KEEPING NETHERLANDS WATERWAYS NAVIGABLE

摘要

The Dutch jokingly say that God created Earth, but the Dutch created the Netherlands, given the extensive measures taken through the centuries to reclaim and protect the country's lowlying land from the sea, largely through the construction of dikes. However, this activity does not come without side effects. The construction of the Afsluitdijk, a 32km dike through the IJsselmeer and Wadden Sea, has resulted in a major morphological shift in the Dutch section of the Wadden Sea, one of the world's largest tidal flats systems, which stretches from the Netherlands to Denmark. Off the northern Dutch coast, the sea bottom is rising and the maritime navigation channels for ferries are rapidly clogging up with sediments. The navigation channel for the ferry crossing between Holwerd and the island of Ameland has to be dredged around the clock to keep it accessible. Near the village of Holwerd, sedimentation rates of up to 6m a year are frequently reached. Total dredging volumes exceeded 1.5 million m³ in 2018.