Water represents one
of the biggest threats posed by climate change. That's because rising seas, stronger storms, and heavier rainfall could massively increase flooding by the end of the century. It's already starting to happen and it's very likely to get worse. Catastrophic flooding in Western Europe after violent storms and powerful flood waters
destroying entire towns. It's easy to feel overwhelmed looking at footage like this. It seems like no one has any idea what to do about this problem. So, we're just going to see
more and more damaging floods, year after year. But there is one place where
it's possible to imagine a very different future. When you look at the city of Rotterdam, the water is in our genes, you could say. We are already working for
1,000 years on this topic. Keeping the water out isn't a new challenge for the Netherlands. It's a battle they've been
fighting for centuries. So, when the effects of climate change started to crop up, they were like, yeah, let's do this. We're ready. We traveled to Rotterdam to find out how this city is
getting ready for the future and whether the ingenious
stuff they've come up with will ultimately be enough to save them and hopefully the rest of us, too. When you look at Holland
or the Netherlands, the name, the Netherlands, already says that we
are a low-lying country. One-third of this country is below sea level and two thirds is vulnerable to flooding. Back in the day, the only things keeping the water at bay were the dikes, which are basically just
raised mounds of earth. Once every few decades, the water would overwhelm the dikes and cause catastrophic flooding and that was just the way things were, until one day in 1953, all that suddenly changed. In '53, it was a disaster. A powerful storm struck
the Southern Coast, overwhelming dikes that
had been badly damaged in the second World War. On the morning of February 1st, 1953, Koos' father and brother woke him up and told
him what had happened. In 1953, almost 2,000 people died and that was the moment for us, we said, this can never happen again. This is time we started
making our first barrier. The flood galvanized the Dutch government to build the world's most
powerful flood defense system, the Delta Works. It was a series of modernized dams and storm surge barriers that took more than 40 years to complete. And the final act of the Delta Works is the barrier over here, the Maeslant Barrier, made to protect Rotterdam. We're looking at the biggest movable storm surge barrier in the world. This is the same size as the Eiffel Tower. So, you're looking at the
Eiffel Tower laying on its side. Most of the time, the barrier stays open, so ships can pass through. When a storm comes along, it snaps shut, preventing the storm surge
from traveling up river and flooding Rotterdam. The moveable design was radical when it was completed in 1997 and it's inspired similar structures in flood-prone cities around the world. If you look at St. Petersburg in Russia, a small version of this barrier
has been made over there and maybe in the future, in front of Manhattan, they're thinking about a
way to protect that, also. So, this was the first one and now smaller versions are coming all over the world. But the barrier on its own isn't enough to keep
Rotterdam from flooding. Talking about climate change, we see an increase of
more intensive rainfall. We already are facing now and then, small-scale flooding. So, we need more places where we can store this water. Arnoud Molenaar is also working to keep Rotterdam dry, not by keeping the water out, but by giving it a place to go. This is the water square and it is actually, you could say, a symbol for our approach, how to become climate adaptive. So, under normal circumstances, this square can be used as, for example, a basketball field. But on days like this, it stores excess rainwater and keeps it from flooding the streets. So, it's a multifunctional solution. We want to add quality to the urban space, but in this way, we are also adding water storage. This is the first water square that we have been developing, but it's part of a bigger
package of measures. An interesting one close by here is what we call the dakpark or the rooftop park, which is a kind of a long levy of one kilometer and on top of it, a huge green park. It's storing excessive rain water, because of the green roof. Looking at the challenges
related to climate change, a lot of people think
it's going to cost us a lot of space and money and we try to show that
you also can use it to work on a better city. In some ways, the Dutch are just as
baffled as the rest of us about climate change. For one thing, there's the question of what
happens when sea levels rise beyond a certain point? The Maeslant Barrier
was built to withstand one meter of sea level rise and a redesigned barrier could potentially handle
even more than that, but there's only so much that
even Dutch engineering can do. Beyond two meters, it's difficult. We are working on new scenarios, suppose it will be more than two meters, four meters, five meters, then what? People ask me, will you be moving on a certain moment in time to the higher grounds in the Netherlands? I can't imagine that
that will be a decision. For survivors like Koos, on the other hand, it's not so hard to imagine the worst. I think in 300 years, Rotterdam will still be here, but when the sea level will
rise four or five meters, we will have to find additional solutions. Any idea what those would be? Maybe on a larger scale, invest in floating districts, floating cities. And that brings us to our final and most radical solution. My name is Koen Olthuis. I'm a water architect. For the last 15 years, We've been building floating homes in cities that face climate change and sea level rise. So, we have the floating home, which has a floating foundation and it can move up and down with the fluctuation of the river, but to keep it on one spot, we have these kind of stilts. The water will come up and you will see that the
house will move up, up, up, up and if the water goes down, it just guides it back. 100 years ago, you see cities start to grow
up with high-rise buildings, because they saw the space in the air. Well, we see the city
has to grow in the water. It's not only about houses. It's about floating apartment buildings, floating roads, floating parks, all the kind of urban components you need to make your city more waterproof. Who knows, maybe someday, we'll all
live in floating houses or maybe something entirely
new will come along. Preparing for climate
change is a tough challenge, but for the innovators of Rotterdam, it's a process of
adaptation that never ends. It's not finished, our project. It keeps on going. It's an ongoing process. I feel safe. My children will feel safe and my grandchildren will also feel safe, but after that, you have to think again.
Who you gonna call when your streets are flooding? Dutch peasants!