"Subtitles by:" "Herman van der Veer" "This is a story about the Netherlands as you rarely see it." "This is our country from the air." "If you want to know what our daily life looks like... sometimes chaotic, sometimes meticulously arranged... then you look from a spectacular new perspective." "In this episode: country of water." "We see water as a friend." "But it is still a dangerous enemy." "What happens when we are faced with a major levee breach?" "16 million people on a small piece of earth." "Seen from the air." "This is Netherlands from above." "To the left the Wadden Sea, on the right the IJssel lake." "The afsluitdijk is visible even from space... by the difference in color of the water." "After hundreds of years of bitter struggle, we've come out on top." "And the taming the water results in special landscapes." "But it can still go wrong; once in 10,000 years." "Once every 10,000 years." "It could be next week." "In Netherlands from above:" "Is the water our friend... or could it become, yet again, our enemy?" "Netherlands, 6000 years ago." "The force of the water shows the vulnerability of our country." "Practical uninhabitable." "Around 2750 BC the salt water withdraws." "To mercilessly hit us again, in 800 AD." "1287:" "St. Lucia flood." "More than 50,000 people drown." "Since then we fight back." "We build dikes, lay down polders (low-lying tracts of land enclosed by embankments)" "And conquer more land from the water." "Now we feel so safe, that the last reclamation of land... is done purely for economical gain." "The Second Maas plain." "The water has shaped our country, but also our character." "Stubborn as we are, we build the finest and newest homes... on the most vulnerable places." "The Loosdrecht Lakes." "Marken, 50 centimeters above sea level." "Lelystad, 2.5 meter (8 feet) below sea level." "Lemmer, 20 centimeters above." "And Itteren, wet feet every year... when the river overflows its banks." "Katwijk, a weak link on the coast." "You see a small beach." "And you can see that Katwijk has built up on the dunes." "What can happen is that the front dunes... succumb at high tide." "Then the center of Katwijk is flooded." "and subsequently, as it is in a kind of low, it runs over the edge... to the rest of the Randstad (a group of big cities in the west)." "This really is a weak link." "Right now it's safe enough, but in the case of sea level rise of one meter... it is necessary to improve the situation." "Netherlands consists of dike rings... to protect us against high water." "One of the largest and most vulnerable, is dike ring area 14." "From Rotterdam to Amsterdam is one dike ring area." "So if a levee breaks and the sea penetrates..." "Holland, from Rotterdam to Amsterdam, will be underwater." "Because if something goes wrong in the Netherlands, it will happen there." "This is a horrifying scenario." "Our country is divided into 95 dike rings areas." "We imagine ourselves to be safe." "For once in 10,000 years, that seems so far away." "But it could be now." "This is what a perfect storm would cause." "The black eye of the hurricane is lurking over the North Sea." "If and when they strike, nobody knows." "High water in the rivers." "Springtide and a very heavy northwesterly hurricane." "Suddenly turning to the southwest." "It will first go wrong in Zeeland (province)." "Then Katwijk." "Den Helder and even in Lelystad." "Our "safe" lines of defense by dike rings, broken." "The land of Maas and Waal." "Farmer Bart Vissers with his farm enclosed... between the two rivers." "I'm known here as an honest, hard, stubborn man." "The danger of water has shaped Bart, but he is not afraid." "We secretly hope that the water... gets savage tendencies more often." "Then I won't be afraid." "Then I'm not a farmer, but fisherman." "Because it is agriculture and fisheries." "That's the beauty of the floodplain." "You are never without food." "In the winter of 1995 it went wrong." "Come on!" "A flood threatened and the whole river area... had to be evacuated." "But Bart thought otherwise." "In the morning they called my wife, I was milking cows..." "That we had to evacuate the company at four o'clock in the afternoon." "That's my wife told me in the parlor." "My cows were outside, and I thought about it..." "And thought:" "It's nonsense that I have to leave, I'm not going." "So I took precautions." "I encircled it with a two meter high dike." "And then nothing can happen." "Luckily I got permission of the mayor, aldermen and the water board." "They agreed with me;" "I could stay put." "When the rivers were high, it suddenly filled up here at night." "The milk truck was at the top." "The cows were there at the top." "And in between was water." "The cows did wanna not come to me, so I went to the cows." "At first I could walk in the water... but later I had to swim." "When I came to the cows and I had to go back again." "All the cows came to swim around me." "60 cows." "When I was quite afraid for a bit; that my animals would push me underwater." "I was really scared there." "But when I came back on dry land with my cows..." "I felt very proud." "That's the only time I was afraid of the water." "1014 1287" "1468 1953" "Many floodings, but it's all so long ago." "Water is to love." "Not to fear." "The Zuidplaspolder." "We are here in the Zuidplaspolder center of South Holland." "This is the lowest point in the Netherlands." "It's below 6.74 meters NAP (Amsterdam water level)." "If the levees would break here... the land would be about seven meters under water." "The tree tops would be just visible, but that's it." "Most dike rings are small in size." "This is one of the largest and most vulnerable of our country." "Area 14." "The four major cities." "The Westland." "The House." "The economic heart." "Soon underwater." "Even 48 hours after the levee breach..." "The salt water keeps flowing into the bathtub." "Hundreds of thousands of people panic." "Schiphol unreachable." "Fleeing by motorways is impossible..." "Because all roads and driveways are under water." "Environment Woerden, Spring 2011." "The extreme drought created dangerous cracks... in the river dikes." "A very wide." "A very wide and very deep." "35 centimeter almost." "Yes." "Also below, huh?" "Jeez, hee." "Too much water is a problem..." "Too little makes our clay dikes just as vulnerable." "These cracks in the dry part become longer and deeper." "And the cracks in the part that we spray..." "Who have not become deeper, no longer." "Those remained stable." "I would not say less, but at least stable." "And these have deteriorated." "This is 35 centimeters." "And when we started we were at around 20." "Marcel used a tractor and a hulk to make spray nozzle.." "to protect the lower country from a dike breach." "If this one fails, the polder will be underwater." "And your house." "And the house." "Yes, exactly." "Ingenuity combined with stubbornness have shaped us." "And even made us internationally famous." "The Maeslantkering." "The Philips dike." "Kampen." "The bellows weir." "Neeltje Jans." "The afsluit dike." "From all over the world they come to see... how we keep our feet dry with embankments and pumping stations." "The Dutch waterworks are even export products." "Our greatest natural enemy, the water, is defeated." "It's beautiful weather now." "Often when I drive here it's gray and raining." "That reminds me of the text of Drs. P." "'The land is flat, the sky overcast, at least in general. "" ""A stubborn human populace on the excavated peat. "" "Eemshaven, Groningen." "Our latest invention." "A live dike." "With the naked eye one can not see if a dike is about to burst." "But here we can look in the dikes here... if there is a weak link during a severe storm, or not." "I can read out the sensors under my feet... live on this tablet." "We are now at this point here." "When I click, we get to see the crossection of this dike." "There is seawater against it on this side." "And in the dike is also some water." "You have to imagine that at high water... the water in the dike also goes up with it." "If I chose a period of one week... you see very clearly that in the dike... the effect of the tides is also apparent." "This technology is making The Netherlands a bit safer... and I think that other countries that suffer from flooding... can be helped with this great export product." "You read every day about a country where there are problems with flooding." "We continue to increase, highten, renew." "The safest delta in the world." "And yet..." "That one catastrophic hurricane." "The consequences of the disaster are made visible." "Not only the area inside dike ring 14 is hit... but also Zealand." "North Holland." "And Flevoland." "Everywhere the flow of water continues... even a week after the first breakthrough." "The damage rises to €121 billion." "And nearly 2.3 million people have been affected." "An estimated 10,000 deaths." "All that water, we must also pump-out again." "That will take more than a year." "We need to build up our country all over again." "Nature has given us the widest dunes in the world." "But we are not content with it." "We want nature to work for us." "This is a very special place." "We fly here over the Sand Engine." "This is the first major experiment in the Netherlands... of 'building with nature'." "A new way of dealing with our coastal defenses." "There we sprayed millions of cubic meters of sand..." "A total of about 20 million, which is enshrined in front of the beach." "And the idea is that the sea, along with the wind... will ensure the dissemination of that sand..." "Northbound..." "Along the coast, The Hague and beyond." "And that way we strengthen our dunes and beaches... in a more natural way." "The dredgers, scientists and engineers... will follow that process, to learn if... the sand moved as we expect it to." "Because we still need to refine this new technology... to see how we can tackle it best." "Scientists on jet skis making straight lines... is how we measure whether the sand is going to the right places." "If it works to use water and wind as a protective force... instead of a destructive one." "Then we even outsmart nature." "The sand is very dynamic, it is different each day." "Much of the sand goes from the foreshore to the beach, and vice versa." "With storms, quiet periods." "And it's very interesting... to see how that slowly builds up the coast, and spreads the sand." "If we improve our knowledge of how the sand spreads to the coast... we can put in the right place... to better defend our coast." "And with these measurements we can see if that happens, and how." "So we can design a better sand engine in the future." "You also see here a new recreational area... and nature area arises." "I even see kite surfers in the distance, in the more or less natural lagoon that has arisen... to the enjoyment of their sport." "So a nice new piece of the Netherlands." "Water as our friend." "Safe to live on." "To enjoy." "And even earn money from." "The water has shaped us." "Our country, but also our character." "If it overflows here, than this pumping station will really start gaining momentum." "Good to know that there is ONE around where you live." "Especially if you live somewhere... where the flood water will be very high." "Or in an area where it rains above average." "That you can explore the interactive map of this week." "Next week:" "Where we live." "16 million people all with their own wishes." "Old and new neighborhoods." "Rich and poor." "Faithful or not." "It is all visible from the air." "This was the Netherlands from above."