Land reclamation

in the Netherlands

Land reclamation in the Netherlands has a long hist ory. As early as in t he 14t h cent ury, t he
first reclaimed land had been set t led.[1] Much of t he modern land reclamat ion has been done
as a part of t he Zuiderzee Works since 1919.[2]

William II of Holland grants the charter

to the Water Board of Rhineland in the
13th century.

According t o a 2007 st udy by Calvin College Michigan (USA), about 65% of t he count ry would
be under wat er at high t ide if it were not for t he exist ence and t he count ry's use of dikes,
dunes and pumps.[3] Land reclamat ion in t he 20t h cent ury added an addit ional 1,650 square
kilomet res (640 sq mi) t o t he count ry's land area.[3] Of t he count ry's populat ion, 21% lives in
t he 26% of t he land locat ed below mean sea level.[4]
History and origins of land
reclamation in the
Netherlands
The Net herlands has a coast line t hat is const ant ly changing wit h erosion caused by wind and
wat er. The Dut ch people inhabit ing t he region had at first built primit ive dikes t o prot ect t heir
set t lement s from t he sea.[1] In t he nort hern part s of t he Net herlands sea levels fell exposing
new land at a rat e of 5–10 met ers per year bet ween 500 BC and 500 AD. This nat ural process
was exploit ed t o claim new agricult ural lands. Discont inuous dikes were built t o prot ect t he
new farms.[5]

Smaller st rips of land were reclaimed by filling wit h sand or ot her t ypes of land mat erials. This
was usually done near urban and harbour areas since t he 14t h cent ury. For inst ance,
Amst erdam and Rot t erdam were expanding in t his manner.[5]

The development of using windmills for pumping wat er in t he 15t h cent ury allowed t he
draining of significant bodies of wat er. This result ed in t he creat ion of polders.[1] The first
st eam powered wat er mill was put t o use in 1787.[5]

Polders

A satellite image of Flevopolder in

Flevoland
The Net herlands is frequent ly associat ed wit h polders, as it s engineers became not ed for
developing t echniques t o drain wet lands and make t hem usable for agricult ure and ot her
development . This is illust rat ed by t he saying: "God creat ed t he world, but t he Dut ch creat ed
t he Net herlands"[6]

The Dut ch have a long hist ory of reclamat ion of marshes and fenland, result ing in some 3,000
polders [7] nat ionwide. About half t he t ot al surface area of polders in nort h-west Europe is in
t he Net herlands. The first embankment s in Europe were const ruct ed in Roman t imes. The
first polders were const ruct ed in t he 11t h cent ury.

As a result of flooding disast ers, wat er boards called waterschap (when sit uat ed more inland)
or hoogheemraadschap (near t he sea, mainly used in t he Holland region)[8] were set up t o
maint ain t he int egrit y of t he wat er defences around polders, maint ain t he wat erways inside a
polder, and cont rol t he various wat er levels inside and out side t he polder. Wat er boards hold
separat e elect ions, levy t axes, and funct ion independent ly from ot her government bodies.
Their funct ion is basically unchanged even t oday. As such t hey are t he oldest democrat ic
inst it ut ion in t he count ry. The necessary cooperat ion among all ranks t o maint ain polder
int egrit y gave it s name t o t he Dut ch version of t hird way polit ics—t he Polder Model.

The 1953 flood disast er prompt ed a new approach t o t he design of dikes and ot her wat er-
ret aining st ruct ures, based on an accept able probabilit y of overflowing. Risk is defined as t he
product of probabilit y and consequences. The pot ent ial damage in lives, propert y and
rebuilding cost s is compared t o t he pot ent ial cost of wat er defences. From t hese
calculat ions follows an accept able flood risk from t he sea at one in 4,000–10,000 years, while
it is one in 100–2,500 years for a river flood. The part icular est ablished policy guides t he
Dut ch government t o improve flood defences as new dat a on t hreat levels becomes
available.

List of polders
Some famous Dut ch polders and t he year t hey were laid dry are:

Beemster (1609–1612)
Schermer (1633–1635)
 Haarlemmermeerpolder (1852)
As part of the Zuiderzee Works:
Wieringermeerpolder (1930)
Noordoostpolder (1942)
Flevopolder (1956–1966)

Proposed developments
The Markerwaard is t he name of a proposed polder in t he IJsselmeer t hat was never built .
The const ruct ion of Markerwaard would have result ed in t he near-t ot al reclamat ion of t he
Markermeer. Markerwaard was expect ed t o be finished in 1978.[9]

In 1941 work for t his project st art ed; about 2 km of a dike nort h of Marken was built . It would
have had an area of nearly 600 km2. But t he German occupat ion st opped t he project . Lat er, it
was decided t hat t he Flevopolder should have priorit y. In 1957, t he island of Marken was
connect ed t o t he mainland of t he province Nort h-Holland. In 1976 t he dam Hout ribdijk
connect ing Enkhuizen and Lelyst ad was complet ed, a necessary st ep in t he const ruct ion of
Markerwaard, t he dikes for t he bordering lakes were st ill t o be complet ed. However t he ent ire
project became mired in polit ical and environment al cont roversy. In t he lat e 1970s, t he
project was revised down leaving wide bordering lakes bet ween t he polder and Nort h Holland.
Marken would remain a peninsula, unlike on t he original project . At t his st age, t he Markerwaard
would have had an area of 410 km2.

Finally, in 2003, it was decided not t o build t his polder.[10]

1965 plan for a polder 1981 plan for a polder

The Marker-Wadden project

Different propos a ls for la nd recla ma tion a t Ma rkermeer

Opposing views
In t he 1960s, t he Vereniging t ot Behoud van de Waddenzee (ht t ps://www.waddenvereniging.n
l/) organizat ion successfully campaigned against plans t o reclaim part of t he Wadden
Sea.[11]

In 1974, t he Associat ion for t he Preservat ion of t he IJssel Lake (also known as t he Vereniging
t ot Behoud van het IJsselmeer (ht t ps://ijsselmeervereniging.nl/) ), one of t he most vocal
groups against land reclamat ion, published Plan Waterlely, which provided opposing viewpoint s
and solut ions t o land reclamat ion.[11] Among it s many argument s, it said t hat land reclamat ion
was no longer needed as a Dut ch t radit ion since it was no longer needed for flood prevent ion,
as previous reclamat ion project s were used for.[11] The Plan also argued t hat urbanizat ion
would lead t o more land reclamat ion, which would creat e a never ending cycle of reclamat ion,
and t hat creat ing newly reclaimed land would only delay t he fixing of t he core issues of
urbanizat ion.[11] Also, it argued t hat issues t hat were generat ed on "old land" should remain
t here, and not be expanded int o newly reclaimed land.[11] Though dismissed by t he Dut ch
government , t he press generally was well recept ive t o t he Plan. [11]

Recent history

A modern pumping station in

Zoetermeer

In 2012, plans emerged t o creat e t he Marker Wadden,[12] a group of islands designed t o

est ablish nat ure reserves in t he nort h of t he Markermeer. In cont rast t o t he Markerwaard, no
human occupat ion is planned. The creat ion process began in early 2016.[13]
See also

Delta Works
Dijkgraaf (official)
Flood control in the Netherlands
Lauwersmeer
Water board (Netherlands)
Windmills at Kinderdijk

References

1. How it Works: Science and Technology (ht

tps://archive.org/details/howitworks09m
ars) . Marshall Cavendish. 2003. p. 1208
(https://archive.org/details/howitworks09
mars/page/1208) . ISBN 978-0-7614-
7323-7.
2. Carol Hand (2014). Amazing Feats of
Environmental Engineering (https://archiv
e.org/details/amazingfeatsofen0000han
d) . ABDO. pp. 71 (https://archive.org/det
ails/amazingfeatsofen0000hand/page/7
1) –72. ISBN 978-1-62968-529-8.

3. Robert J Hoeksema (2007). "Three stages

in the history of land reclamation in the
Netherlands". Irrigation and Drainage.
Wiley InterScience. 56 (56): 113–126.
doi:10.1002/ird.340 (https://doi.org/10.10
02%2Fird.340) . S2CID 128768356 (http
s://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:128
768356) .

4. "Land Reclamation in the Netherlands

1300 Vs 2000" (https://brilliantmaps.co
m/netherlands-land-reclamation/) .
5. Eduardo F. J. De Mulder; Ben C. De Pater;
Joos C. Droogleever Fortuijn (28 July
2018). The Netherlands and the Dutch: A
Physical and Human Geography (https://b
ooks.google.com/books?id=I75mDwAAQ
BAJ&pg=PA21) . Springer International
Publishing. pp. 20–23. ISBN 978-3-319-
75073-6.

6. Forrest Clingerman, Brian Treanor, Martin

Drenthen, David Utsler, Interpreting
Nature: The Emerging Field of
Environmental Hermeneutics, Fordham
University Press, 1 September 2013.
7. "Kijk naar de geschiedenis" (https://www.r
ijkswaterstaat.nl/rws/waterinnovatiebron/
cgi-bin/toonlijst.pl?config=config&var=vol
gnr&val=1&layout=index-forceframe&conf
ignr=1&menu=1067260347&menuitem=1
120115781) . Rijkswaterstaat. Retrieved
21 January 2008.

8. "waterschap" (https://web.archive.org/we
b/20121102142234/http://www.watersch
appen.nl/) . Archived from the original (ht
tp://www.waterschappen.nl/mijn-watersc
hap.html) on 2 November 2012.

9. Ley, Willy (October 1961). "The Home-

Made Land" (https://archive.org/stream/G
alaxy_v19n06_1961-08#page/n65/mode/
1up) . For Your Information. Galaxy
Science Fiction. pp. 92–106.
10. In de Nota Ruimte Ruimte voor
ontwikkeling, Deel 4 Definitieve versie,
Hoofdstuk 4 Gebieden en thema's,
Paragraaf 6 IJsselmeergebied, Sub-
paragraaf 4 Specifieke beleidskeuzen,
Kop 3 Buitendijkse ontwikkelingen staat
op pag. 156: "De ruimtelijke reservering
voor een Markerwaard vervalt." PDF (htt
p://catalogus2.vng.nl/gemdocs/2004/16
3285_nota%20ruimte.pdf) Archived (http
s://web.archive.org/web/2014011409590
3/http://catalogus2.vng.nl/gemdocs/200
4/163285_nota%20ruimte.pdf) 2014-01-
14 at the Wayback Machine
11. Teule, S. G. J. (2020). "The Struggle for
the Markerwaard" (http://dspace.library.u
u.nl/handle/1874/398011) . Utrecht
University Repository. Retrieved 16 June
2021.

12. Intentieverklaring Marker Wadden,

Rijkswaterstaat (https://zoek.officielebeke
ndmakingen.nl/stcrt-2013-10683.html) ,
Dutch government bulletin, April 2013

13. Boskalis wins Marker Wadden Island

contract (http://www.sandandgravel.com/
news/article.asp?v1=20056) , Dredging
News Online, 15 September 2015

External links

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