I come from "the low lands" in Europe, and trust me when I say this : it took two major disasters to make people redesign the water infrastructure. This occurred in the Netherlands in 1954, and was what created "Rijkswaterstaat" [2] (this is a Dutch ministry, and they're serious assholes to be frank, but without them ...), and the development of the "Delta works" [3].
Incidentally, apparently they won't even be maintained without a major disaster. It's now 2014 and a project to raise the Delta works was scrapped for the funds, which will go to some bank related measure instead (the dykes that form the Delta works are sinking into the ground due to their weight and should be raised to avoid the risk of water spilling over them : if the conditions of 1954 repeat, currently a disaster of about 1/3 the proportion of the 1954 floods would occur. It gets worse every year, and apparently by 2065 the Delta works will no longer provide any defense at all, meaning yearly flooding disasters will start occurring at that point).
Just providing a data point. Sea level rise is not a significant factor for the delta works (rather the standard deviation in average sea level is. In and around the channel there is an average sea level, and you see sea levels up to 6 meters higher than the average in most locations once per decade. A few centimeters don't really change the calculation. Hell, even a meter wouldn't significantly alter the situation. But the dykes are just barely 5.5 meters high anymore, and will fail entirely if water starts spilling over. Meaning once the water level goes more than 10 centimers or so above the top of the dykes, they will most likely fall over. Average sea level rise creates a problem for ground water, but that won't really affect anyone for quite some time. Btw: go to the page of the delta works linked below. Look at those towers. Just think of how much tonnes of water these guys are keeping out, yet those towers, impressive as they are, will fall over (more likely torn to shreds, but ...) in the next decade or two if nothing is done)
In general, I'd look at the Delta works though as an example of how everything can be fixed, but it comes down to this simple fact, and environmentalists won't like it. Humans need to take direct control of the ground water table, by erecting concrete barriers that make it look like the sea level drops several meters from the perspective of inland water tables. Those barriers can also prevent flooding by providing a large coastal basin of water where levels are maintained much lower than sea level (by opening the dykes at ebb and closing them at flood times), where storm floods can drain into. This will destroy fauna that depends on being exposed to waves (I'm sure they can be maintained in a few locations, like "Het Zwin" [1], but they'll no longer dominate the coastline), and will be replaced by inland river-fauna (frankly, I like that much better, but again, environmentalists will object to what amounts to artificial habitats).
Incidentally, apparently they won't even be maintained without a major disaster. It's now 2014 and a project to raise the Delta works was scrapped for the funds, which will go to some bank related measure instead (the dykes that form the Delta works are sinking into the ground due to their weight and should be raised to avoid the risk of water spilling over them : if the conditions of 1954 repeat, currently a disaster of about 1/3 the proportion of the 1954 floods would occur. It gets worse every year, and apparently by 2065 the Delta works will no longer provide any defense at all, meaning yearly flooding disasters will start occurring at that point).
Just providing a data point. Sea level rise is not a significant factor for the delta works (rather the standard deviation in average sea level is. In and around the channel there is an average sea level, and you see sea levels up to 6 meters higher than the average in most locations once per decade. A few centimeters don't really change the calculation. Hell, even a meter wouldn't significantly alter the situation. But the dykes are just barely 5.5 meters high anymore, and will fail entirely if water starts spilling over. Meaning once the water level goes more than 10 centimers or so above the top of the dykes, they will most likely fall over. Average sea level rise creates a problem for ground water, but that won't really affect anyone for quite some time. Btw: go to the page of the delta works linked below. Look at those towers. Just think of how much tonnes of water these guys are keeping out, yet those towers, impressive as they are, will fall over (more likely torn to shreds, but ...) in the next decade or two if nothing is done)
In general, I'd look at the Delta works though as an example of how everything can be fixed, but it comes down to this simple fact, and environmentalists won't like it. Humans need to take direct control of the ground water table, by erecting concrete barriers that make it look like the sea level drops several meters from the perspective of inland water tables. Those barriers can also prevent flooding by providing a large coastal basin of water where levels are maintained much lower than sea level (by opening the dykes at ebb and closing them at flood times), where storm floods can drain into. This will destroy fauna that depends on being exposed to waves (I'm sure they can be maintained in a few locations, like "Het Zwin" [1], but they'll no longer dominate the coastline), and will be replaced by inland river-fauna (frankly, I like that much better, but again, environmentalists will object to what amounts to artificial habitats).
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zwin [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rijkswaterstaat [3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delta_Works