Wow, 5/12 was quite the day! Today we took a trip away from Rotterdam to travel to the southwest delta of the Netherlands. Here lies one of the greatest engineering feats of mankind: the Deltaworks.

The Deltaworks are a system of dams against the sea arms of the North Sea in this region in order to protect surrounding areas against storm surges. What makes the Deltaworks such a feat of engineering is that it still allows the tides to pass and is only fully closed during extreme weather conditions. However, this was not the original design. Since a traditional dam would have been the easiest to design and construct, that was what the Dutch government wanted to do following the massive flooding in 1953 that prompted its creation. However, after the protests of the mussel farming industry further inland who relied upon the tides and later environmental concerns over the unique delta ecosystem as well as local groundwater salinity, the plan for a dam that still allowed the tides to pass was born.

Not only is the technology that allows the dam to open and close unique and impressive, but the construction techniques to put it in place were no easy feat either. A new machine had to be invented just to compact the sand below water enough to place concrete structures, structures that were assembled on a man-made work island that were then dropped in place by a highly specialized boat (pictured) with only centimeters of tolerance from their mark. In every stage of its creation, the Deltaworks have been a marvel of modern engineering and stand as a testament to the ingenuity of human beings. It stands out as a particularly strong example of Dutch hydraulic engineering. Throughout the centuries, the Netherlands being so close to sea level has been plagued by floods. Even as recently as 1953, the systems that kept water in place were fairly simple: dikes, polders, windmills, and simple dams. The creation of the Deltaworks marks a shift in water management from what is easy and known to what is innovative and meets the needs of the people. What a proud piece of Dutch history the creation of the Deltaworks is!

While the open and close functionality of the Deltaworks does wonders for maintaining local water quality and allowing sea life to continue their natural patterns, it is not perfectly sustainable. Despite the overwhelming presence of wind turbines on the premises to capture the abundant coastal winds (pictured), the Deltaworks themselves are powered by diesel generators during weather emergencies. The reason for this is that those mechanisms need to be able to function under any conditions, independent of the wind. This makes sense from a safety perspective. People must be protected from floodwaters no matter what. However, burning diesel is not sustainable because it emits greenhouse gases and is a non-renewable resource. In addition, resources must be expended constantly maintaining these generators so that they will work when needed, and at the end of their lifetime not every piece can be repurposed and some will sit in landfills for years. While it is not a perfectly sustainable system, it is what the Deltaworks ultimately need to keep people safe using the technology we have now.

While not perfect, the Deltaworks are still incredibly innovative and are from an environmental perspective far better than having traditional dams in place. Go Netherlands!