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| The wind, waves and ocean currents, it is hoped, will drive the man-made peninsula of sand landward to replenish the coast of the Netherlands. (AFP Photo) |
Kijkduin,Netherlands. In its age-old war to keep back the sea, low-lying Netherlands hasdumped sand onto a surface larger than 200 football fields just off the coast —and will wait for nature to do the rest.
The wind,waves and ocean currents are the next “engineers” in this innovative projectthat will see the transferred sand — all 20 million cubic meters of it — drivenlandward to form a natural barrier against the North Sea’s relentlessonslaught. The elements have started moving the tip of the bar, which alreadyalmost touches land at low tide.
Over aperiod of 15 to 20 years, the sand will wash toward the coast, reinforcingbeaches and existing sand dunes that help protect the Netherlands, more than aquarter of which lies below sea level.
“Undernatural circumstances, the Dutch coast would erode away slowly,” said LeoLinnartz, an ecology expert who advised the project’s developers on behalf ofthe World Wide Fund for Nature. Without reinforcing fragile shores, floodswould eventually be inevitable, he said.
Over thedecades, the Dutch have developed world-renowned expertise in the field ofhydro-engineering, notably in constructing dams, dikes and bridges.
Around17,500 kilometers of embankment have already been built along its coast and rivers.
The newproject was conceived by a group of experts commissioned by the Dutchgovernment to help solve the country’s ongoing headache. It used dredgers tosuck up ocean-floor sand 10 kilometers off the coast then dump it closer toland. Some of the huge machines were able to carry as much as 10,000 cubicmeters of sand at one time.
If theexperiment works, the sandbar project, situated between the seaside suburbs ofKijkduin and Ter Heijde near The Hague, will be replicated elsewhere in thecountry. And the system could even be exported.
“We used todo it in such a way that we used a lot of stones and concrete and things likethat,” said Linnartz. “But nowadays we prefer to work together with nature, tocooperate with natural forces.”
The idea ofstrengthening the coastline with sand is not new, Linnartz said. But placing itoff the coast and allowing nature to take its course is not only a freshapproach to the problem but less harmful to the environment than simply dumpingmore sand on the dunes, he said.
Whiletraditional shoring up happens around every five years, the new plan based onthe sand’s natural movement will last 15 to 20 years.
