The Netherlands is a country located in western Europe along the northern sea neighboring Belgium and Germany. It is a more economically developed country (MEDC), and can therefore afford much more flood precautions than less economically developed countries. The most threatened parts of the Netherlands are an area of an alluvial plain, built from flooding over years. Over the past years, the Netherlands have been creating flood control. With the money they have, being an MEDC, they are able to create man-made dikes, floodgates against storm surges from the sea. With increasing amount of technology, flood disasters have been decreasing within the 21st century. As an MEDC, human causes and natural causes are very distinct as human causes such as urbanization is often in MEDCs.