A Visitor to the Future - 46 - The Barrier Falls
Robin led us through the crowds with a practiced ease, entirely at home in the dense swarm of people. He seemed to possess a sort of urban charisma, the crowds parting around him even though we were walking a fair bit slower than the average speed.
"To begin I'm taking you to the perimeter wall, which might explain some of how this all started," he said, as we made our way past row after row of skyscrapers, "As you're aware, vertical living was not always the way of the Dutch. From as early as the 1300s, land reclamation was seen as the path forward. Natural processes exposed land over time - it wasn't much of a leap for people to build a barrier, and stop the water taking it back. Then you had new inventions - pumps, dams, that sort of thing, and the reclamation industry became a hive of activity. This was a strategy employed in various forms for about a thousand years, and it had a great deal of success. By the end of the 2100s, about 20% of the land in the Netherlands was reclaimed land. The Netherlands had the constant problem of too many people, and not enough land to fit them all in."
He stopped and turned around to me suddenly. "But of course, you know most of this, having lived there. Hoho, perhaps you know some of it better than me? I'll focus more on the time after your own."
He resumed his slow movement forward and continued his narrative, all three of us walking side-by-side to listen carefully. "It was a strategy that had worked for a very long time, as I said. But there was a unique challenge ahead. Climate change. A good deal of work was done on that front by the end of the 2100s, but not enough. Some nations continued to use fossil fuels and carbon-contributing processes long into the 2200s, and there was a slight runaway greenhouse effect that wasn't solved for about 150 years. Eventually Earth arrived at what we historians call the Carbon Arrest Point in 2317, the point at which carbon emissions and processes were controlled to the extent that human industry stopped significantly contributing to the greenhouse effect."
He slyly tapped his nose twice as if sharing a secret, "Of course, that only related to carbon - other ecosystems and areas were still being affected in other ways - microplastics, long-term waste disposal, mining, all that nonsense - but that is a story for another time. All that is necessary to say at this time is that sea levels continued to rise, and the Netherlands - a country made of flood and water defences, was struggling."
At this point we had arrived at our first destination - the city's perimeter wall. A small elevator took us to the top, and we walked across a wide grey brick causeway to the very edge of the perimeter, where a simple metal railing prevented people from walking over the edge. I looked over the side and could see a beach which extended out about fifty metres, a gentle slope to the gradient to the sand.
"I am sure it is no secret to you that this whole area was once land. IJmuiden was very fortunate in its position - the whole area from here, southwest to Noordwijk aan Zee, is elevated. Other areas were not so lucky."
Robin gripped the railing and looked contemplative as the four of us stared out at the distant waves.
"That is not to say that the sea defences were doomed to fail. There are a number of historians, myself included, that think that with the right investment of resources the Netherlands could have continued to maintain its footprint indefinitely, using a combination of coastal walls and other traditional flood defences - after all, the rising sea levels did not happen overnight, there was plenty of time to react. But it was not to be - for two reasons. Firstly, there weren't the resources to invest - things were overstretched. And secondly, because someone really messed up."
He let go of the railing and began to walk along the wall, the three of us following once more.
"One of the largest names in Dutch flood defences was the Nieuwe Waterweg - the canal that connected Rotterdam to the ocean. In the early days, the Maeslant Barrier was enough to prevent storm surges, but eventually the canal had to be further reinforced and a heavier-duty, replacement barrier installed to prevent storm events from flooding the whole area. The new barrier was negligently constructed and in hindsight its failure was inevitable. And so, in 2213 the barrier failed and the Rotterdam area was flooded. It was one of the worst flood events that the Netherlands had ever seen. Lives were lost, damages were innumerable, and in a sudden swing, public opinion began to shift. Critical eyes began to look at the massive expenditure on flood defences, the sheer reality of losing land irrespective of the defences in place. It was a philosophical shift the likes of which had not been seen since the Watersnood van 1953 - the North Sea Flood in 1953. The Dutch began to move from land reclamation to a new strategy, called the Vestingstad Approach. It was not too great of a shift - it merely meant that the country would focus more resources on preserving certain key areas - cities and cultural sites would be fortified, land raised, nature preserves defended, but entire swathes of land that no longer served a purpose would be left to flood, and areas that were too high risk would be relocated or abandoned, freeing up resources. The Netherlands began to become a nation of islands - island cities, island towns, island villages - connected only by water. If you look at the Netherlands from space today, it looks like a patchwork of ocean and land."
I decided to interrupt, "Can I ask - what about the farms and farmers? Dairy especially is - sorry, was - traditional in my time, and that requires a lot of space."
"Technology solved the majority of that problem in the late 2200s," said Robin, as Sarkona nodded in the background, "Milk was one of the first major innovations in vat-grown food. Some people did still continue farming in the traditional way, though - it is not as if we lost the entire country, only non-fortified areas below the new sea level."
"I would wager the advances in hydroponics helped a great deal too," said Tungsten, "A technology primarily being developed for life on Mars, but obviously had a lot of applications on Earth too."
"Hoho, a smart one, this one," said Robin, "Yes, hydroponics contributed significantly to reducing the amount of land needed to sustain the population, and naturally contributed to vertical living. I must note that the Vestingstad Approach was not without controversy. There were protests, riots, unrest, waves of emigration - all to be expected in a country under pressure. Concessions were made, though - entire areas saved for one purpose or another. But still, you had the same amount of people trying to live on less land, and that meant population density would have to increase - which leads me onto vertical living."