Morphological developments and coastal zone management in The Netherlands

The Netherlands are situated on the delta of three of Europe's biggest rivers: the Rhine, the Meuse and the Scheldt, at the border of a shallow regional sea: the North Sea (see Fig. 1). Without dikes more than half of the country would be flooded (see Fig.2). The area is threatened from one side by storms which can generate huge surges, due to the shallow se