Our day began with a tour of the Dakakker, the largest rooftop farm in the Netherlands and one of the largest in Europe. The farm sits atop the Schieblock, a mixed-use commercial building that houses gathering spaces, studios, and public areas. The farm grows vegetables and edible flowers, keeps bees, and raises chickens for eggs. Because of its rooftop location, however, it faces a number of challenges that traditional farms do not encounter.

One of the most significant is water management. Large accumulations of water could compromise the structural integrity of the roof, so the farm uses a system called Smart Flow Control, a computer-driven monitoring system that keeps things in balance. Beneath the planting substrate, mats with built-in cavities retain water and connect to a central drainage system. During rainfall, these mats collect and slowly release water into the soil over time. When heavy rain is in the forecast, the computer system opens the drains preemptively, making room for incoming water and preventing runoff that could damage the plants. The farm also uses a specialized growing medium called Optigrün Roof Vegetable Garden Substrate, which has high water-buffering properties.

The farm’s produce is sold directly to local restaurants, dramatically reducing the carbon footprint of the food by shortening the distance it travels. Beyond food production, the Dakakker is involved in education, welcoming school groups and volunteers to learn firsthand how urban farming works and why it matters for sustainability.

Later in the day, we traveled south of Rotterdam to visit the Watersnoodmuseum, dedicated to the catastrophic North Sea flood of 1953. The disaster claimed 1,836 lives in the Netherlands and devastated homes, industries, and farmland across the region. Because of the profound nature of the disaster, the nation didn’t formally memorialize it until forty years later, in 1993. The museum itself opened in 2001 and has continued to grow ever since.

What makes the museum particularly special is that it is housed inside one of the dikes that failed during the flood. That dike was repaired using caissons, which are massive hollow concrete structures originally built during World War Two for the Normandy landings. Within these caissons, exhibits present the raw facts of the disaster, the emotional and psychological toll it took on survivors, the painstaking process of reclaiming the land afterward, and the innovations and policies now being developed to prevent similar catastrophes around the world.

A museum like this matters far beyond the Netherlands. It helps to demonstrate what happens when infrastructure fails and communities are left unprepared. It makes the case that understanding the disasters of the past is the only way we can build a more resilient future.