Part 1: Geography & Climate Flashcards
The Netherlands (“The Low Countries”) are how many % below sea level and how many % above sea level?
Below: 26%
Above: 50% (1m above sea level)
Terp/Terpen
In the Dutch province of Friesland, an artificial dwelling hill is called terp (plural terpen)
Terp means “village” in Old Frisian and is cognate with English thorp
First polder of the Netherlands?
Since the Middle Ages
Flood defenses: ???
Flood defenses, such as dykes, dunes
and dams, protect 60% of the Netherlands against flooding.
What are “Polders”?
Polders are tracts of land that lie below sea level and are reclaimed from the ocean, lakes, rivers or wetlands through the building of dykes, drainage canals and pumping stations, “Polders are land reclamations, but not all land reclamations are polders.
How are “Polders” built?
Polder, tract of lowland reclaimed from a body of water, often the sea, by the construction of dikes roughly parallel to the shoreline, followed by drainage of the area between the dikes and the natural coastline.
What are “Dijken”?
Engineers dig canals around the area the want to reclaim and with the earth that was extracted, they can raise ‘Dijken’ (dikes/ embankments) to contain the area
Difference “dam” and “dijk”?
Dams = water is on both sides
Dikes = water on one side, land on the other
–> the Afsluitdijk could have been called the Afsluitdam.
–> More dikes than dams have been built in the Netherlands.
Once the digging is finished, the water can be drained from that surface, using windmills (or, nowadays, more modern technology)
The water goes back to the sea, through the canals
The sand area/ground of the polder is still wet at this moment – and
should be dried further more… how?
Seeds are planted (by hand > plane)
this plant the ability to absorb much
of the water still present in the soil
and to oxygenate it in such a way as
to make it suitable for cultivation
once grown, the plant comes set on
fire and the ashes are mixed with the
soil to make it more fertile.
> Cane, Reed (plants)
Polders, how do they stay dry from rain water?
Extra, underground “miniature” channels within the polder, to drain the rainwater from the soil.
Windmills: constructed how? (height, radius, wings?)
- the most common windmills are tall about 20m and have a diameter of 10m
- Their wings have a diameter of 30 meters and are capable of
discharging around 60, 70 cubic meters of water per minute
How many windmills does exist in NL (approximately)? and how many are still used?
- over 10,000 mills for draining the soil
- Approx, 1000 mills still in use
Famous polder: “de Beemster”
- Protected landscapes (UNESCO)
- Extension of 72 square km
- Fully functional mills
- 16TH Century, Original structure and still active
The Dutch became very good at controlling floods, over the centuries. Hence, some important dates:
Zeeland flood – 1808
Zuiderzee flood – 1916
Great Flood – 1953
Central rivers flood - 1993
Cornelis Lely, famous for what?
engineer & politician
- saved thousands of lives and propel the Netherlands as a country, famous for hydroengineering.
