American Reacts to Why New Orleans Is "Doomed" But Amsterdam Is Safe 

Yes I know my math was wrong, I was thinking about it backwards lol... Have a super fun awesome day!!!

‘The Netherlands build all of their infrastructure on rocky and hard ground’. Wait, what?? Is he serious? The west of the country mostly has soft soil and used to be as marshy as the areas surrounding New Orleans. We’ve drained those areas hundreds of years ago using canals and windmills so the land could be used to grow crops and build settlements. These are called polders too by the way. If you want to build anything here you need beams that go into the soft soil until it hits the sand layer. On average those beams need to be 5-10m (16-32ft) long, sometimes even up to 100ft. Not only Amsterdam is build on poles.

The "missing centre" in the Randstad is called "the Green Heart", a large area of farmland that is intentionally left free of housing development.

15:38 Amsterdam was NOT hit by a flood in 1995. In 1995 there was a risk of flooding for another part of the country where authorities demanded large polders to be evacuated. But since Amsterdam is not in a polder, that was not affecting Amsterdam.

The Randstad is the most urbanized area of the Netherlands. Not only does it have the 4 biggest cities, also a lot of other smaller cities and towns are part of it. The middle part that is missing is called ‘het Groene Hart’ (the green heart) and mainly consists of grasslands for dairy farming, nature and lakes that formed back in the day after removing the peat for fuel. This area is protected from big urban development to keep green space available. This is also one of the reasons why Dutch cities are pretty condensed, not a lot of room to sprawl outward. The name ‘Randstad’ actually says it already… literal translation is ‘edge city’

I work in the Dutch water management sector, and I can tell you that we have to really work hard to keep our feet dry. But with all that work, we've managed to deal with the threat of floods. When Germany and France had severe floodings these past few months, even resulting in some casualties, we only had some minor local inconveniences due to severe rain in The Netherlands. And that is despite the fact we had to deal with more water than our neighbours, as the rivers from their countries end up in the sea through ours (Maas/Meuse and Rijn/Rhine rivers). Even if Amsterdam were to somehow be hit by a flood through all of our water defenses, which I cannot imagine, it would probably take only a few days to get everything back to normal again. We can drain a LOT of water from our country and pump it into the sea or temporary storage if we want to. There is only one actual threat to our water management right now, and that's multiple weeks of storm surges from the North Sea. But to be fair, that would possibly also severely damage other countries like Scotland, Norway, Ireland, the UK, Belgium, Denmark and possibly France and Germany. If there is one thing we Dutch understand, it's water management, even in the harshest conditions...

The 1932 Afsluitdijk is a the wrong place

The part left out of "de Randstad" is called "het groene hart" (the green heart). Its mainly farm and nature with some small towns dotted around. The Randstad are the 4 major city with a arbitrair landcorridor worked around it.

I live in New Orleans and one of our big problems are our ancient pumps. The pumps are being replaced, but these massive water pumps are manufactured by only a couple places in America, and these facilities also make stuff for the U.S. Military...who gets priority on construction. So we get put in a line to wait. Our oldest pump is so old it was wound up and powered on by Edison himself. We actually filled in a bunch of our canals. Canal Blvd is a major street in the city that used to be an actual canal. We lost a lot of our canal infrastructure over the last century.

7 feet is circa 2.1 meter

@11:42 That's not a house, that's the Bucktown Harbor Marina. It's outside the levee system's protection. The floodgate is just off-camera, going across the canal but not protecting the marina.

You doing that inverted math, friend. If 7ft is 21m, I wanna see your shoes, Boffo the clown :) It’s two meters, and maybe a bit. FYI the lowest point in the NL is six meters below sealevel. And they’ve recently decided to build a brand new village right there. In fact, there’s a naming competition going on

Modern means electric. No diesel belching, bell clanging and horn blaring here. Rocky ground in The Netherlands? Amsterdam on poles to prevent it sinking into the rocks?

We have remarkable few alligators in Amsterdam, we have rats, and drunk tourists... so their is vermin.

The gap in the middle of the Randstad is called the green heart. Lots of agriculture, treegrowing, flowers and lakes👍👊

22:00 you and me both. I think it’s because the missing part is Het Groene Hart, supposedly protected as a sort of nature reserve. Not a lot of protection going on though, these days. But I’ve never before seen the Randstad depicted like that.

Amsterdam is surrounded by a well-designed canal system, it's below sea-level, but it's also built flat. New Orleans is called the "Crescent City", because it is essentially built like a crescent-shaped bowl which holds water every time there is a heavy rain.

Hi Charlie, Love watching both channels from you and Amy. You both seem very exited about the Netherlands and europe. I live near the Delta works and drive over it regularly for work. It has one of the most stunning vieuws in the province of Zeeland. Espacially at the highest overlooking vieuw point from the dunes, driving down towards the Delta works. With the light of the sun reflecting on the water or on a stormy day and the water hits the Delta works with the high waves. Just beautiful. Hopefully you can see it for yourself very soon. Thanks for the video an keep up the good work. Miranda.

Amsterdam was build on a swamp I think. And the missing bit in the middle is "Het Groene hart* It is kept rural on purpose.

21:50 I can explain this: The missing part is also somewhat a part of the "Randstad", but it's mostly farmland and nature reserves. So it's not really an urban area...

His name is simply pronounced Jeff - that’s the American spelling. Geoff - English/Scottish spelling.

The “empty spot” in the Randstad is called the “Green Heart of Holland”, yes still with bigger towns as well but mostly quit rural where nowhere nature is far away. The Government is trying to leave this part as “green” as possible, but in recent years you see more new house building projects because of a national shortage of available housing for our inhabitants (unfortunately) as long as the green emptiness is not considered as so-called Nature2000 areas (EU rules….)

The gap is called “het groene hart”, (the green heart) wich is mostly farmland.

depends on how much rain we get .. we do still get flooding in this country ... not sure for amsterdam but here in the south we had some recent flooding like 2 years ago

it is not "rent stet", there are aaah's.. the gap in the middle , is the green heart of Holland, all meadows, the rand = the edge of the green heart. made up of many smaller cities that grew till they touched each other, the middle part was all grassland with only a few small villages, so it stayed open, and it is swamp land...so we keep it green... Rand = edge, stad = city, and it is not emsterdem, those are aaaaahs too .These cities are all old, like started in the middle ages...

Land subsidence is also a problem in the Netherlands. That's in the first place because groundwaterlevels are kept artificially low (sometimes too low, which for example causes the old wooden foundation poles underneath the historic houses in Amsterdam to rot), and in the second place because we experience drier summers. (This current one excluded, because its very wet. But that doesn't cause the ground to bounce back.)

That is not the afsluitdijk, that 1 is more to the north, right before the islands

Been in Amsterdam a lot, as a women alone. You can walk without worries at night as well, from a cafe to the trainstation.

We have wolfs for some years now. And we have a adder ( snake). I have not seen them ever.

Really like the background of these couple of weeks, also the camera quality has seemingly gone up. Also nicely groomed beard, Charlie. Makes all of it more enjoyable to watch! Are you still active on Instagram or Facebook? Sent you some messages, but no response yet

In English Geoff is usually pronounced Jeff

the middle is called the green hart. ony for farmers, no city builds

In between the cities of the Randstad is agricultural land, called the green heart.

26:00 Rocky ground ? In the Netherlands? Hahahahahahahahahabahananan😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂 The Netherlands is basically one big swamp. Except for the fact we changed that. My house is on 20 meter long poles that rest on a hard sand layer. Rock... nowhere to be found.

well the last part of that video pisses me off ... as we have offered the usa the plans for the deltaworks and did offer to work with the usa and new orleans government to build and addapt the deltaworks to make it work for new orleans and they have refused our help so it is their own fault that they have to face these issues in my eyes we should stop to care about the country that does not want our help .. then just let them go under !!!!

fun fact that shows how important water management is in The Netherlands: King Willem Alexander has a degree in Water Management. 😉

23:30 that is the mighty Mississippi in its container... but once every time, the giants wants to stretch his mussles.. it can't freely, so it will break the walls... give it meandering space and you will have less of that problem.

I don't know how you math my friend but 7ft is 2.13m which is correct as Amsterdam lies about 2m below sea level. 11:30 I can't see the entire thing but that looks like a ringdike. As for the water within, given that there is a boat dock I suggest it is some kind of kayaking lake. The big building could be a Restaurant, hotel or event center. 23:42 I don't think there is a difference in salinity. It is of course hard to say but the bodies of water would differ in color and they don't. It is very well possible that the body within the dike is fed by the river. 15:40 incorrect information. The last time Amsterdam was hit by a flood that warranted an evacuation of people actually living in Amsterdam was in 1960 wen a dike broke in the area Tuindorp Oostzaan. There have been no floods in "recent years" You can be a victim of crime anywhere but the chance of being shot in Amsterdam is very low. (unless of course you are a criminal or converse with criminals. Then the chances are a lot higher of course) 22:00 Randstad Yes, your assumptions hold merit. The Randstad is the combined regions of the Fivemajor cities Amsterda, Rotterdam, the Hague and Utrecht. Almere nowadays is also included but this is more recent. The "missing part" is because it is not a "stad" are (stad=city). The area is filled with smaller towns and a lot of farmland. 25:57 lol whut? Most of what was build was build on reclaimed land or former marshes. Why does he think we needed poles in Amsterdam, or build windmills to drain the ground water. 26:20 incorrect assumption and for someone into geography I find this shocking. The Netherlands has to deal with the melting water of several mountainranges deeper into the European mainland. That is also an attack from all sides. Most of the recent floodings in the Netherlands have all been meltwater related.

59 minutes has a video on the Netherlands and New Orleans getting guidance from Netherlands, also New York Hoboken getting money from Homeland Security thanks to The Netherlands to protect New york aswell from flooding.

@Charlie Have you heard about the Dutch dialogues and how the NL is helping out to plan and get some USA cities water-proved? If not then you might want to watch the video by: Geography Geek- How the Netherlands Helps Other Countries With Their Water Problems.

12:57 so inaccurate. That's the 'Houtribdijk' not the 'Afsluitdijk'. This dijk was constructed after the Afsluitdijk for a plan to drain more of the IJsselmeer that has not been executed to this day.

Before watching: Amsterdam is no longer on the coastline (the Afsluitdijk took care of that in 1932)

This video may be focusing on Amsterdam versus New Orleans, but of course there are way more cities, some even megacities, sinking, as they are either on soft soil or in wetlands or in river deltas or just very near to the sea. New Orleans and Amsterdam are small cities with a population well below one million inhabitants (and so is Venice, which is also sinking), but what about the extremely large cities of Dhaka in Bangladesh, Mumbai in India, Jakarta in Indonesia, Bangkok in Thailand. These are just a few sinking cities, that are all way above 10 million or even 20 million agglomerations? The only difference where Amsterdam (literally) stands out, is that the houses are built on stilts, which makes the surrounding lands sink, but not the houses. Good for those residing in their houses, but still there is the terrifying forecast of sinking infrastructure and land around the built up areas. So the Dutch better not boast again, but start looking to come with a solution on that. Nothing safe about Amsterdam either.

that channel should get better info before broadcasting, there are several big mistakes made here (afsluitdijk is at the wrong spot, no rocky soil in the west of netherlands, the deltaworks protect a region way south from Amsterdam and protects Rotterdam). im 58 and lived my entire life in Amsterdam and the only flood i ever experienced was when a drain in the road got blocked bij an empty garbage bag and the water didnt even reached the top of the sidewalk

Might have been better to compare to Rotterdam, especially the relation to the outflow of the river system: Rhine/Meuse is still not as huge as the Mississippi, but a lot more than the Amstel. And though both Amsterdam and Rotterdam do get some rain and storms, there's no comparison with the hurricanes New Orleans has to cope with.

Geoff is pronounced as Jeff and he probably reminds you a bit of Thoughty2, although imho their only similarity is the amount of information they share with us!

Who says Amsterdam, says water. The city is known for the many canals in the city center, the so-called Venice of the North. But actually it is not the canals, but the reclaimed land that has shaped Amsterdam into the city we know today. Without polders, even more than without canals, there would be no Amsterdam. A polder is basically nothing more than a reclaimed piece of land surrounded by dikes, so also lakes, from which the water has been pumped out to make it usable. The construction of polders around Amsterdam was a monumental task, a mix of perseverance and technical ingenuity. In the 17th century, the Bijlmermeer was completely drained. That doesn't mean it stayed dry. When the French invaded, the polder was flooded again. The polder also flooded in 1702, thanks to a heavy storm. Amsterdam and Weesp, still separated at the time, joined forces to drain the lake again. ✌🏼

You can say Amsterdam has centuries more experience in how to control flooding but in my opinion New Orleans can just see what Amsterdam did and copy it. Why invent the wheel again when it is already there. The canals and locks, together with pumps and levies keep the water out. All that water in the canals would have flooded the city if they were not there.

This video has a lot of small mistakes. Amsterdam was not flooded in 1995, nor is it built on rocky ground, the Afsluitdijk is in the wrong place, etc. etc. Also, Amsterdam is built in exactly the same environment as New Orleans (only with a colder climate). You just need to go back 800 years or so, and you would see the same marshes and wettlands in Holland. And you need to take a maths course, haha. 7 feet is 2.1 meters, don't multiply, when you have to divide. Amsterdam (Holland) is also subsiding and the sea level is also rising. Just like in New Orleans. The gap in the Randstad has historic reasons. We call it "het Groene Hart" (The Green Core) It used to be water, or too swampy, or too far away from economic activity, so nobody lived there.

2:45 3 ft is approx 1 meter..you got it turned around. so, amsterdam and New Orleans are 3,5 give or take metres below sea lvl, not 21

New Orleans is also a delta but with out the Dutch.... thats why

Hallo Charlie . 7 feet is nearly 2 metres .

We call the opening the green heart

The Lowest point here in the Netherlands is 22ft below

112.52 is the road between Hoorn and Lelystad NOT the Afsluitdijk...He got it wrong

the guy who fixed new orlean water pumps wasn't fixing them they where down to 3 out of 24 .... he was in jail for corruption the sewage and water bord spends close to a billion dollars a year and it was all sitting on one guy lol

13:12 so inaccurate again. We have a Dutch saying "De klok horen luiden maar niet weten waar de klepel hangt" (or my personal favourite variation on it: 'De melk horen klotsen, maar niet weten waar de tepel hangt"). Use Google to translate that😂. But on topic: the Delta Works are primarily designed to protect the southwestern part of the Netherlands. Indirectly they also protect Amsterdam but that is not what they were primarily designed for.

Feet is 30 cm so 2,1 meters is 7 feet

The gab is polder (Haarlemmermeer polder. No im wrong here. It’s a much larger aria. See post below

The big difference: the Dutch have been reshaping their river delta to be safe (or increasingly safer) for at least 700 years and probably for much, much longer. The Americans.... not so much.

nice Video again

Something else. Of course you can dig canals and pump water out. The result is that the whole area will go even lower. Therefore you need a closed coastline. That area is too vast. So really doomed 🤣🤣🤣

7 feet is aprox 2.1 meter

time stamp 09.05 You got it right 1ste time and all of it....

1 meter is aprox 3 feet

How many hurricanes have hit Amsterdam?

12:53 that is NOT the Afsluitdijk !! Thst is the Houtrib Dijk.. Afsluitdijk is the long one more to the North.. He did a bad job there..

The bell works!

look at the sat pictures in google maps...

One city designed by the Dutch, one city designed by the French .... guess who is screwed.

BTW.. i Love your , TMNT shirt.

Geoff is pronounced the same as Jeff :)

1feet is around 30cm 2meter 10cm below

3 ft = 1 m so it is 1 to 2 meters below..

Drinking iced coffee? :P

Charlie ... Google is your best friend... 7 feet is 2.1336 meter

Maybe Alfred E. Neumann grown up?

25:59 Wrong he is again!!! Netherlands is sandland, not rocks land... sand and seaclay... He obviously didn't do his homework..

7FT = 2.13 meter.

Aren't most American city's doomed?

I watched it rightaway...before reacting 😜 The Dutch woud've fixed the problem with New Orleans right away...making polders,canals,lakes,dams,dikes,you name it... So yeah..hire Dutchies to fix it once and forever...

This guy needs his facts straight, amsterdam is not build on rock... its build in a swamp aswel... hence why everything is build on poles.. Not flooded either in 1995...

There are a whole lot of facts not completely accurate and/or mixed up. Id like to mention as well that Amsterdam (and other Dutch cities) are built on meters long poles to prevent the sinking. New Orleans does not

Amsterdam metres under sealevel and protected by dikes and dunes and pumps. Of course it is a polder

I think your maths is slightly out there 🤔

Without watching the vid; im baffled you havnt understood the severity of global warming and the impact itl have on sealevels/coastal cities. Guess it comes down to the almost nationwide denial and as extension, that the US have spend very little to secure the coastline..

Damn, I'm early!

What a useless video. That guy has so many of his facts about Amsterdam and The Netherlands as a whole wrong. The most extreme is that The Netherlands is on rocky ground??? In the west it is all clay at a considerable depth while the east is mostly sandy. The poles which are used to built on the clay is equal to slamming nails in wood. Many rows of them can carry a substantial weight.

Ok, after your conversion of 7ft being 21 meters I'm gonna stop watching this video!! You had it right with 3ft but how do you get to 21 meters then?? Math is sometimes complicated, I know 😂 Hope the rest of the video was more accurate .... unfortunately I'll never know

Hope his maps are better than his videos.

well the first ting I want to know is what was your girl on about when she said her fiance moved to the netherlands ??? what are you guys hiding from us??? time for some dutch directness right now on this

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randstad

7ft is about 2 meter