Water as Leverage - Wadden Sea Region

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Water as Leverage for Climate Adaptation: Wadden Sea Region Droughts, floods and saltwater intrusion are becoming ever more common throughout the Wadden Sea. Rising temperature Several different challenges in the Wadden Sea can be related to the continuing increase in temperature caused by climate change, which goes relatively fast in Northwest Europe. This increase in temperature has two main effects with a chain reaction of socio-economic issues. Firstly, the higher average temperature causes an increased evaporation, leading to droughts (even at higher average rainfall!), which in turn lead to salination of the dry lands in the region and evaporation of the underground freshwater reserves. Secondly, the high temperature and evaporation causes sudden and high peaks in rainfall, leading to the flooding of waterways, polders and valleys. Lack of fresh water on the islands The droughts, salinization and loss of freshwater reserves are especially felt on the Wadden islands. These islands have a very limited surface on which the rain falls and there is no incoming water from higher regions. The runoff of fresh water into the sea needs to be prevented as much as possible. This means the islands need to infiltrate, buffer and store their fresh water for later use in agriculture, industries or as drinking water. Storing rain water is not only important for further use, but this fresh water is also needed to ‘push away’ the saline water further underground, thus protecting the soil, crops, animals, and nature from the salinization. Today, some of the islands are connected to the mainland with pipelines to import fresh water, but the increase in droughts, agriculture production, and tourism put pressure on this system. Becoming self-sufficient in terms of fresh water is a more resilient alternative. H 2 0 26 Call for action
Setting the scene for a Call for Action Freshwater flooding The extreme amount of rainfall in short periods of time is complicating the storage of fresh water, and also causes flooding at the coastal cities since they receive a major inflow from the upstream mainland. At moments of high sea water, the disposal of fresh water becomes even more complicated, which makes the flooding of the lower plains is often unavoidable. The coastal cities and their hinterland have to organize buffer capacity in order to avoid flooding. Salinization Being surrounded by the sea, the Wadden region is incredibly vulnerable to increasing salinization caused by droughts and evaporation. Agriculture and horticulture are strongly affected and might need to look into different types of crops that can deal with the salinization. Grasslands and cattle are less vulnerable. Industries that need a high amount of fresh water are however vulnerable as well. Part 2 27
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Water as Leverage - Wadden Sea Region

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