Stories about the social impact of a Dutch icon

From the moon, only a few man-made structures are visible. Not the Great Wall of China, nor the Pyramids of Giza. What you can see, from a distance of nearly four thousand kilometres, is a Dutch dyke: the Afsluitdijk.

What does this dyke mean to the Netherlands? And to its inhabitants, photographer Cynthia Boll and journalist Stephanie Bakker wondered. Whom does it actually protect? And is this its only task?

The Dyke is a multimedia project about the future of the Netherlands. A country that without dykes would have been lost long ago. A country that is increasingly aware that the challenges of the future will require more than strong dams and dykes alone. One quarter of the Netherlands is below sea level, and no less than three-quarters is susceptible to flooding, either by the sea or rivers. Sea levels are set to rise by some three metres during the century ahead, while the land is also sinking as a result of land subsidence.

In the stories that make up the Dyke, you will meet pioneers and changemakers trying to build a better world by working towards solutions for the future. From the researchers at the world’s first blue-energy power plant to a close-knit Frisian community showing the way forward in the energy transition. What does the renovation of the dyke mean to an ecologist in Friesland? And what’s the opinion of the next generation about climate adaptation? The stories are diverse and drawn from all over the Netherlands. But they have one thing in common: they all start with the Dyke.

The Dyke is an initiative of Cynthia Boll and Stephanie Bakker in cooperation with Van Oord.