Bit of an odd question. But i think britain as a land mass is too small. Its the 7th largest island in the world approxiametly buts its too small in my opinion esp. for the size of the population.
One proposal I have is to fill in the 'Wash' near east anglia. It is a inlet of land that is about half the size of greater london. The land would be flat and boring but it would give us some great arable land for crops and so much needed land for housing to relieve the housing problem in this country.
2006-07-08 03:16:06 · 19 answers · asked by wave 5 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Engineering
THE DUTCH DO IT! WHY CAN'T WE !!!!!?
2006-07-08 03:25:12 · update #1
You could make it bigger like we have been doing in the Netherlands since the 16th century.
2006-07-08 03:25:44 · answer #1 · answered by Enduringwisdom 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
While technically possible it is questionable as to whether we should do this. We already suffer from coastal erosion and rather than curing the problem building seawalls and other hard defences simply exacerbate the problem by focusing it's effects on certain areas. A prime example of this is the massive floods in the 50s which levelled a large part of the south east of England along the Thames Estuary.
The problem was the hard sea defences along the estuary all funnelled the water up the river to towards London. The other problem is that the South of England is sinking this is a hangover from the last ice age where the weight of the ice forced Scotland and northern England down and southern England up when the ice disappeared the pressure was released. Example of this are the Scilly Isles which where one large Island as recently as the bronze age and the Solent which was probably a deep river valley originally.
The current thinking is to use salt Marsh like a sponge to absorb the power of the sea and also soak up the worse of any storm surges and floods to prevent major floods in built up areas.
Give this information it makes you wonder about the wisdom of building in the Thames flood plain especially the Thames Gateway.
2006-07-09 11:46:05 · answer #2 · answered by Robert S 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Bigger problem: it's getting smaller. The Wash will grow, not shrink, over the next 20 years, and East Anglia will develop a whole new coastline - in the middle of all that lovely arable land!
2006-07-08 03:20:21 · answer #3 · answered by wild_eep 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
My view is that Britain is perfectly sized. We do however need to shrink all the buildings and people that are on the island so I therefore suggest we leave the island in hot water for a little too long (a consequence of Global warming) which should achieve a 20% reduction in size of everything on the island.
The only alternative is to ask everyone to hop on only one foot. This could be dangerous.
2006-07-08 03:24:59 · answer #4 · answered by saumarez1998 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
no what is the point to expensive why not just build upwards its all gonna be covered by the sea soon anyway, ur question sounds like a should i get a nose job? in that an island is an island short of people falling off the sides the extra work would not be economically viable unless u hav a alot of money to spare, do you?
2006-07-08 03:23:17 · answer #5 · answered by James W 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Forget about the Wash. We could double the size of Britain simply by flattening Wales.
2006-07-08 06:49:58 · answer #6 · answered by Doom and Gloom 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
While what your saying makes sense. I do not always agree that dealing with the effects of the problem before dealing with its cause(s). T
This is just dealing with the effect of the problem,and will allow it to continue until even more land is required. The growing population needs to be addressed in all manners.
2006-07-08 12:25:37 · answer #7 · answered by Paula 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
In Holland you don't have the situation where somethiing like 2% of the population owns something like 75% of the land.
Get rid of the landowners with their own private acres that could easily support many small communites, some of them could probably support small towns.
Oh, and leave the Wash alone!
2006-07-08 04:43:31 · answer #8 · answered by Part Time Cynic 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Your problem is compounded by N.Trust and others of that ilk breaking down sea walls and allowing previously reclaimed land to be flooded by the sea in the very area that you propose to fill in.Can`t see how that really helps anybody.
2006-07-08 06:32:35 · answer #9 · answered by mactheboat 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No, I don't think Britain is too small.
I think Britain's population is too large.
The only practical solution/s are "politically incorrect" and therefore have no chance whatsoever of being implemented.
Enoch Powell had the guts to speak his mind.
2006-07-08 13:57:19 · answer #10 · answered by dmb06851 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yeah, we dont have anywhere near enough land, but more land wont fix it, we will just overpopulate that as well.
As for filling in the wash, arghh, all the poor critters that live there, in fact its now popular to do the opposite. http://www.guardian.co.uk/conservation/story/0,,1812368,00.html
2006-07-08 03:23:05 · answer #11 · answered by a tao 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋