Today we visited Delta Works, a park near one of the Netherland’s flood control barriers. Our visit started with an informational movie about how the barriers were built. These barriers were built after the flood of 1953 in order to shorten the coastline as well as prevent future flooding from taking place. The barriers are only closed when there is a high water level combined with heavy storms, as this is when the risk of flooding is greatest. This is because having the barriers permanently closed would disrupt the environment, as water and animals would not be able to enter the closed area, leading to an environmental decline. This ties back to sustainability, as the designers of this project had to keep the environmental impact in mind when designing it. Otherwise, we could have seen a similar result as what happened to the Zuiderzee region, but on a much larger scale. After this film we had a walking tour of the museum and some of the outside area, where we learned more about the Delta Works. For example, we learned that rising sea levels may make the barriers less effective with time, as storms may be able to cause the water level to breach the top of the barriers if the water is high enough. This means means that the engineers maintaining the works may have to find ways to improve them, though they should still work for many more decades. We also learned that roads were built on top of the works in order to connect the previously unconnected islands of the Netherlands, meaning that the works were able to serve multiple purposes when not in direct use. After this tour we saw something called the Delta Experience, which showed what it was like to experience a tremendous Dutch flood. I feel like this really helped me appreciate the sheer magnitude of the flood of 1953, as it is one thing to hear about other’s experiences, but to see them can make you sympathize a lot more. After this we got to explore the park a bit, such as seeing seals, an aquarium, and a section about whales. We finished the day by taking a boat out into the sea, though we didn’t get very far. Overall, today was rather interesting, and I feel like I learned a lot more about Dutch flood control.