NOW: Tulip and palm islands

The Netherlands has a chronic shortage of land. There is never enough space for housing and the ever-growing number of companies. But how to expand your territory without waging war? Pinching land from the sea is safer than pinching it from your neighbours. Take for example the Zandmotor project (still just a plan) off the coast of Kijkduin and the Hook of Holland. A large sand hill raised by hydraulic fill to form a natural barrier against the tide, is expected to result in accretion to the land and a coastal area rich in animal life. Meanwhile, the Dutch are practising the art of raising land with sand by hydraulic fill in other countries. The Dutch dredger van Oord has made two artificial islands near Dubai: a palm island, Palm Jumeirah, and a world map, The World. The wealthy have bought villas there in their thousands.  

THEN: Hunger for land

The Netherlands has plenty of experience in the struggle against water. Flevoland is a striking example of a successful water-to-land transformation, though the motivation in this case was largely a burning need for good-quality agricultural land. The entire province was created by reclaiming parts of the former Zuiderzee. The Flevopolder, part of the province, is a large artificial island as well as the world’s largest ever hydraulic engineering project. After many failed plans during the previous centuries, Cornelis Lely’s scheme for land reclamation was eventually realised. Dating from 1891, the Lely Plan was executed between 1921 and 1975, pretty much as Lely had proposed decades earlier.