Today was entirely dedicated to learning about to complex Deltaworks, or Deltawerken system, protecting the southwestern region of the Netherlands from flooding. After we arrived to the mueseum and had some very delicious cinnamon rolls, we were taken through a short film and tour explaining how the Deltaworks were built. After the catastrophic flood that hit this region in 1953, the plan for the Deltaworks was created to prevent another disaster from ever happening. Originally, locals wanted there to simply be a large dam, but others believed that doing so would harm the environment and hurt the fishing businesses in the area. With some debate and deliberation, the plan for the Deltawerken was agreed upon – a system of gates that can shut out storm surges, but otherwise lets water flow in and out of the area to preserve the region’s ecosystem.

To put this plan into effect, two large factories were built all along the shore where we were at in the mueseum. One was to construct the piers, the large concrete structures that make up the storm surge barriers, and one to built the foundational mats of compacted rocks that the piers were placed on. One pier, standing 40m tall and 18k lbs heavy, took a year and half to build, with construction on a new one beginning every 8 days until all 65 planned for the project were made. To move these giant piers, a specially designed ship had to be used. It would meet up with a second ship that precisely aligned each pier before slowly lowering the pier onto the mats during low tide. Once all the piers were put into place, they will filled with sand to weigh them down and had more sand placed on top of them to hold them inplace. Then, the moving gates could be placed inside of the piers and were eventually connected to an automated system that tells them when to raised and lower to control water flow.

The Deltaworks stand not only as an incredible feat of engineering, but as a testament to the Netherland’s dedication to environmental conservation. The entire project cost about six billion euro when they could’ve solved the same problem with a much simplier and much cheaper dam. However, if dams were built instead, the water behind them would have eventually changed from saltwater to almost entirely freshwater, putting all of the fish and plantlife in the area in danger as well as the industries that rely on that life. As we’ve been learning throughout our visit, I keep seeing a theme of the Dutch focusing on living with water rather than against it, and I feel that choosing the more expensive and complex Deltaworks over a simple dam perfectly reflects that idea.

Learning about this entire system was so fascinating to me. The scale at which everything had to be constructed and moved would be hard to imagine if I hadn’t seen it for myself . It made seeing the small dioramas of everything that more engaging because it gave me a bit more insight into how everything work mechanically. I loved that we got to see a short film of everything in action too, it must have been unbelievable to watch the project unfold in real time.

We took a short boat tour after our guided tour of the museum to see the Deltaworks up close, and once we got back to land I decided to look up some more information on how water management works across the entirety of the Netherlands. The video I found is what really helped everything we had learned today click in my head. I hadn’t realized the storm barrier we visited was just one small part of the entire Deltawerken system before watching it – in reality, it spread across the entire southwestern region of the Netherlands. I highly recommend watching that video to learn more about the history and technology of the Deltaworks and water management across the Netherlands as a whole. It was very informative and there were lots of graphics that help connect ideas.

We had some free time to spend at the mueseum before we got picked up to go back to Rotterdam. We were lucky enough to be just in time for a seal show! I wish I understood what the instructors were saying, I would’ve loved to learn more about the animals themselves, but I was also more than happy to simply watch them swim around and be cute. I suppose its just another good reason for me to actually learn Dutch for when I come back to the Netherlands after this trip is (sadly) over. There were also some cool mini water works we got to mess around with and there was a water slide! Even if the mini water works was a kids playground, it did a good job showing how machines can be used to move and control water on a much smaller scale (plus, it was also fun to just be a kid again for a little bit). All of it was a great bonus to what became one of my favorite days learning on this trip.