From an airport that operates thousands of feet below sea level, too one of the saltiest places on earth here’s some amazing sights that the ocean could look down on.


Taieri Plain

Lying just north of the Dunedin International Airport, is New Zealand’s lowest point, two meters below sea level. It’s all a part of the Taieri Plain, a three hundred square kilometer patch of farmland. The land is dominated by farm animals and lovely towns like Mosgiel and Maungatua. Floods in the region happen regularly and can be severe.

Lammefjord

This agricultural land in Denmark used to be a body of water. But a draining project started in 1873 and it took a really long time to complete. It wasn’t until 1943 that the lowest lying elevations were pumped dry. Now the land is ideal for growing things like carrots and potatoes. At seven meters below sea level it's, along with a polder in the western Netherlands, one of the lowest lying points in all of western Europe.

Georgetown

The busiest place in Guyana (guy-anna), Georgetown is also the country's capital and is where some 120 thousand people call home. Normally it lies right at sea level, 0, but at high tide it's actually one meter below sea level. It's for this reason that the land is protected by a seawall and authorities decided to install an intricate network of canals to drain the city. Georgetown is hot and humid. There’s no dry season however, with all 12 months experiencing at least 2 average inches of precipitation.

New Orleans

Until the Louisiana purchase in 1803 Napoleon and the French owned New Orleans. The city was named after a French Regent in 1718. After the U.S. purchased the land New Orleans would become a melting pot of cultures, with American, French, Creole and African people creating a diverse mix of lifestyles. It’s why the city is such a unique, fun place to experience. Parts of the city lie a few meters below sea level. By the late 20th century city officials began to realize that New Orleans could be vulnerable to flooding. Events like Hurricane Betsy in 1965 and a flood in May of 1995 demonstrated as much. The first mandatory evacuation in the city's history occurred in the same year, and was in lieu of Hurricane Katrina. While most residents had left by the time Katrina hit land, more than 1,500 people were lost during the disaster. During the hurricane the cities federal flood protection system failed. 80% of the city would flood as a result. The event is one of the worst civil engineering disasters of all time, and many say the worst since Chernobyl in 1986.

Lake Eyre

It doesn’t often fill, but when it does, Lake Eyre in central Australia become the largest lake in the country. Even when it's not full, it's home to the country’s lowest point at 49 feet below sea level. The salinity of the lake, which is at ocean levels when full, increases as water evaporates. Saturation occurs and at this poi9nt the lake turn pink.

There’s just one more place left to learn about, but first we’d like to thank everyone for watching. We hope you learned something interesting in the last nine minutes and we invite you to subscribe and tune into our next video. Now for one more place, and it’s a city that’s constantly having to hold water at bay,

Kristianstad

Sweden's lowest point, nearly two and a half meters below sea level can be found in this city. It’s why parts have systems of levees and pumps in place for flood protection. In the recent past they’ve gone to great lengths to protect the environment. They use no oil, coal or natural gas to warm buildings, a remarkable turnaround considering that just two decades ago all of their heating came from fossil fuels.

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