Netherlands Case Study

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Netherlands Case Study

The Netherlands is situated in northwest Europe. It is a small country

with an area of 41,863 sq km much of which is flat ground. This

classic home of windmills and tulips, is in a constant battle with the

sea to save its land. In that effort it uses 1,500 miles of dykes, a

tidal barrage and additional innovative technologies to protect itself

from floods.

On 31st January 1995 the Rhine burst its banks at the point where the

Rhine enters the Netherlands. Much of the land is low lying, enclosed

by dykes; these are called polders. In this flood the polders became

flooded causing roads to become impassable. The floods were caused by

natural causes such as early melting snow in the Alps and heavy

precipitation. In some parts heavy rain continued from November 1994

to February 1995. In addition Switzerland was affected with three

times its January average rainfall. Rivers carried on flooding after

the rain ended as the amount of discharge kept increasing; rain was

rapidly transferred to rivers as overland flow.

Other factors’ contributing to the floods was due to human

intervention.. River channels were changed to accommodate the size and

shape of transportation vessels causing faster flow downstream.

Urbanisation of the floodplain reduces storage capacity and speeds up

runoff sending more water to the river than the fields, which they

replaced. Dams upstream trap sediment and speed up the flow

downstream. Meander bends were straightened to improve navigability

and speed flow. The river became 100 km shorter and 30% faster as a

result. In addition upstream engineering narrowed the river

floodplain, and two thousand islands were removed and the riverbed

lowered by erosion. Due to this the floodplain storage capacity was

reduced by 60%. Even simple causes such as deforestation upstream

could have affected the flood and changes in farming practices may

have also contributed to a reduction in the storage capacity of the

floodplains.

[IMAGE]The floods in January 1995 effected many people and killed four

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