Space in Copenhagen is limited, so the Danish government wants to reclaim land from the sea around the capital city. The head of the country's employers' association says it could help create a "European Silicon Valley."
Image: URBAN POWER for Hvidore Kommune
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The Danish government revealed plans on Monday to build nine artificial islands by 2040 to house a new industrial zone off the southern coast of Copenhagen.
Dubbed Project "Holmene," the islands are designed to bolster the capital's attractiveness in the eyes of international businesses and could result in the creation of some 12,000 jobs, Interior Minister Simon Emil Ammitzboell-Bille said.
"We will stand stronger in international competition to attract business, investment and highly qualified labor," he said.
The government said the project, which still requires parliamentary approval, would alleviate a shortage of land in the Danish capital, by creating:
3.1 million square meters (33 million square feet) of new land
Space for up to 380 new businesses
700,000 square meters of nature
17 kilometers of new coastline
More than $8 billion (€7.2 billion) in economic activity
Climate changes Germany's coast
From temperature increases to predictions of sea level rise, Germany's seas and coastal communities are facing changes that require pre-emptive action.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/H. Marschall
Keeping the coast safe
At the moment, water levels in Germany's North and Baltic Seas are not rising any faster than usual, but scientists say the process is likely to speed up in the coming decades. Exactly when, and by how much, is uncertain. And that complicates the work of coastal defense authorities.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/I. Wagner
Feat of engineering
Over the centuries, the hundreds of kilometers of dikes along Germany's coastline have become higher and more sophisticated. The latest incarnations are called "climate dikes" and are especially designed to be able to hold back higher waters brought about by warming temperatures and rising sea levels.
Image: DW/Tamsin Walker
Houses on tiny hills
One time-honored way populations under threat from higher sea levels have sought to secure themselves, has been to build their homes on small mounds. On the so-called Hallig islands, it is not uncommon for these embankments to be all that is left above water during a storm surge.
Image: WWF/H.-U. Rösner
Cod off to cooler waters
Unlike sea-level rise, an increase in temperatures in Germany's North and Baltic Seas is already palpable. Scientists say both bodies of water are around 1 degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than in the 1960s. This shift in conditions has had an impact on several species, including cod, which have begun to migrate north in search of the cold in which they thrive.
Image: by-nc-sa/Joachim S. Müller
Heading for the heat
At the other end of the scale, anchovies are increasingly making a home for themselves in the North Sea off Germany. The species is usually found in more southerly climes, but the warming temperatures are attracting them to new waters.
Image: Imago/blickwinkel
Mud flats in danger
The Wadden Sea UNESCO World Heritage Site is also at risk from the predicted sea-level rise. It serves as a resting place for millions of migratory birds traveling between the Arctic and warmer regions to the south. Because it is so rich in food, the birds stop there for several weeks at a time to build up fat and energy reserves for their onward journeys.
Image: WWF/H.-U. Rösner
Life in the salt marsh
While few plant species can survive the salty waters that regularly flood the marshes between the Wadden Sea and the dikes, the environment is alive with tiny insect species and birds that nest at ground level.
Image: DW/Tamsin Walker
Drowning dinner
If the sea level were to rise too quickly, the Wadden Sea's characteristic mud flats would no longer be exposed at low tide. That would have huge implications, not only for the birds that rely on the ecosystem for food, but for the ecosystem itself.
Image: WWF/H.-U. Rösner
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The government hopes to begin construction on the first islands in 2022. It would finance the endeavor by selling plots on the islands, Business Minister Rasmus Jarlov said.
The head of Denmark's employers' association, Brian Mikkelsen, welcomed the plan. He told Denmark's TV2 television that the islands could spur the emergence of a "European Silicon Valley."
One of the nine islands is designed to house a waste conversion plant, which would transform refuse from the capital into biogas, as well as hold cleaning waste water and store energy from windmills.
Copenhagen is located on two islands, Zealand and Amager. Authorities have expanded the city's border multiple times in recent decades by creating artificial islands.
Danish Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen announced plans in October to build a separate artificial island off Copenhagen's coast that would host housing projects and bolster the city's flood defenses in the face of rising sea levels.
