To cope with rising sea levels, a Dutch planning agency has proposed diverting part of the Rhine River to an inland lake far from its normal outlet before channeling it to the North Sea.
With much of the Netherlands already below sea level, the Rhine would have an uphill battle to empty into the sea if global warming caused it to rise any higher.
too low
"The level of the ground where the water currently meets the sea at Hoek van Holland [near Rotterdam] is simply too low," said Anneke Oosterhuis, spokeswoman for the Dutch Environmental Planning Bureau.
"With rising sea levels, you would need to pump the water upward at the end, and that's almost impossible," she said on Thursday.
Instead, Dutch hydraulic engineers should reroute much of the water from the Rhine, beginning far inland, to the Ijssel Lake, where the ground is higher as it approaches the coast.
"In essence, the river's slope will be less steep," she said.
The bureau advises the government on water policy, and its recommendations are a central part of the decision-making process.
Two-thirds of the Dutch population lives on land below sea level, which accounts for half the country. But experts believe the dunes, dikes and dams that form a barrier to the sea will be strong enough to meet a global warming-induced rise of up to about 1m with only minor adjustments.
intense rainfall
Instead, the nation's primary concern is its rivers, which could overflow with sudden surges of water as a result of global warming. Most climate models anticipate more episodes of intense rainfall in the Rhine's cachement area in Germany.
Emergency contingency plans already include earmarking areas for evacuation and intentional flooding of sparsely populated river basins.
The Rhine splits into three parts shortly after it enters the Netherlands near Arnhem. Two-thirds of the water continues west as the Waal River, and most of the rest arches slightly northward toward Utrecht and Amsterdam.
But about one-ninth flows almost due north along the Ijssel River, eventually meeting the Ijssel Lake -- once an inlet of the North Sea that was blocked off by a massive dam in 1932, which was then considered an engineering marvel.
The Environmental Planning Bureau's new plan calls for increasing the flow along the Ijssel River, and possibly widening it.
Oosterhuis said the plan was not to "cause panic, but to get people to come to terms with reality. We will have to make major adjustments to cope with global warming."
A museum in southern French city Marseille is inviting visitors to discover Europe’s relationship to the naturist lifestyle by wandering its halls in the nude. “It’s not every day you get to walk around a museum naked,” said Julie Guegnolle, 38, who was celebrating her birthday at the “Naturist Paradises” exhibition in the Museum of Civilizations of Europe and the Mediterranean (Mucem). Once a month, visitors to Mucem can explore the history of naturism in Europe in only their shoes — a precaution not for modesty’s sake but simply to “avoid getting splinters,” said Eric Stefanut, head of French naturist organization
SOVEREIGNTY ‘VIOLATION’: China was possibly probing Japan’s air defense network, seeking to obtain intelligence and putting pressure on Tokyo, analysts said Japan yesterday criticized what it called the first confirmed incursion by a Chinese military aircraft into its airspace as a “serious violation” of its sovereignty, saying Beijing was becoming “increasingly active.” China’s growing economic and military clout in the Asia-Pacific region and its assertiveness in territorial disputes — mostly with the Philippines — has rattled the US and its allies, and Monday’s incident represents a further heightening of tensions. Japan, Washington’s closest ally in the region, said it scrambled fighter jets after the two-minute incursion from 11:29am on Monday by the Y-9 surveillance aircraft off the Danjo Islands in the East China
APP ACCUSATIONS: Investigators said they were surprised Durov would fly to Paris, knowing he was wanted for failing to curb the criminal use of his platform Telegram CEO Pavel Durov was yesterday expected to appear in court after being arrested by French police at an airport near Paris for alleged offenses related to his popular messaging app, sources said. The 39-year-old Franco-Russian billionaire was detained at Le Bourget airport north of the French capital on Saturday evening, one of the sources said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Durov had arrived from Baku, Azerbaijan, another source close to the case said. The Russian embassy in Paris yesterday said French authorities were “refusing to cooperate” after Durov’s arrest. “We immediately asked French authorities to explain the reasons for this detention and demanded
UNDERBUDGETED: UN head has called for more funding for the support mission as only about one-fourth of pledged amount has been received Two months after the first Kenyan police officers arrived in Haiti, little progress has been made against the country’s rapacious gangs — and the buildup of an international policing mission appears stalled. With UN backing and funding from the US, the mission was supposed to bring order to a nation where armed groups control 80 percent of the capital, Port-au-Prince. However, the Kenyan police — now numbering 400 — and their Haitian counterparts have not recaptured any gang strongholds, with frustration palpable among city residents. “The abuse from the gangs continues, and the bandits aren’t even worried,” motorcycle-taxi driver Watson