EPOW - Ecology Picture of the Week

Life Along the North Sea

North Sea and Almere
Province of Flevoland, The Netherlands

Explanation:  This is the seaport of Almere in the province of Flevoland, in the Netherlands. Life is busy here, with cargo ships plying the channels and canals, ferrying goods to and from the North Sea and other countries and ports.

Gone are the quaint Dutch-style windmills.  Much of the local power now comes from great wind farms, some set in vast arrays out in the sea along the continental shelf (see the top edge of the main photo, above). 

Life along the North Sea is also precarious -- not just for the powerful storms that can pummel the area, but for a far more chronic and deadlier marine invader:  sea level rise, the modern-day kraken.  We explored a bit of this in a previous EPOW.  

Here is the well-planned municipality of Almere, raised from the sea in recent decades as a polder.  In fact, Almere is about 16 feet (5 meters) below sea level.  It is protected -- for now -- from flooding by storm surges by the adjacent, artificial IJssel Lake that is separated from the North Sea by a dam.  

The heavily-planned city has sparked interest as an inhabitation of times to come, and has also garnered criticism for its lack of identity.