Amsterdam Under Threat

Over the years, the face of Amsterdam, known as the "Venice of the North", has been constantly remodeled and redesigned by engineers. Using dunes, dykes, polders, and colossal dams to preserve the city from the North Sea and riverfloods, more than once, Amsterdam’s inhabitants have saved and rebuilt the city using staggering and ever more ingenious techniques.

Exacerbated by climate change, sea-level rise, which may well accelerate over the coming decades, has become a major concern for this country which has over a quarter of its land below sea level.

How is Amsterdam preparing to meet these challenges? Will the technology and infrastructures developed since the city’s foundation be enough to keep danger at bay? This investigation grasps how the Dutch invest, test, build and redesign their land again and again. In their own way, they are reshaping the planet’s future.