engineering

Northern European Enclosure Dam

Northern European Enclosure Dam is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Northern European Enclosure Dam rather than just read about it. In short: The Northern European Enclosure Dam (NEED) is a proposed solution to the problem of rising ocean levels in Northern Europe. It would be a megaproject, involving the construction of two massive dams in the English Channel and the North Sea; the former between France and England, and the latter between Scotland and Norway.

Key takeaways

Northern European Enclosure Dam belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Northern European Enclosure Dam to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Northern European Enclosure Dam from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Northern European Enclosure Dam (NEED) is a proposed solution to the problem of rising ocean levels in Northern Europe. It would be a megaproject, involving the construction of two massive dams in the English Channel and the North Sea; the former between France and England, and the latter between Scotland and Norway. The concept was conceived by the oceanographers Sjoerd Groeskamp and Joakim Kjellsson. As of 2020, the scheme remains a thought experiment intended to portray engineered solutions to the effects of climate change as too "extreme" to be pursued. The scheme's authors describe it as "more of a warning than a solution". Groeskamp estimates that the NEED will cost 250 to 500 billion euros and will take 50 to 100 years to complete. Groeskamp, an oceanographer, has not revealed how he determined the cost projection or construction timetable.

Channel Dam

The southern enclosure (NEED South) would be a single dam across the Channel between The Lizard, Cornwall, England in the north and Plouescat, Ploudalmézeau, Brittany, France in the south. The stipulated length is 161 kilometres (100 mi), with an average depth of about 85 metres (279 ft) and a maximum depth of 102 metres (335 ft).

North Sea Dam

The northern enclosure (NEED North) would be a multiple section dam at the perimeter of the northern rim of the North Sea. The detailed engineering is not stated, although some form of continuous structure could provide for overland infrastructure—road and/or railway between Great Britain and Norway.

Scotland–Shetland The western section of the North Sea Dam would be an island jumping, from mainland Scotland in the southwest, through the Orkney Island to Shetland in the northeast, with a total length stipulated to 145 km. The first stretch origin at Duncansby Head, Caithness, mainland Scotland and crossing Pentland Firth to Brough Ness, the southern tip of South Ronaldsay in the Orkney Islands. Although being a narrow strait of 10 km, the sea floor is down to 100 m depth. The stretch through southern Orkney continues to Burray, over the narrow Skerry Sound to Mainland and passing the 4 km wide and 30 m deep Shapinsay Sound to Shapinsay. From its northern tip Ness of Ork, the 6 km wide and 110 m deep Stronsay Firth is crossed to War Ness, the southern tip of Eday. The stretch through northern Orkney continues eastward over the 2 km wide and 22 m deep Eday Sound to Sanday. From its northern tip Tofts Ness, the 4 km wide and 20 m deep North Ronaldsay Firth is crossed to Strom Ness on North Ronaldsay, the northernmost of the Orkney Islands. The crossing of the Fair Isle Channel, between Dennis Head, North Ronaldsey and Scat Ness, the southern tip of Mainland, Shetland, would be the first open waters section of the North Sea Dam, with a distance of exactly 80 km and water depths down to 110 m. A dam across the shortest distance between the two archipelagos would leave Fair Isle placed within the enclosure.

Shetland–Western Norway The eastern section of the North Sea Dam would offer the greatest engineering challenge of the whole NEED project, stipulated to a length of 331 km through open water and with the sea floor depths exceeding 300 m in the Norwegian trench. The dam would originate from the eastern shores of Mainland, Shetland, just north of Lerwick, heading east to Bressay and Isle of Noss to allow for the shortest ocean crossing towards Sotra island in Vestland on the western coast of Norway. The ocean floor east of Shetland dives down to depths below 100 m just 1 km off shore, and then continues fairly flat through Bressay Ground and Viking bank for some 210 km, until the deep decline of the Norwegian trench. Here, being the latter part of the sea crossing, the sea floor reaches some 321 m depth within 5 km from the western Norwegian coast where there is a steep incline.

Norwegian internal waters For the NEED to work, Norwegian internal waters have to be enclosed as well, as the Sotra terminus of the North Sea Dam is an island. With the shortest distance for the crossing from Shetland, the dam will reach the western shore of Sotra, just off Telavåg. The final part of the enclosure would therefore have to be the crossing of the narrow, but deep sound separating Sotra from mainland Norway close to Bergen. Several alternatives are viable, one being the route crossing the 1-kilometre (0.62 mi) wide and some 140-metre (460 ft) deep Lerøyosen sound from southern Sotra, the islands of Lerøyna, Bjelkarøyna, and Storakinna to the seemingly mainland south of Hjellestad, a total distance of 5 kilometres (3.1 mi). As the latter lies on an island, the very narrow Ådlandstraumen would have to be closed, to make a complete enclosure. A more northerly route from Sotra would cross the 650-metre (2,130 ft) wide and 90-metre (300 ft) deep Kobbaleia sound, the islands of Tyssøyna and Alvøyna, and finally the 1-kilometre (0.62 mi) wide and 100-metre (330 ft) deep Raunefjorden sound to the mainland just off Flesland, Bergen International Airport. There is also a possibility that Norway would include an enclosure of Bergen, which has faced many floods in recent years, and in that case the first part of the enclosure dam would be between Sotra and Askøy, and the second between Askøy and mainland Norway, crossing Byfjorden north of the city center of Bergen.

Images

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Northern European Enclosure Dam

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Northern European Enclosure Dam claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Northern European Enclosure Dam before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Northern European Enclosure Dam ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Northern European Enclosure Dam

In research: Northern European Enclosure Dam appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Northern European Enclosure Dam in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Northern European Enclosure Dam is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Climate change adaptation, Macro-engineering, Megaprojects, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Northern European Enclosure Dam outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Northern European Enclosure Dam in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Northern European Enclosure Dam means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Northern European Enclosure Dam out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Northern European Enclosure Dam in simple terms?

Why does Northern European Enclosure Dam matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Northern European Enclosure Dam?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Northern European Enclosure Dam.