麻豆淫院

(麻豆淫院Org.com) -- By the end of this century, sea levels in the Netherlands may rise more than 4 feet, a troubling prospect in a country where 70 percent of GNP is produced in protected areas that are below sea level.

To cope with the prospect of fast-rising water, two schools of thought have evolved in the nation of vulnerable delta cities: Use engineering know-how to build up dikes and improve pumping technology, or open cities to the sea in such a way that natural systems can co-exist with human habitation.

The second course 鈥� call it a 鈥減roto-ecological intervention鈥� 鈥� is where Harvard comes in. Over the past two years, students at the Graduate School of Design (GSD) have puzzled over what they call the country鈥檚 鈥渃limate conundrum鈥� in a project funded by the Netherlands.

In a daylong series of studio presentations at Gund Hall on Monday (May 3), the 14 students from the departments of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning and Design presented their capstone ideas to Dutch officials. Some watched on a trans-Atlantic video link. Others were in low-slung Room B-04, where the four walls were lined with massive poster boards on wheels.

The students, part of a research project led by GSD professors Pierre Belanger and Nina-Marie Lister, focused on Dordrecht, the oldest city in Holland. The historic market city, which is bounded by five rivers, is at risk from more than rising sea levels. It faces sea surges from the west, river flooding from the east, and dramatic subsidence in 鈥減olders,鈥� the tracts of land captive within dikes.

One idea already afloat in the Netherlands is to seal Dordrecht behind a kind of super-dike. That would be the culmination of the world-class civil engineering that the Dutch have practiced for more than 500 years. (Per capita, Dutch expenditures on flood defense 鈥� 2 billion Euros a year 鈥� match U.S. military spending.)
But other Dutch officials are drawn to going beyond traditional dikes and pumps. Closing the city off from any influence of the rivers or the sea is a bad idea, said Ellen Kelder, Dordrecht鈥檚 water manager, who attended the presentations along with city planner Judit Bax.

Bring in ecology, she said, echoing some of the Harvard presenters. It鈥檚 important to make the seacoast city a kind of plastic entity that will flex with natural rhythms instead of defying them.

The city was part of a Dutch 鈥渄elta commission鈥� formed after catastrophic seacoast flooding in 1953, said Bax. Last year, a new delta commission was formed to look ahead to 2100. One idea proposed, she said, would be to open up that closed system to the forces of nature, including tides, flood surges, and rising water levels.

The basic idea is simple, said Kelder: 鈥渓iving with water.鈥�

Bring in the issue of energy, she added. After all, Holland鈥檚 present flood control structures and pumping systems require almost 100,000 barrels of foreign oil a day, and fossil fuels are finite.

Dordrecht is one of 40 Dutch cities that are questioning the primacy of engineering-only solutions for what they call 鈥渇lood defense.鈥� By 2015, each city will develop a strategic plan in the national project called 鈥淩oom for the River.鈥�

Dordrecht also helped form 鈥淒recht cities,鈥� a consortium of riverside towns looking at regional solutions to flooding.

The city has teamed with Spanish venture capitalists on the Urban Flood Management Project, part of a bid to be in the forefront of a global conversation on how cities will cope with climate change.

But Kelder still fears that any water safety discussion in Holland will stay focused only on engineering solutions. Instead, she said, 鈥淲e are looking for a paradigm shift.鈥�

The GSD students had the same game-shifting notion. Their projects looked at a future Dordrecht region. It could be a place where algae are farmed for energy, and where fertilizer-intensive dry-land agriculture gives way to farming mollusks.

It could be 鈥渄epopulated鈥� as residents are drawn to flood-resilient housing outside the dikes and existing streets alternately become public spaces and flood-control mechanisms. Why shouldn鈥檛 there be fewer people in the city, asked one presentation. After all, in sprawling Dordrecht, 60 percent of the land mass employs only 1 percent of its citizens. Or the future Dordrecht could be a place of 鈥済radient urbanism,鈥� where dikes are expanded to become places to live. Or it could be a place of 鈥渃limate capitalism,鈥� where the adaptation to sea level rise is the engine for new industries.

One project noted that by the middle of this century, two-thirds of the world鈥檚 population will live in flood-prone delta regions. A future Dordrecht that relied on 鈥渆cological interventions鈥� to supplement engineering solutions could become a coastal urban template for the world.

Bax, the city planner, liked the sweep of the Harvard presentations, and that they were created by 鈥減eople from another continent, with a fresh view.鈥�

To summarize and illustrate their complex projects, the students designed and printed a 鈥淒epoldering Dordrecht鈥� brochure, complete with faux ads that anticipate a future in commercial concert with the sea. There were ads for estuary-cultivated pearls, 鈥渙ne-stop shopping鈥� for oysters and other bivalves, and a bumper sticker that read: 鈥淲e [Heart] Floods.鈥�

Of all the ads, said Belanger, 鈥淭he one for Prada hip boots is my favorite.鈥�

But what can Harvard possibly bring to the Dutch, who have so expertly been holding back the sea for centuries?

鈥淎 fresh look,鈥� said Tracy Metz, a Dutch urbanist, architecture writer, and critic who originated the idea of a Harvard-Holland partnership. She was a Loeb Fellow at Harvard from 2006 to 2007.

鈥淭he Dutch will always have to pump,鈥� but you can鈥檛 only pump, said Metz, especially since many of the hard-engineering solutions of recent decades have come with a steep ecological price. 鈥淲e want to find new ways of living with water and living with nature.鈥�

The Harvard project might help, said Kelder, calling it a collection of ideas that are smart, innovative, and 鈥渂eautifully presented.鈥�

But the next step has to be translating these ideas into something that politicians, businessmen, and citizens will understand. 鈥淓veryone has to see the benefits. Then we will go there,鈥� said Kelder.

Meanwhile, ideas should be supplemented with a pilot project that interrupts the engineering-only dialogue. 鈥淚t鈥檚 very important to break up the discussion,鈥� she said, sitting near the bright student posters. 鈥淎nd you don鈥檛 break up a discussion with just this.鈥�

Metz said the Harvard-Holland project could go into a third year, though discussions are continuing. If it did, GSD students and faculty would deal with issues in Rotterdam, the largest Dutch port.

As for Dordrecht, said Kelder: Two years is a start for a university-government collaboration, but 10 or 20 years makes more sense.

鈥淚t鈥檚 brilliant what they鈥檝e done,鈥� she said of the GSD students. 鈥淣ow we need to do something with it.鈥�