[RedDevil]

Originally Posted by freebeard

[fuel shortage and house damage due to extreme rain deficit and low water levels in rivers] is an interesting set of problems. This ground that collapses if it dries out is already below sea level?

Some of it, but that's relatively easy to solve if the rivers and lakes have some reserve (you don't let in sea water - it devastates crops on farm land etc).
In the east the land lies above sea level; mostly peat and clay layered with ancient beaches and dunes that have been pushed up into hills at the end of giant glaciers coming down from Scandinavia during the last ice age. They lie well above the big rivers so only rain replenishes the water there, but we had so little of that his year and so much heat that at some places the deficit is more than half a meter.

Then the ground is rather soggy, and fully waterlogged if you go deep enough.
Big structures need foundations on concrete poles going 30 to 50 meters deep into the ground, but smaller structures can be built on the first layer of sand - sometimes requiring hardly any foundation at all. But in times of drought the tree roots deplete the water under the top sand strata, and the peat (ancient buried marshlands) start to shrivel making the top sag down.

Even some dikes were under threat, as they used to be just heaped up clay and stones on top of the original marshy peat, which was pressed solid - until it dries out... but after a collapse caused a minor flooding some 15 years ago these are monitored and sprayed when needed.