It is considered that if a country has access to the sea, it is a significant advantage compared to those who are not so lucky. It is possible to have a marine fleet, develop fishing, develop large seaports and have a lot of other advantages from the economic point of view. But all these gifts of fate do not seem so pleasant when it turns out that the sea is not only a source of wealth and prosperity, but also a terrible threat to the population. Today we will talk about the Netherlands and how they escape from the North Sea.
Most of the territory of the Netherlands is located below sea level, so the inhabitants of this region of Europe were draining the territory back in the Middle Ages. It is no coincidence that there are so many windmills in this country: all of them were built in order to pump the sea water from the drained lands. Numerous canals, sluices, and dams, built by the tireless people of the Netherlands, served one single purpose - to drain as many lands as possible, suitable for living and farming.
Most people have heard at least once in their lives that much of the current territory of Holland was conquered by the sea. But since the sea level, depending on the weather conditions may rise and lead to inundation of lowlands, namely, they prevail in Holland, flooding was a common phenomenon in the past of this country.
Since ancient times, people who lived in the Netherlands, suffered from the destructive elements. The history of towns and villages of Dutch people is filled with information about floods, not only destroying settlements and ruining people, but also changing the relief. For example, a modern artificial lake Eisselmer is located on the site of the Gulf of Södersee. And this bay, in turn, was formed as a result of a major flood, as a result of which, in 1287, the waters of the North Sea washed away by sandy spits and filled the natural lake Flevo, which existed there for a long time.
Due to its geographical location, for the Dutch population any severe flooding brings a lot of grief and destruction. In 1421, the largest flood in the history of the country, which took the lives of about 10 thousand people and destroyed more than seventy settlements. At the same time, water has destroyed all the dams built at that time.
Over time, as a measure to combat these floods, the Dutch began to build protective dams.
Today Afsleitdake is the largest dam in Europe. Its length is 30 km, located in the Netherlands, it connects the villages of Den Uwer and Zurich. It was built as part of the Söyderse project, to protect the Söyderse Gulf from the North Sea. Lake Eisselmer, created as a result of separation from the sea, has now become completely fresh water. The width of the grandiose dam on its entire length is 90 m, the height - 7.25 m above sea level, the slope of the embankment - 25%. Along the dam is highway A7 (according to the European classification of highway E 22) and a bike path. The distance between Den-Uver and Zurich on the dam - 32 km.
The Afsleitdake dam is illuminated by panels that respond to the light from car headlights. The panels installed along the road reflect and amplify the light from the car headlights, so that the barn does not need any electrical lighting at night.
The engineers of the studio who worked on the project drew inspiration from nature, or rather - in the reflective properties of butterfly wings. The engineers decided to repeat this trick by covering the dam with a reflective layer with small prisms that capture and diffuse the light from car headlights. This way, no electricity is needed to light the road.
