Dutch seek islands to combat rising sea threat

Harro ten Wolde, Reuters 4 Feb 08;

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Dutch water industry experts on Monday backed proposals to build several off-shore islands to protect the nation's coast, much of which lies below sea-level, from rising seas caused by global warming.

The series of islands could also provide the Netherlands, one of Europe's most densely populated countries, with extra land for housing, businesses such as fish farms and a base for green energy projects like wind farms, they said.

The experts met in hotel in Scheveningen that overlooks the North Sea, which devastated the country's sea defenses during massive 1953 storms that killed 1,800 people and made coastal defense a major political issue in the Netherlands.

"Now is the time to develop such an island as the cost of reclaiming land is decreasing while land prices are increasing," Hans de Boer, who sits on a government innovation committee, told a press conference afterwards.

Rising global energy prices could also make the newly created island an attractive base for wind farms, de Boer added.

Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende said he hoped a first island would be created "as soon as possible."

He urged Dutch companies to come forward with plans and initiatives but declined to say how much the islands would cost or how long they would take. The idea of building islands dates from the '80s but was considered too expensive at that time.

Monday's meeting also talked about building an artificial island in the shape of a massive tulip, inspired by Dubai's Palm Island project, a development in the Gulf in the shape of a palm tree that Dutch dredging companies helped build.

The islands could be used for sports facilities, housing, agriculture or a nature reserve to relieve space constraints.

CLAWING BACK LAND

"We would be absolutely interested in moving to such an island," said Ad van Wijk, chairman at privately held Dutch firm Econcern, which produces and operates wind turbines.

"We could produce the blades for our turbines on the island and no longer need to transport them over land," he said.

Other ideas to protect the Dutch coast include equipping flood defenses with sensors to monitor sudden changes in water levels due to climate change and how best to use the North Sea's ecosystem, such as natural sand flows, for flood protection.

The Netherlands, a quarter of which lies below sea-level, has a long history of clawing back land from the sea and fighting floods.

Dutch firms have led a number of major coastal projects around the world, and U.S. officials sought Dutch advice on water management after floods devastated New Orleans in 2005.

Among the Dutch firms that hope to benefit from the Dutch government's plans are the world's largest dredger Boskalis and its rival Van Oord.

Van Oord said over the weekend it had completed work on "The World," a cluster of artificial islands off the coast of Dubai in the shape of the world's continents which used 320 million cubic meters of sand, equal to a 2-metre-wide, 4-metre-high wall stretching around the world.

(Editing by Jon Boyle)