The total length, of the connection is 9 km • The gate section is 3 km long Livable Lowlands • Ooster Schelde • The surge gates letting sea water in • The surge gates structure also carries a south north road Livable Lowlands • Areal picture left, of the Veerse dam, 1961 • The Ooster Schelde dam and surge gates, center of the picture, 1986 Livable Lowlands Ooster Schelde dam and surge gates Livable Lowlands The Oesterdam Livable Lowlands • In order to retain the Salt Water in the North the Philips dam was built • The Zandkreek dam has locks, • So has the Philips dam at the Volkerak dam Livable Lowlands • Maesland kering • Main port and Rotterdam river entrance • Storm doors will close automatically when a storm surge of 3 meters above normal sea level is anticipated Livable Lowlands • Maesland kering • In closed position • Completed in 1997 opened by Queen Beatrix Livable Lowlands • Maesland kering • The total costs of the barrier was 660 million Euro • The gates can be ballasted to sit firmly of the river bottom, partly de-ballasting will allow river water to be drained Livable Lowlands • Haringsvliets dam • The dam was completed in 1971 • The length is 5 KM • It has 17 movable gates Livable Lowlands • Haringsvliets dam • Each gate is 56 meters in width • The gates are not only to drain river water, but also to let sea water in to keep the inland laying waters brackish as original Livable Lowlands • Haringsvliets dam • The gates have double doors • One door on the outside and one on the inside, the outside one is the lowest, this to mitigate the effect of th d Livable Lowlands • Haringsvliets dam • The lower doors clearly show the low height • There is also a ship lock in the dam. Livable Lowlands • Brouwersdam • The dam has no locks or surge gates • Completed in 1971 as a flood barrier Livable Lowlands • Ooster Schelde • The extend of the salt water basin • From left to right: • The Ooster Schelde keering • The Zeeland bridge • The Oesterdam Livable Lowlands • Volkerak dam • Philips dam • Completed in 1969- 1987 • The Philips dam with specially designed locks has been put in place as a barrier against the salt water of the Ooster Schelde Livable Lowlands Maasvlakte 2 Extension of the port of Rotterdam, intended to accommodate larger container vessel It also included the widening of the North Sea entrance channel Livable Lowlands • The Maasvlakte 2 project is expected to be ready for vessels to enter in late 2013 • The port extension is constructed in the North Sea as reclaimed area of approximately 2000 hectares • Maasvlakte 1 has been constructed in a similar manner, both giving contractors a very specialized experience and knowledge. Livable Lowlands • The Dubai Palm Islands • Created by a Dutch and Belgium dredging contractor • They also created several other islands in the Arabian Gulf, like the port and shipyard island off Qatar. Livable Lowlands • Apart from the expectation of rising sea levels and decreasing land surface levels, it is expected that around 2100 the water discharge quantity of the Rhine and Maas will be 8000 m3/s resp. 2000 m3/s more • Costs of maintenance and extensions of the water protection works will be in 2050 1.9 billion euros per annum Livable Lowlands • What will the future bring for this and other Northern European Countries • Scientists expect the North Sea to Rise by 1 -1.8 meter by 2100. • The sea dikes are to be 1 meter higher by 2050 • The Netherlands are protecting its coast with an $81 million 'sand motor' Livable Lowlands Sand Engine • The Dutch government has built a "sand motor" — hundreds of millions of cubic feet of dredged sand that will protect the Netherlands' southern coast from sea level rise and erosion. • Over the next 20 years, waves will push the sand into protective barriers along the coast. • A significant portion of the Netherlands sits below sea level, a reality that has prompted the country to seriously address the looming consequences of climate change. Livable Lowlands Sand Engine • The sand engine (also called Sand Motor) is an experiment in the management of dynamic coastline. The first one was run off South Holland in the Netherlands. • A sandbar-shaped peninsula was created by humans; the surface is about 1 km². It is expected that this sand is then moved over the years by the action of waves, wind and currents along the coast. Livable Lowlands Sand Engine • To protect the West of the Netherlands against the sea, the beaches along the coast are artificially replenished every five years, and it is expected that the sand engine will make replenishment along the Delfland Coast unnecessary for the next 20 years. T • This method is expected to be more cost effective and also helps nature by reducing the repeated disruption caused by replenishment. • In 2017 it was announced that another sand engine would be constructed to protect the Bacton Gas Terminal and surrounding area in Norfolk, in the UK Livable Lowlands Livable Lowlands Sand Engine As beaches around the world rapidly erode, Marcel Stive of the Delft University of Technology says we need to nourish the coasts by putting sand back on the shore. These beaches are vital to coastal cities, holding back the ocean during storms. Livable Lowlands Sand Engine He has developed the Sand Engine, a means of restoring sand to the beach with minimal environmental impact. The hook-shaped peninsula extends 1 km into the sea and is 2 km wide where it joins the shore. Trailing suction hopper dredgers picked up the sand ten kilometers off the coast Livable Lowlands • Thames barrier • Has circular segment doors operated by rotating • When open the doors are recesses in the river bottom Livable Lowlands • Thames barrier • The barrier was completed and officially opened in May 1984, by Queen Elizabeth II • Construction costs in 1984 around 600 million pounds Floods on the US East and Gulf Coast • Hurricane Sandy • Sandy began as a tropical depression on October 22, 2012, somewhere south of Jamaica • Sandy went into the Atlantic coastwise US Eastern Shores not fully tropical • Sandy re-intensified into a hurricane by October 28, it made landfall on October 29 near Brigantine, NJ with winds of 80 mph FloodsLivable on the US EastLowlands and Gulf Coast • It had a wind diameter of 1,150 miles making the area of damage huge • By October 31, 6 million customers were reported without power, of which 2 million in NJ, 2 million NY, PA with 850,00 and Connecticut with 500,000 • There was widespread damage, varying from water to structural damage FloodsLivable on the US EastLowlands and Gulf Coast • In New Jersey half the city of Hoboken flooded, in Atlantic City 50 feet of the boardwalk washed away, many other cities in the state flooded, 37 people were killed, the damage is estimated at 30 billion • In New York the East River overflowed its banks, flooding large sections of lower Manhattan, Battery Park had a water surge of 13.88 feet, seven subway tunnels flooded.