Combat Erosion By Law Coastal Defence Policy for the Netherlands

In 1953 a flooding disaster occurred in the Netherlands with more than 1800 death casualties. It was decided that such a disaster may "never" happen again. A special committee was installed and advised upon a safety standard: water retaining structures (like dunes) must be able to withstand storms having a frequency of exceedance of only once in the ten-thousand years. This safety standard is, amongst others, based on economic optimization criteria. The Dutch decided to formalize this safety standard by incorporating it into a law. Now, after forty years, this safety standard is finally met al... Mehr ...