polder

He said there was increasing focus on so-called "green-adaptation" measures, like polders and plains that can be flooded, to stop water running off too fast.

This approach is so ingrained in Dutch politics, there is a name for it: the ‘‘poldermodel,” with polder meaning “land reclaimed from the sea.”

Lee said Singapore’s future options include building polders, areas of land reclaimed from a body of water, or reclaiming a series of islands offshore and connecting them with barrages.

Now pumps are run by diesel, not wind, but the polder landscape of small rectangles of land surrounded by drainage channels remains.

“Over 500 years, each decade or every 20 years, you can draw a new map of the Netherlands because there are new embankments or polders or whatever. There was a continuous process going on.”