Much of country of the Netherlands was originally formed by the estuaries of three large European rivers: the Rhine, the Meuse and the Scheldt, as well as their tributaries. Indeed, almost the entire west of the country is composed of the Rhine-Meuse estuary.
As a result, the Dutch have been expanding the region of Holland for over 2,000 years, reclaiming land from the North Sea by creating dikes (embankments) to keep waters away, or by draining lakes, to produce low-lying land known as polders. As a result of this extensive work, the Netherlands now boasts the world’s largest artificial island, the 374.5-square-mile Flevopolder.
To put this in perspective, the city and metropolitan borough of Sheffield covers an area of 142 square miles, over half the size of Flevopolder. When Flevopolder is combined with Noordoostpolder to form its province, Flevoland, they cover 540 square miles, which is twice as big as Leeds.
Formed as part of the massive 1919 to 1986 Zuiderzee system of dams, dikes, land-reclamation and drainage projects, Flevopolder’s island status is granted by being surrounded by the bordering lakes of Gooimeer, Ketelmeer and Veluwemeer.
Engineering works first required the damming off of parts of the Zuiderzee sea inlet, using the Afsluitdijk dam (1932) to create the new freshwater IJssel Lake.
After World War Two, land reclamation works created the eastern Felvopolder (1957) and then the southern Flevopolder (1968). In January 1986, Flevoland officially became the youngest and 12th province of the Netherlands.
Today, the area includes the cities Lelystad and Almere, with a population of over 400,000.
According to a 2007 study by Calvin University in the US, about 65% of the country would be under water at high tide if it were not for the existence and the country’s use of dikes, dunes and pumps.
Land reclamation in the 20th century added an additional 640 square miles to the country’s land area. Of the country’s population, 21% live in the 26% of the land below mean sea level.
Since the 14th century, smaller strips of land were reclaimed by filling them with sand or other land materials. This was usually done near urban and harbour areas – Amsterdam and Rotterdam were expanded in this manner.
Droogmakerij de Beemster (Beemster Polder) was constructed in 1612 as one of the first experiments in the Netherlands in reclaiming agricultural grounds from the water. The polder was arranged in a geometric pattern based on the ideals of the Renaissance. The area is split by roads into squares of 1,800 meters, with canals, farmland and farmhouses.
Thanks to its frequent creation of polders, the saying “God created the world, but the Dutch created the Netherlands”, has become a popular phrase.