The Dutch west coast. 🌊 I’ll be there next week.

The Dutch coast is a treasure of hidden gems. Let’s look at this in more detail…

👉Biodiversity of the North Sea

-Home to roughly 230 fish species and 30+ seabird species
-It houses different sea life from cold‑water reefs and kelp forests to seagrass meadows
-You can also spot mammals, like seals and dolphins!

🙌Coastal protection of the Dutch west coast

The Netherlands is a frontrunner of coastal protection against climate change. This is a must:
-Around a third of the country is below sea level
-Due to climate change the sea level here can rise a further metre or more by the end of this century
-In 1986 the massive Delta Works were finished, a flood-prevention project initiated after the great flood of 1953. It includes storm surge barrier, dykes, dams and sluices
-The country has been implementing nature-based solutions since river floodings in the 1990s

👉Examples of nature-based flood defences:
-Salt marshes have been created in front of sea dykes
-In 2011 a sand peninsula (Zandmotor) was formed as a flood defence. It doubles up as a huge eco-space and creates bigger dunes!
-Recently cordgrass has been planted on a large scale – it is sturdy & weakens incoming waves (they are planted in a special way – using potato starch waste)

👉Dutch dunes

-Dunes are formed from sand blown slightly inland. Dunes are synonymous of the Dutch coastline and are topped with salt-resistant grass, which makes the dunes strong
-On the inland side of the dunes the land is dotted with plants and birds
-As many as 140 nesting birds make their nests in the dunes, and they are home to a number of mammals

✨Dunes for human magic
-The dunes can be 10+ metres high and act as an important protection for flooding
-The Dutch dunes are also used for a vital resource: water. River water is pumped into the dunes for storage and filtering. The dunes filter and clean about 75 million m3 of water every year
-Plus, the dune ecosystems store thousands of tonnes of carbon

(Sources: DW, Lexology, Climate ADAPT, NWP, Oceana, ARandomWalkwithMJ, IISD, DutchNews, ClimateChangePost, This is NL, Britannica)