Recovering the dynamism of the Belgian coast

The Belgian coast is the result of a continuous domestication of natural forces that up till not so long ago overpowered human capabilities. Both the intruding sea as meandering river mouths flooded the polders and the dunes were continuously changing position due to whimsical winds and sea sand deposits. In these dynamic forces human presence was always volatile and nomadic. The increasing technical capacity to deal with forces of this scale resulted in the rather engineered urban realm of the Belgian coast. Pumping mechanism dried out polders and allowed more agricultural and livestock production; the sea dyke fixed human resistance towards the sea with the "sea dyke typology" - the multistory holiday apartment block leading to the famous coastal wall - as a result; finally it instigated the gradual disappearance of the vast dune landscape that did become a protected landscape with the ecological awareness, an ironic artifact of its once dynamic appearance; the presence of the harbors and inland canals also technified the rich estuarial salt-to-sweet water gradient to disconnected water systems. The Belgian coast was made fully operational, the king looked back satisfied when escaping by boat towards more romantic - more natural - holiday destinations. Climate change has made us question the flexibility of this operational frame. Is the sea going to flood urbanized areas? What will happen with saline intrusion when sea levels go up? Are the dunes of today the beaches of tomorrow? Are the higher frequencies of storms going to re-flood the polders? Those questions are often posed in their wrongfully disguised and technically contextualized version: are the dykes high enough? Can the pumps clear the water in the polders? Can we heighten the beaches with dredged sand? How deep do we dig our new wells to find sweet water without saline intrusion? Our thinking should change perspective. Instead of continuously thinking of technical solutions, we should reinvent the way we inhabit the dynamic landscape and start primarily by rebuilding these dynamics. A resilient landscape would automatically lead to a more adapted urban realm in which many technical questions are no longer the most relevant.nrpages: 16status: publishe