On Dutch Coast, an Experiment in Sand

A pile of sand about eight times the volume of the Great Pyramid of Giza is shaping up as a cut-rate model for protecting coasts from rising seas. The "Sand Engine" is 28 million cubic yards (21.5 million cubic meters) covering an area 1.2 miles (2 km) long and half a mile wide. Dumped along the shore here in 2011, the sand pile marks a shift from the Dutch tradition of armoring the coast with dikes and other hardware. Instead, the hope is that as all that sand is slowly...

© La Voix de l'Amérique - mercredi 31 décembre 2014