Afloat in the Flood Zone

Photos

New Orleans Flooded

see larger image

uploaded by mediaJunkie

FROM Jakarta to the coast of Louisiana, floodwaters are a growing
concern. This is especially true in delta regions, where river and sea
combine, as they do in many of the world's great cities, to create a
double hazard.

No place is more concerned with this problem than the Netherlands, literally "the lowlands," where for centuries people have lived on the edge of water-borne disaster. About a quarter of the country is land reclaimed from the sea, while half of it lies at or below sea level. The country's vulnerability to rising water levels, commonly ascribed to climate change, was on full display last summer at the Rotterdam Architecture Biennale, titled "The Flood," which contained proposals for a floating soccer stadium and housing built on spongelike synthetic riverbanks capable of absorbing flood waters.