Archief Blogs - Programma naar een Rijke Waddenzee https://rijkewaddenzee.nl/en/blogs/ Samen gaan we op weg naar een veerkrachtig en duurzaam waddengebied Thu, 24 Sep 2020 12:56:15 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.1.1 Allowing the sea in to keep it out https://rijkewaddenzee.nl/en/blogs/allowing-the-sea-in-to-keep-it-out/ Thu, 24 Sep 2020 12:51:02 +0000 https://rijkewaddenzee.nl/blogs/de-zee-toelaten-om-de-zee-te-weren/ Amid the many heatwaves and freshwater shortages, one would almost forget another, longer-term problem associated with climate change: rising sea levels. Keeping the Netherlands safe will call for ever larger investments that require lengthy preparations.

Het bericht Allowing the sea in to keep it out verscheen eerst op Programma naar een Rijke Waddenzee.

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Amid the many heatwaves and freshwater shortages, one would almost forget another, longer-term problem associated with climate change: rising sea levels. Keeping the Netherlands safe will call for ever larger investments that require lengthy preparations.

Salt marshes: technology from the Middle Ages

Few people in the Wadden Sea region or elsewhere are aware just how strongly the required technology is rooted in local traditions. That technology dates from the early Middle Ages, and uses the precipitation of sludge from the sea to raise the land. This is how the salt marshes came into being, which gave us the ‘high lands’ of Friesland and Groningen, up in the north of the country. Where this process did not take place and dikes were built to keep the sea out, low-lying polders can be found that are far more vulnerable to rising seal levels than the higher lands.

And today, as sea levels continue to rise, the sea water keeps depositing sludge on the land – a gift from Poseidon. So why not use that sludge to further raise the land along the coast? In fact the Wadden Academy poses that very question in one of its recent publications: Weerbare Waddenkust (Resilient Coasts in the Wadden Sea Region). The report outlines a possible approach to this issue: building double-dike systems to allow the sea to flood the areas in between, in a controlled manner, and deposit sludge in the process. As the deposits accumulate, you can either let nature run its course or use the land to cultivate shellfish or sea vegetables.

Adapting to rising seal levels in the Wadden Sea region

Allowing the sea in may not seem the most logical thing to do if you want to keep it out. And indeed, obstacles can be expected during the process. The professionals involved – visionaries at the water boards, provinces, the Flooding Protection Programme (HWBP) and institutions – are aware of those obstacles, but still thought it worth while to give it a try. They chose the Dollard Bay coast for good reason. These waters contain large quantities of sludge, so they offer a dual benefit by allowing us to remove sludge from the bay and use it to raise the land.

Double dikes and wide green dikes

The Dubbele Dijk project is a great example. Part of the dike system between Eemshaven and Delfzijl, the Dubbele Dijk (double dike) was built in close collaboration with the Noorderzijlvest water board, the Groningen provincial executive and the HWBP.

Elsewhere in the Dollard area, the Hunze & Aa’s water board launched a similar project. They dug off a small part of the salt marshes, allowed the sludge to ripen into clay and then used it for dike reinforcement purposes (creating a ‘wide green dike’). The excavation has been designed in such a way that the salt marsh will gradually silt up again, providing habitats for birds in the process.

Allowing the sea in once again…

In other areas along the Wadden Coast, too, the parties involved – administrators, managers, knowledge institutions and residents alike – are facing the challenge of defying logic and finding controlled ways to allow the sea in so as to strengthen our defences against it. We have little time to lose. As pointed out above, the preparations take a lot of time and sea levels will continue to rise unabated.

 

 

Het bericht Allowing the sea in to keep it out verscheen eerst op Programma naar een Rijke Waddenzee.

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Rising sea levels and the Wadden Sea region: no time to lean back https://rijkewaddenzee.nl/en/blogs/rising-sea-levels-wadden-sea-region/ Tue, 19 May 2020 12:47:46 +0000 https://rijkewaddenzee.nl/?post_type=blogs&p=7168 Mid-2019 saw the publication of the IPCC report entitled The Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate, which was soon followed by the Sea Level Monitor, a publication by research institute Deltares. When we compared the two reports here at the PRW (Programme for a Healthy Wadden Sea Region), we were confronted with a full-scale paradox.

Het bericht Rising sea levels and the Wadden Sea region: no time to lean back verscheen eerst op Programma naar een Rijke Waddenzee.

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Mid-2019 saw the publication of the IPCC report entitled The Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate, which was soon followed by the Sea Level Monitor, a publication by research institute Deltares. When we compared the two reports here at the PRW (Programme for a Healthy Wadden Sea Region), we were confronted with a full-scale paradox. While the IPCC report states that the average sea level rise worldwide is now measurably accelerating, the Sea Level Monitor shows that this does not apply to the North Sea and the Wadden Sea. So what is going on? And should we or should we not prepare the Wadden Sea region for a sharp rise in sea levels? Earlier this year, these questions prompted us and the Wadden Academy to invite Deltares to provide an explanation.

The Greenland effect

The report entitled Sea Level Rise at the Dutch Coast, by Bart van den Hurk (available on our website) confirms that there are no indications that the rise of the sea level in the North Sea is accelerating. The fact that the rise of sea levels is accelerating worldwide but not in the North Sea and the Wadden Sea is largely due to the high speed at which the Greenland ice cap is melting. Those meltwaters end up in the world’s oceans, and also in Dutch waters. However, the gravity of the large ice cap also pulls up the water in its vicinity – which includes the North Sea and the Wadden Sea. So when the ice cap melts, two processes occur at the same time: the meltwater causes sea levels to rise worldwide, but causes the sea level nearer to the ice cap to fall as its gravitational pull decreases. As a result, the effect of the melting Greenland ice cap is relatively modest in our region.

Provided that sand nourishment operations continue, therefore, sedimentation in the Wadden Sea will keep pace with the rising sea level – as long as the rise does not accelerate. In addition, our ports are safe for the time being and the current height of dikes in the Netherlands will remain sufficient for a long time to come.

Will climate deniers be proved right?

So can we just lean back in comfort, as climate change deniers have been arguing for years? Quite the opposite! There is another ice cap on the other side of the globe, in Antarctica, and that one is even bigger. Far bigger. It may take some more time, but eventually that ice cap is likely to melt at an increasing rate. And as for its gravitational pull, the situation is exactly the reverse compared with Greenland: because Antarctica is far away from the Netherlands, the effects when it melts will only be greater. In other words, in a couple of decades we will have to cope with rising sea levels just as any other part of the world.

To keep our feet dry, we will need to anticipate

By that time it is essential that measures are in place to keep our feet dry and protect nature in the Wadden Sea region. This requires a considerable effort. Sand nourishment volumes will have to increase dramatically (even on tidal flats), port areas will have to be adapted and new dike concepts applied, and low-lying areas behind the dikes will have to be raised. These are all large-scale interventions in nature and spatial planning. We need to start thinking now about the best approaches and timelines. The facts that emerge from the first pilots with innovative dike concepts, such as the Wide Green Dike and Double-Dike Systems, clearly confirm how urgent this is. We are quite proud of those pilots in the Wadden Sea region, and with good reason, but they required years of preparations. It is clear that the necessary roll-out across the entire region will take decades rather than years. So even though the current situation is quite manageable, if we are to deal with rising sea levels effectively, sitting back and doing nothing is not an option.

 

Het bericht Rising sea levels and the Wadden Sea region: no time to lean back verscheen eerst op Programma naar een Rijke Waddenzee.

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