With 27 percent of its surface area and 60 percent of its people living below sea level, how vulnerable is the Netherlands in the face of rising oceans? A panel of experts, commissioned by the Dutch government, says there's no need for panic, but they warn the time to act is now.

In 1953, a powerful North Sea storm surge caused massive flooding in the Netherlands, killing 1836 people. The Dutch government soon began construction on the so-called "Delta Works", an ambitious and unprecedented network of dams, sluices, locks and dykes to protect the low-lying regions in the Rhine, Meuse and Scheldt estuaries. The Delta Works were finished in 1997, and are considered one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World by the American Society of Civil Engineers.

Today, climate change threatens to increase both sea levels and the frequency of storm surges and other extreme weather. The Delta Works, along with the network of dykes and canals built across the Netherlands over the past hundreds of years, may not withstand the pressure. A new Delta Commission charged with assessing the Netherlands' vulnerability released its report last year. The findings and recommendations are presented in the following film. There's no need for panic, the report says, but the time to act is now.