TrendDealing with rising sea levels: I

As they contemplate the rising sea level, one of the consequences of global warming, the citizens of the Netherlands must have a sinking feeling. Large swaths of the country are below sea level and are kept dry by an intricate system of dams, canals, and pumping stations. As the sea level rises, this project becomes more difficult and demanding.

Fortunately for the Dutch, the rise in sea level is slow, so dealing with the problem is long-term future. There are other problems, however, which cannot wait. One of them is that the Rhine river could burst its banks in areas such as Rotterdam. Moreover, as peat decomposes, land is sinking faster than the sea is rising (peat decomposition is triggered by centuries of Dutch land drainage, which throws off greenhouse gases). Then there is the problem of new roads and developments which could increase runoff, and population growth which could put more people in the path of disaster.

At Wageningen University’s Alterra research institute, twenty earth scientists and climate scientists are trying to develop an accurate way to forecast the water level of the Rhine. The goal is to understand the entire river as a system, from its headwaters in the Swiss Alps, through Germany, and finally through Rotterdam to the North Sea — in order to figure out how much precipitation it receives, what hydrological processes shape it and its watershed, and how development will change these factors. The Alterra group is trying to integrate meteorological and hydrologi­cal models and use them to evaluate different scenarios of climate and land-use change.

Technology Review’s David Talbot offers a fascinating review of the efforts by the Dutch to deal with the short- and long-term effects of global warming. One solution being used as a model is a floating housing development in a hamlet called ­Maasbommel, in the rural province of Gelderland, near the center of the country. There, forty-six amphibious houses are lodged on the outer edge of a dike that holds back the River Maas, adjacent to a marina.

We will discuss this project tomorrow, and see whether there are lessons in it which will help us deal with the perennial flooding problems of New Orleans.