Floods Caused by Humans During War Efforts

Floods may not strike you as being weapons, but that's exactly what they were used for. Scientists have found that from 1500 to 2000, about a third of the floods in southwestern Netherlands were deliberately caused by humans during wartimes.

During the Eight Years' War as the Spanish army fought to recapture what is now northern Belgium and southwestern Netherlands, the Dutch rebels decided to use the low-lying flood-prone landscape to their advantage.

The rebels actually destroyed seawalls at strategic places from 1584 to 1586. This caused deliberate, large-scale floods. However, this tactic came at the expense of the countryside of northern Flanders, now Zeeland Flanders.

"Strategic flooding is a highly risky tactic," said Adriaan de Kraker, one of the researchers, in a news release. "It can only be successful if there's a well-thought-out backup plan and a plan for fast repairs. I desperately looked for evidence of backup plans for the repair of the dykes and who was going to pay for the costs incurred. I could find hardly any records of such plans."

The researchers actually used documents relating to land ownership and land use to see which floods were intentional or not. They also examined accounts of maintenance of sea defenses, and correspondence between stakeholders, such as rebels, Spanish officials, and mayors of besieged towns.

In the end, the researchers found that there were floods caused by storm surges and ones caused by wartimes. In all, a third of the floods were caused by war.

"Strategic flooding during the Second World War undertaken by the Germans remained purely defensive, while the Allied flooding of the former island of Walcheren in the southwest of the country sped up the Allied offensive," said de Kraker.

The findings reveal how flooding can have a profound influence on how wars are waged and how people react to them.

The findings are published in the journal Hydrology and Earth System Sciences.

For more great science stories and general news, please visit our sister site, Headlines and Global News (HNGN).