Studying the oceans is a matter of survival for the below-sea-level-dwelling Dutch, and scientists in the Netherlands have now unveiled the world’s biggest manmade wave to prepare for the worst.

“Here we can test what happens if enormous waves hit our dykes,” said infrastructure minister Melanie Schultz van Haegen as she inaugurated the giant wave machine in the city of Delft on Monday.

The machine – named the Delta Flume – took three years to build and can send waves five metres high crashing down a 300-metre long and 9.5-metre deep channel.

Water is pushed down the channel. Photograph: Wouter Boer/AFP/Getty Images

Four powerful pistons behind a seven-metre high metal shield push 9m litres down the channel at a speed of 1,000 litres a second.

The aim is to simulate the power of the oceans to help Dutch engineers build better flood defences. Half of the country’s population lives below sea level on reclaimed land.

“Safety against floods is one of the main issues here in the Netherlands, so we want to test the dykes and the dunes,” said Bas Hofland, an expert in coastal defences.

“It is not possible to make it at a small scale, so we must have real life-scale dykes and dunes.”

After a centuries-long battle with the oceans, the Netherlands now calls itself the safest delta in the world – thanks to a network of dykes and dunes stretching over hundreds of miles.

“The water and its logistics are those sectors for which the Netherlands is known around the world,” Schultz van Haegen said.

