THE European MEGAPROJECT worth US$600 BILLION, 331 km long, to build large dams separating the North Sea from the Atlantic Ocean and SAVE 25 million INHABITANTS

European megaproject promises to reduce impacts generated by climate change. Europe plans to build dams to prevent flooding, check out the details!

The consequences of climate change already affect millions of people around the world and the outlook is not encouraging. According to estimates, in the next three decades, around 570 coastal cities are expected to register an increase of at least 50 cm in sea level, which could directly affect a population of 800 million people around the world and a good portion of those affected are in northern Europe. In this way, a European megaproject promises to build dams and save millions of inhabitants. 

Impacts of climate change lead to a megaproject unprecedented in Europe

To reduce the effects of rising sea levels and try to protect more than 25 million inhabitants in 15 countries, engineers from Germany in partnership with professionals from the Netherlands came up with a rather bold proposal to build huge dams that would separate the northern sea from the Atlantic Ocean, thus being able to mitigate or even solve the problem of rising ocean levels definitively.

Since 1980, sea level has risen by around 23 cm and almost half of this increase has been recorded in the last 25 years alone and is estimated to continue rising by an average of 3,4 millimeters each year.

According to recent studies, this increase is increasingly rapid and it is believed that United States will have to face a rise of more than 30 cm over the next 30 years, putting countless of their cities at risk of flooding and other natural disasters. 

If the rise in sea levels is irreversible, as it is still the subject of debate, several countries will need to take measures to protect their coastal cities or, as a last resort, relocate residents from coastal regions to inland regions. 

Revealed: megaproject to build dams in Europe

To avoid a shock as big as this, Engineers of the two countries presented a European megaproject, which aims to build dams. In total there would be three and, together, they would be around 637 km long, reaching depths of up to 330 meters and in total would protect 25 million inhabitants from the north of France to Norway.

The European megaproject, which was nicknamed Need, proposes that the project be divided into three dams that together will prevent the advance of the Ocean.

The first dam would be built in English Channel, between France and England, a projected extension of 161 km is undoubtedly the easiest and least dangerous part of the construction, as it would deal with depths between 85 and 102 meters below sea level. The other two dams will be built further north, with the first connecting Scotland with the Orkney Islands.

This section, approximately 165 km long, would handle an average depth of 49 meters and is again easy to construct, given the technologies we currently have. However, the third dam is the largest and also the most complicated, as it brings technical challenges incomparable to the others, connecting the city of Berg in Norway with Nos Island.

The third dam would be 331 km long in total, with the average depth of 161 meters reaching even the abyss of 321 meters in the Norwegian trenches. 

Difficulties found

Despite being a huge project unprecedented in history, the European megaproject, which aims to build dams, is considered viable, as similar works, but of smaller dimensions, have already been carried out previously, which provided extremely valuable technical knowledge in this project.

The biggest difficulty without a shadow of a doubt is the stretch between the Knots Islands and Norway, but the prospects are still encouraging, as fixed oil platforms are already built at average depths of 500 meters, which encourages the researchers Engineers involved in the project .