Sinking Cities – Gouda and the sinking land
A third of our country is below sea level, and the Netherlands excels at building dykes, dams and flood barriers. But although the rising sea level gets all the attention, something is happening on the other side of the dyke that is much less well-known: the ground is sinking. In some places in the west of the Netherlands, the ground has sunk five to ten metres over the centuries. If we continue with business as usual, parts of the Randstad will come to lie eight to ten metres below sea level.
The ground has been sinking for a thousand years. But due to climate change, the process is going faster than expected and the consequences are greater. Land subsidence causes problems with foundations, damage to houses and infrastructure, and has negative consequences for agriculture, the climate, nature, and biodiversity.

In Gouda, everyone notices the consequences of the sinking ground. Anywhere you look, something is sinking: from the monumental buildings in the inner city, and gardens and streets in a residential area, to farmers’ cows in the surrounding polders. To what extent is the situation in Gouda a precursor of what will happen to the rest of the Netherlands? Does land subsidence mean the end of the historic inner cities and the typically Dutch polder landscape?

Sinking Cities Gouda is about that other fight of the Dutch against the water. About adaptation, innovation and holding on to traditions. About problems and solutions. A trilogy that starts in Gouda’s historic inner city and ends in the deepest polders of the country, the birthplace of the famous Gouda cheese. What does it mean to live and work in a place that is sinking beneath your feet?