@weerwolfproductions

3 months ago

We can also divert water all the way from the IJsselmeer to the higher (above sealevel) agricultural areas. We just let the pumps turn the other way, so instead of pumping water out, we pump water in. We can't use seawater, but IJsselmeer water has lost enough salinity to work in dry summers. It's not only the polders created on former seabed that's nutritious, also the lands alongside rivers that used to (and in some cases still do) flood at high river water levels is fertile. In other areas there used to be swamps, which were drained, then peat was mined until it was all gone and again there would be (ancient) seabed or riverbed clay available for farming. However in South Holland especially they never dug the peat out - they're grazing cows and sheep on thin layers of soil growing grass, on top of peat layers. Buildings are piled and when the water is drained or the summer is dry, the peat starts to contract, causing the pilings to shift or even rot (they are preserved because they're below the general water table). Some of the dikes are so called peat-dikes, especially around long canals dug through the landscape to connect different cities and ports in the 1800's and earlier. When the waterlevel in these canal is raised by excessive rain, it permeates the peat in the upper layers of the dikes. This can hold for a number of days. If the water level in the canals stays too high for too long, the dike will become waterlogged and start seeping water. That will eventually wash out enough material for the dike to breach. Both too dry and too wet situations are happening more and more as in the inlands of Europe, the sources of our river system, there's more and more rain falling and less and less snow. Snow melt in spring would mean a gradual influx of water. Now every time north-western mainland Europe gets torrential rain, we need to get pumping like crazy in order to keep our feet dry. If you look at the map of Switserland, Germany and Belgium you'll notice that most of the rivers drain to the North Sea through The Netherlands. P.s. Maaslandkering was used for the first time outside testing last December. We had lots of areas with already high water in the inland areas due to rain, and the prevailing wind off the North Sea plus high tide would mean too high water tables. So the floating bits came out autonomously until the high water risk had passed, and then retracted. I think it was the first time ever that all the storm surge protection barriers, along the entire Dutch coast, were used within the same 24 hr period.

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