Working with water and not against it in Rotterdam

Problems are opportunities and creative solutions are often the result of simply shifting your perspective.

The impact of rising sea levels has leaders concerned about how to deal with water. The Dutch have a unique perspective:

“That’s because from the first moment settlers in this small nation started pumping water to clear land for farms and houses, water has been the central, existential fact of life in the Netherlands, a daily matter of survival and national identity. No place in Europe is under greater threat than this waterlogged country on the edge of the Continent. Much of the nation sits below sea level and is gradually sinking. Now climate change brings the prospect of rising tides and fiercer storms.”
— Michael Kimmelman, New York Times

Working with water has always been a part of Dutch culture. Rather than resisting it or forcing it away through the construction of barriers, they welcome and take advantage of it.
“It’s in our genes,” he said. “Water managers were the first rulers of the land. Designing the city to deal with water was the first task of survival here and it remains our defining job. It’s a process, a movement.