Jos Muller introduces us to Isabella and her beloved salt marsh that lies beyond the big dike. She doesn't have time to visit, Grandpa warns her a storm is coming, so instead she heads to her favourite tree, one tall enough to see over the expansive dike that protects her village. Will it alone be enough to hold back the coming waters?

After the first chapter of Isabella's story, we are joined by Dimitris to reflect on the meaning of Isabella's story. We talk about what happens when it storms, how they model this using Delta Flume experiments, and the capacity salt marshes have to help reduce the impact of storms on our communities.

This series was developed and produced by the Story Engineer, Connor McMullen, as is distributed in collaboration with the Dutch International Storytelling Centre.

The Living Dikes Project is a consortium of Universities, research institutes, and Dutch Water Boards and provinces. In this episode we are joined by Jos Muller, a PhD candidate at the University of Twente and Dimitris Dermentzoglou a PhD candidate at TU Delft.

Special thanks to the sound artists whose Creative Commons sounds and recordings helped bring our stories to live. Most of the birds, animals, and nature sounds you hear in these stories are from the collection of Klankbeeld, the Dutch Sound Museum.