How a Country Embraced the River It Feared

Few places fight floods as well as the Netherlands, but when it comes to their flood defenses, it’s the ocean-side efforts that get the attention. Lesser known is the degree to which they are innovatively managing their inland flooding risk from the River Waal. While no two rivers and no two floods are exactly alike, there are lessons the Dutch have learned we’d be wise to acknowledge in Minot. The article linked below outlines their approach, but the quote below captures a specific idea on which we’re failing.

“If you make something ugly, which functions once every thousand years, but looks ugly every day, then you’re doing a stupid thing. What you need to do is have a secondary objective, which is enhance the quality of the environment.” —  Frans Klijn, Deltares