Part 4/13:
The Netherlands also employs continuous vigilance: children learn to swim early, and the city lights the barrier in different colors—blue when open and red when closed—serving as nighttime alerts of flood risk. However, with climate change, new challenges emerge. Increased rainfall intensity, cloud bursts, and rapid urbanization threaten the robustness of existing defenses. To address urban flooding, Rotterdam has developed innovative solutions such as the Water Square, a vast, basketball-court-sized reservoir that captures and slowly releases stormwater to prevent sewer overflow and street flooding.