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Polders and Dykes
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From Matt Rosenberg,
Your Guide to Geography.
The Reclamation of Land in the Netherlands
In
1986, the Netherlands proclaimed the new 12th province of Flevoland but
they didn't carve out the province from already existing land nor did
they annex the territory of their neighbors - Germany and Belgium. The
Netherlands actually grew.
The Dutch and their ancestors have been working to hold back and
reclaim land from the North Sea for over 2000 years. Over 2000 years
ago, the Frisians who first settled the Netherlands began to build
terpen, the first dykes to hold back the water.
In 1287 the terpen and dykes that held back the North Sea failed, and
water flooded the country. A new bay, called Zuiderzee (South Sea) was
created over former farmland. For the next few centuries, the Dutch
worked to slowly push back the water of the Zuiderzee, building dykes
and creating polders (the term used to described any piece of land
reclaimed from water).
www.access-nl.org
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Once dykes are built, canals and pumps are used to drain the
land and to keep it dry. From the 1200s, windmills had been used to
pump excess water off the fertile soil; today most of the windmills
have been replaced with electricity- and diesel-driven pumps.
Then, storms and floods of 1916 provided the impetus for the Dutch to
start a major project to reclaim the Zuiderzee. From 1927 to 1932, a
30.5 km (19 mile) long dyke called Afsluitdijk (the Barrier Dyke) was
built, turning the Zuiderzee into the IJsselmeer, a freshwater lake.
(Much of the Netherlands is essentially a delta for the Rhine and other
rivers.)
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Further protective dykes and works were built, reclaiming the land of
the IJsselmeer. The new land led to the creation of a the new province
of Flevoland from what had been sea and water for centuries. The
collective North Sea Protective Works is one of the Seven Wonders of
the Modern World, according to the American Society of Civil Engineers.
Today, approximately 27 percent of the Netherlands is actually below
sea level. This area is home to over 60 percent of the country's
population of 15.8 million people. The Netherlands, which is
approximately the size of the U.S. states Connecticut and Massachusetts
combined, has an approximate average elevation of 11 meters (36 feet).
The Netherlands ties Lemmefjord, Denmark for claim to the lowest point
in Western Europe - Prince Alexander Polder lies at 23 feet (7 meters)
below sea level.
Suggested Reading
Geography and Maps of the NetherlandsLowest Points on LandHolland, the Netherlands, Nederland, and the Dutch
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