Water wizards: Dutch flood expertise is big export business

By Mike Corder

"We live here in a very vulnerable place," said Roeland Hillen, director of the Dutch Flood Protection Program. "We have to adapt to survive."

[...]

The Dutch government teamed up earlier this year with Japan and the U. N. Environment Program to create a Global Center of Excellence on Climate Adaptation in the Netherlands that will be formally launched Tuesday on the sidelines of the Bonn conference.

The center aims to "support those who struggle to put climate adaptation effectively into practice in all parts of the world," the government said.

Housing the water expertise center in the Netherlands was a no-brainer. Some 26 percent of this nation of 17 million people lies below sea level and 29 percent is vulnerable to river flooding. The Dutch struggle to keep the country dry has been a constant fact of life for centuries.

The Dutch government earmarks 1 billion euros ($1.16 billion) per year to keep up its defenses against high water. The money is spent on maintaining and strengthening dikes and levees and on other water mitigation measures. By 2050, the country aims to reinforce some 1,900 kilometers (1,180 miles) of dikes and levees, Hillen said.

[...]