The Netherlands has been in battle with the rising tides for centuries. This has resulted in an intricate system of dikes protecting the land from flooding, locks that allow traffic to go between water levels and barriers that can be closed during storms and extreme tides.

We distinguish various dike typologies that respond to their specific use, like open grass dikes and build dikes. Looking to the measures (barriers, dikes etc.) taken at the different scale levels (regional, local, building) we can deduce the required flood protection strategy.

In the lecture flood protection strategies of Rotterdam and other case studies and proposals are considered. In this all we must strive for a balance between man and nature.

Anne Loes Nillesen is tutor at the Chair of Theory & Methods and director of Defacto architecture and urbanism.

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