How will the Netherlands defend itself against climate change?

Many are familiar with the four climate adaptation pathways developed by Deltares, the premiere Dutch water and soil research institute. The pathways focus on protecting residents of the Netherlands against accelerated sea level rise. But what if we evaluated each of these pathways in terms of their impact on biodiversity, soil degradation, subsidence, water quality and other measures of misguided land use policy? In this video, ‪@professorpoldergeist‬ unveils the clandestine war against nature that has gone hand in hand with the Dutch war against the sea and shows how nature has launched a mission to rescue biodiversity. How will the Netherlands defend itself? Or wouldn't it be wiser to negotiate peace?

Jos van Alphen and Marjolijn Haasnoot provide a full account of the Deltares adaptation pathways in "Uncertain Accelerated Sea-Level Rise, Potential Consequences, and Adaptive Strategies in The Netherlands," published in Water (2022). 10.3390/w14101527. Link: https://www.researchgate.net/publicat...

Here are some sources about biodiversity loss, water quality, subsidence, and the nitrogen crisis:
Biodiversity: https://eufactcheck.eu/factcheck/true...
Water quality: For the claim about less than 1% of open water meeting EU norms, see a Dutch language article: https://www.nu.nl/klimaat/6204157/nie...
Nitrogen crisis: https://www.energymonitor.ai/policy/t...
To understand how subsidence is linked to water management, agriculture, damage to housing stock, see this excellent article: https://thewire.in/science/explained-...

The fundamental problem is that the programmatic industrialization of agriculture, especially livestock, has led to the drying out of the nation. Eco-hydrologist Flip Witte explains:
“The Netherlands is drying up because the groundwater level is getting lower. This is due to the extraction of groundwater for industry and drinking water, but above all agriculture. After WW2, our landscape was rapidly dewatered and pumped empty by human activity. Dutch water management is mainly geared to agriculture. ... By putting water management at the service of agriculture, other interests, such as those of nature, have been lost sight of. Also, insufficient account has been taken of the adverse effects in the summer, because due to better drainage, drought damage occurs more often in the summer. So we now have the paradoxical situation that water is quickly drained in early spring to please farmers, while a few months later the same farmers irrigate their land en masse with ground and surface water. As a result, the groundwater level continues to fall.” https://www.gelderlander.nl/home/we-l...

With regard to engineers' confidence about being able to handle sea level rise of up to 10 meters, see this article in which Bas Jonkman (TU Delft) claims that 2 meters is manageable and "that solutions can be found for a sea level rise of up to 10 metres." https://www.tudelft.nl/en/delft-outlo...
In a widely discussed article with the title "The Water is Coming, But Don't Be Afraid," Ties Rijcken says, "It may sound strange, but from a water technical perspective we can easily manage and pay for protection against another 10 meters of sea level rise. Dikes in the Netherlands are like highways and banks: whether you like them or not, we need them." https://decorrespondent.nl/13396/het-...

The most developed plan for advance, including barrier islands 20m above sea level, is the Haakse Zeedijk. Learn more here: https://haaksezeedijk.com/

Accommodate/retreat, known in Dutch as meebewegen (plus verplaatsen), has not received the direct attention it deserves. There is however a profound and influential tradition of thinking about nature that underlies meebewegen and includes things like "building with nature" and "room for the river." For its roots, see the early work of Wouter Helmers, Gerard Litjens, and their mentor, Willem Overmars. Their plans for "Living Rivers" (1993) and "Growing With the Sea" (1996) still form the basis for imagining meebewegen. https://www.ark.eu/over-ark/ark-organ...

Finally, the quotation from Peter Glas about how the Netherlands will become amphibious is from a 2022 interview, which can be found here: https://www.witteveenbos.com/nl/nieuw...