The 32 km long Afsluitdijk separates the IJsselmeer from the North Sea, protecting thousands of km² of land.

The Zuiderzeewerken (Zuiderzee Works) are a human-made system of dams, land reclamation and water drainage works, and the largest hydraulic engineering project undertaken by the Netherlands during the twentieth century. The project involved the damming off of the Zuiderzee, a large, shallow inlet of the North Sea, and the reclamation of land in the newly enclosed water body by means of polders. Its main purpose was to improve flood protection and create additional land for agriculture. This is a file from the Wikimedia Commons, a repository of free content hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation. ... This is a file from the Wikimedia Commons, a repository of free content hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation. ... Afsluitdijk The Afsluitdijk (Closure-dike) is a major dam in the Netherlands, constructed between 1927 and 1933 and running from Den Oever on Wieringen in North Holland province, to the village of Zurich (mun. ... Traditional boat on the IJsselmeer Landsat photo The IJsselmeer (or Lake IJssel) is a shallow lake of some 1250 km² in the central Netherlands bordering the provinces of Flevoland, North Holland and Friesland, with an average depth of 5 to 6 m. ... The North Sea is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean, located between the coasts of Norway and Denmark in the east, the coast of the British Isles in the west, and the German, Dutch, Belgian and French coasts in the south. ... Scrivener Dam, in Canberra, Australia, was engineered to withstand a once-in-5000-years flood A dam is a barrier across flowing water that obstructs, directs or retards the flow, often creating a reservoir, lake or impoundment. ... Land reclamation is either of two distinct practices. ... Hydraulic engineering is a sub-discipline of civil engineering concerned with the flow and conveyance of fluids, principally water. ... (19th century - 20th century - 21st century - more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s As a means of recording the passage of time, the 20th century was that century which lasted from 1901–2000 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar (1900–1999... Landsat photo The Zuider Zee (Dutch: Zuiderzee, pronounced ZIGH-der-zee) was a former shallow inlet of the North Sea in the northwest of the Netherlands, extending about 100 km inland and at most 50 km wide, with an overall depth of about 4 to 5 meters and a coastline... The North Sea is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean, located between the coasts of Norway and Denmark in the east, the coast of the British Isles in the west, and the German, Dutch, Belgian and French coasts in the south. ... Satellite image of Noordoostpolder, Netherlands (595. ...

Original plans for the works date back to the seventeenth century, but it was not until a severe flood struck in 1916, that the Dutch parliament finally agreed. At this time Cornelis Lely (after whom Lelystad is named) was minister of transport and water management. He had always been an advocate of the plan and now had a chance to have the plan executed. The single biggest structure in the project was a 32 km long dam, the Afsluitdijk ('closure dike'), protecting the Dutch from the North Sea. But to test the waters the small Amsteldiepdijk was built first, construction of which lasted four years and proved to be a valuable learning experience for the much larger Afsluitdijk. When the Afsluitdijk was finished in 1932, the Zuiderzee was completely dammed off and from then on would be called the IJsselmeer. Total cost of the dam was about 700 million € (2004 equivalent). Cornelis Lely (1854-1929) was a Dutch civil engineer and statesman. ... km redirects here. ... Afsluitdijk The Afsluitdijk (Closure-dike) is a major dam in the Netherlands, constructed between 1927 and 1933 and running from Den Oever on Wieringen in North Holland province, to the village of Zurich (mun. ... The North Sea is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean, located between the coasts of Norway and Denmark in the east, the coast of the British Isles in the west, and the German, Dutch, Belgian and French coasts in the south. ... Landsat photo The Zuider Zee (pronounced , Dutch: Zuiderzee, pronounced ) was a shallow inlet of the North Sea in the northwest of the Netherlands, extending about 100 km inland and at most 50 km wide, with an overall depth of about 4 to 5 meters and a coastline of about 300... Traditional boat on the IJsselmeer Landsat photo The IJsselmeer (or Lake IJssel) is a shallow lake of some 1250 km² in the central Netherlands bordering the provinces of Flevoland, North Holland and Friesland, with an average depth of 5 to 6 m. ... ISO 4217 Code EUR User(s) European Union: Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Republic of Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia and Spain. ...

After damming off the sea, the next step involved creating new land, new polders. This was achieved by damming off portions of the IJsselmeer, and then pumping all the water out. The first polder, Wieringermeer, was dammed in 1929 and fully drained in 1930. The third, the Noordoostpolder, was not fully drained until 1942 and played a vital role for the Dutch Underground resistance during World War II, as the fresh polder offered numerous hiding places. After the war, work was started on draining the Flevolands, a massive project totalling almost 1000 km². This area is now home to Lelystad and Almere, the latter is the fastest growing city in the Netherlands (in part because of its proximity to Amsterdam). Another large polder was planned in the Markermeer, creation of which was heavily debated until plans were officially abandoned in the early 2000s. A new province, Flevoland, was created out of the Noordoostpolder and the Flevolands in 1986, thereby completing the Works. An electrically driven pump (electropump) for waterworks near the Hengsteysee, Germany. ... Wieringermeer (population: 12,583 in 2004) is a municipality in the north-western Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. ... Noordoostpolder is a municipality in the Flevoland province in the central Netherlands. ... Underground Resistance (commonly abbreviated to UR) are a musical collective from Detroit, Michigan, in the United States of America. ... Combatants Major Allied powers: United Kingdom France Soviet Union United States Republic of China and others Major Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Winston Churchill Charles de Gaulle Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Chiang Kai-Shek Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tojo Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian... Lelystad ( â–¶ (help· info)) is a municipality and a city in the centre of the Netherlands, and it is the capital of the province of Flevoland. ... Almere can mean: A large lake that in early times was in the area of the southern part of the Zuiderzee, - see for more information. ... Amsterdam Location Flag Country Netherlands Province North Holland Population 741,329 (1 August 2006) Demonym Amsterdammer Coordinates Website www. ... View across the Markermeer The Markermeer (Lake Marken) is a 700 km² lake in the central Netherlands in between North Holland, Flevoland and its larger sibling, the IJsselmeer. ... Flevoland is a province of the Netherlands. ...

Prelude

In 1916 the dikes at several places along the Zuiderzee (the current IJsselmeer) broke under the stress put on them by a winter storm, and the land behind them was flooded as had often happened in previous centuries. This particular flooding, however, provided the decisive impetus to implement the existing plans to tame the Zuiderzee. The concept of making the Zuiderzee more docile had first originated in the seventeenth century, but the ambitious solutions sought then were not possible given the technology of the time. Landsat photo The Zuider Zee (Dutch: Zuiderzee, pronounced ZIGH-der-zee) was a former shallow inlet of the North Sea in the northwest of the Netherlands, extending about 100 km inland and at most 50 km wide, with an overall depth of about 4 to 5 meters and a coastline... Traditional boat on the IJsselmeer Landsat photo The IJsselmeer (or Lake IJssel) is a shallow lake of some 1250 km² in the central Netherlands bordering the provinces of Flevoland, North Holland and Friesland, with an average depth of 5 to 6 m. ... (16th century - 17th century - 18th century - more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 17th century was that century which lasted from 1601-1700. ...

The second half of the nineteenth century saw the emergence of the first feasible plans, with the primary objectives being improved protection from the open sea and the prospect of valuable new agricultural land. One of the most ardent proponents was Cornelis Lely, an engineer by profession and later government minister, whose 1891 plan would form the basis for what were to become the Zuiderzee Works. It consisted of a large dam connecting the northern tip of North Holland with the western coast of Friesland and the creation of initially four polders in the northwest, the northeast, southeast (later split up into two) and southwest of what would be then renamed the IJsselmeer (IJssel-lake), with two major lanes of water spared for shipping and drainage. The initial body of water affected by the project was 3,500 km². Opposition came primarily from fishermen along the Zuiderzee who would lose their livelihood, but also from other people living in coastal areas along the more northerly Wadden Sea who feared higher water levels as a result of the closure, as well as those who doubted whether it was financially possible in the first place. Alternative meaning: Nineteenth Century (periodical) (18th century — 19th century — 20th century — more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 19th century was that century which lasted from 1801-1900 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar. ... Cornelis Lely (1854-1929) was a Dutch civil engineer and statesman. ... Capital Haarlem Queens Commissioner Mr. ... Capital Leeuwarden Queens Commissioner drs. ... Traditional boat on the IJsselmeer Landsat photo The IJsselmeer (or Lake IJssel) is a shallow lake of some 1250 km² in the central Netherlands bordering the provinces of Flevoland, North Holland and Friesland, with an average depth of 5 to 6 m. ... Satellite image of the IJssel basin River IJssel, sometimes called Gelderse IJssel (Gelderland IJssel) to avoid confusion with its Holland counterpart, is a 120 km long branch of the Rhine in the Dutch provinces of Gelderland and Overijssel. ... Satellite image of the southwestern part of the Wadden Sea. ...

However, when Lely became Minister of Transport and Public Works in 1913, the government started working on official plans to enclose the Zuiderzee. Due to the 1916 flooding and a continuously threatening food shortage during the First World War, support for the project grew. On June 14, 1918 the Zuiderzee Act was passed and the mammoth undertaking began. The goals of the Act were threefold: A famine is an phenomenon in which a large percentage of the population of a region or country are undernourished and death by starvation becomes increasingly common. ... Combatants Allied Powers: Russian Empire France British Empire Italy United States Central Powers: Austria-Hungary German Empire Ottoman Empire Bulgaria Commanders Nicholas II Aleksei Brusilov Georges Clemenceau Joseph Joffre Ferdinand Foch Herbert Henry Asquith Douglas Haig John Jellicoe Victor Emmanuel III Luigi Cadorna Armando Diaz Woodrow Wilson John Pershing Franz... June 14 is the 165th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (166th in leap years), with 200 days remaining. ... Year 1918 (MCMXVIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar (see link for calendar) or a common year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar. ...

• Protecting central Netherlands from the effects of the North Sea
• Increasing the Dutch food supply with new agricultural land
• Improving water management by creating a lake out of the former uncontrolled salt water inlet

After the Dienst der Zuiderzeewerken (Zuiderzee Works Department), the government body responsible for overseeing the construction and initial management, was set up in May 1919, work could commence in earnest. It was decided not to start building the main dam first, but rather to test the waters with a smaller dam, the Amsteldiepdijk across the Amsteldiep separating the island of Wieringen from the North Holland mainland. Despite its limited length of just 2.5 km, the dike took four years to build, from 1920 to 1924. It had nevertheless turned out to be a valuable learning experience which was put to use in the later projects. Satellite image of the northernmost part of the Dutch province of North Holland, showing Wieringen (bottom right) and the island of Texel (center). ...

As with dike building, making polders was tried out with the experimental polder at Andijk. Dike building, reclamation and agricultural methods were tested here on a relative small scale. Andijk (population: 6,423 in 2004) is a town in the north-western Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. ...

Zuiderzee becomes IJsselmeer

The Zuiderzee Works in the Netherlands turned the dangerous Zuiderzee, a shallow inlet of the North Sea, into the tame IJsselmeer, and created 1650 km² of land.

A new study, commissioned after doubts had arisen over the financial feasibility of the project, recommended that work should not only continue, but should be accelerated. It was therefore decided to start the next two major projects at the same time, in 1927. The most important of these would be the main dam, the Afsluitdijk (Closure-dike), running from Den Oever on Wieringen to the village of Zurich in Frisia (Dutch: Friesland) over a length of 32 km and a width of 90 m, at an initial height of 7.25 m above sea-level and an incline of 25%. Image File history File links Zuiderzeeworks. ... Image File history File links Zuiderzeeworks. ... Landsat photo The Zuider Zee (Dutch: Zuiderzee, pronounced ZIGH-der-zee) was a former shallow inlet of the North Sea in the northwest of the Netherlands, extending about 100 km inland and at most 50 km wide, with an overall depth of about 4 to 5 meters and a coastline... The North Sea is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean, located between the coasts of Norway and Denmark in the east, the coast of the British Isles in the west, and the German, Dutch, Belgian and French coasts in the south. ... Traditional boat on the IJsselmeer Landsat photo The IJsselmeer (or Lake IJssel) is a shallow lake of some 1250 km² in the central Netherlands bordering the provinces of Flevoland, North Holland and Friesland, with an average depth of 5 to 6 m. ... Afsluitdijk The Afsluitdijk (Closure-dike) is a major dam in the Netherlands, constructed between 1927 and 1933 and running from Den Oever on Wieringen in North Holland province, to the village of Zurich (mun. ...

Previous experiences had demonstrated that till (boulder clay), rather than just sand or clay, was the best primary material for a structure like the Afsluitdijk. It had the added benefit that it was easily available; it could be retrieved in large quantities by simply dredging it from the bottom of the Zuiderzee. Work started at four points: on both sides of the mainland and on two specially made construction-islands (Kornwerderzand and Breezand) along the line of the future dike. Glacial till with tufts of grass Till is an unsorted glacial sediment. ... Boulder clay in geology, is a deposit of clay, often full of boulders, which is formed in and beneath glaciers and ice-sheets wherever they are found, but is in a special sense the typical deposit of the Glacial Period in northern Europe and America. ... // For other uses, see Dredge (disambiguation). ... Kornwerderzand, or the Kornwerderzandstelling were a number of heavily fortified pillboxes/bunkers located at the eastern side of the Afsluitdijk in the Dutch province of Friesland. ... Breezand (52°53′N 4°48′E) is a town in the Dutch province of North Holland. ...

From these points the dike slowly grew as ships deposited till into the open sea in two parallel lines. Sand was then poured in between the two dams and as this emerged above the surface it was covered by another layer of till. The nascent dike was then strengthened from land by basalt rocks and mats of willow switch at its base. The dike could then be finished off by raising it further with sand and finally clay for the surface of the dike, on which grass was planted. Basalt Columnar basalt at Sheepeater Cliff in Yellowstone Basalt (IPA: ) is a common gray to black volcanic rock. ... Species About 350, including: Salix acutifolia - Violet Willow Salix alaxensis - Alaska Willow Salix alba - White Willow Salix alpina - Alpine Willow Salix amygdaloides - Peachleaf Willow Salix arbuscula - Mountain Willow Salix arbusculoides - Littletree Willow Salix arctica - Arctic Willow Salix atrocinerea Salix aurita - Eared Willow Salix babylonica - Peking Willow Salix bakko Salix barrattiana...

Construction progressed better than expected. At three points along the line of the dike there were deeper underwater trenches where the tidal current was much stronger than elsewhere. These had been considered major obstacles to completing the dike, but they proved to be relatively straightforward. On May 28, 1932, two years earlier than initially forecast, the Zuiderzee ceased to be as the last tidal trench of the Vlieter was closed by a final bucket of till. The IJsselmeer was born, even though it was still salty at the time. May 28 is the 148th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (149th in leap years). ... 1932 (MCMXXXII) was a leap year starting on Friday (the link will take you to a full 1932 calendar). ... Traditional boat on the IJsselmeer Landsat photo The IJsselmeer (or Lake IJssel) is a shallow lake of some 1250 km² in the central Netherlands bordering the provinces of Flevoland, North Holland and Friesland, with an average depth of 5 to 6 m. ...

The dike itself however wasn't finished yet as it still needed to be brought up to its required height and a road linking Friesland and North Holland also remained to be built. It wouldn't be until September 25, 1933 that the Afsluitdijk was officially opened, with a monument marking the spot where the dike had been closed. The amount of material used is estimated at 23 million m³ of sand and 13.5 million m³ of till and over the years an average of around 4,000 to 5,000 workers were involved with the construction every day, relieving some of the unemployment following the Great Depression. September 25 is the 268th day of the year (269th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1933 (MCMXXXIII) was a common year starting on Sunday. ... The Great Depression was an economic downturn which started in 1929 and lasted through most of the 1930s. ...

Beside the dam itself, there was also the necessary construction of two complexes of shipping locks and discharge sluices at both ends of the dike. The complex at Den Oever includes the Stevin lock and three series of five sluices for discharging the IJsselmeer into the Wadden Sea; the other complex at Kornwerderzand is composed of the Lorentz locks and two series of five sluices, making a total of 25 discharge sluices. Periodically discharging the lake is necessary since it is continually fed by rivers and streams (most notably the IJssel river that gives its name to the lake) and polders draining their water into the IJsselmeer. Canal locks in England. ... Sluice gates at Teddington, on the River Thames Combination of sluice gates and canal lock under bridge Grave A small wooden sluice in Magome, Japan, used to power a waterwheel. ... Den Oever is a Dutch village that is part of the municipality of Wieringen, in the province Noord-Holland. ... Simon Stevin Simon Stevin (1548/49 – 1620) was a Belgian mathematician and engineer. ... Painting of Hendrik Lorentz by Arnhemensis Hendrik Antoon Lorentz (July 18, 1853, Arnhem – February 4, 1928, Haarlem) was a Dutch physicist and the winner of the 1902 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on electromagnetic radiation. ... Satellite image of the IJssel basin River IJssel, sometimes called Gelderse IJssel (Gelderland IJssel) to avoid confusion with its Holland counterpart, is a 120 km long branch of the Rhine in the Dutch provinces of Gelderland and Overijssel. ...

New land

Landsat photo of the IJsselmeer and surroundings. The difference between the old land (dominantly green), and the new lands (gained from the sea, dominantly purple) is striking. Compare with the figure above

The other major project started in 1927 was the construction of the 200 km² polder in the northwest, the first and the smallest of the five projected polders. It would replace the body of water south of Wieringen known as the Wieringermeer which would also become the name of the new polder. It would be the only polder reclaimed from the Zuiderzee itself (the others were reclaimed after the Afsluitdijk was finished), but it wasn't entirely the first. A small test polder of some 0.4 km² was constructed in 1926–1927 near Andijk in North Holland to research the effects drainage would have on the soil of the Zuiderzee and how best to configure the new polders. Download high resolution version (1600x1200, 389 KB)Zuider Zee - Landsat satellite photo Source: NASA, public domain https://zulu. ... Download high resolution version (1600x1200, 389 KB)Zuider Zee - Landsat satellite photo Source: NASA, public domain https://zulu. ... Wieringermeer (population: 12,583 in 2004) is a municipality in the north-western Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. ...

Building the encircling dike for the Wieringermeer would be a little harder than it was for the later polders, because the Wieringermeer dikes had to be built before the completion of the Afsluitdijk, which meant the tidal currents of the Zuiderzee were still present. As a consequence, they would have to be somewhat higher. Construction started on the 18 km dike from Den Oever on Wieringen and the new construction-island of Oude Zeug and progressed satisfactorily; the Wieringermeer was closed off from the Zuiderzee in July 1929. The next step was draining all the water from the future polder.

Drainage of a polder is performed by a pumping station or mill, called a gemaal in Dutch. Two were built for the Wieringermeer, the Leemans, a diesel powered station, near Den Oever and the Lely, an electrically powered one, near Medemblik. Different ways of powering the stations were used as a fail safe mechanism; should a calamity cause one station to lose its source of power, the other one would still be able to keep the polder dry. The pumping mechanism itself was based on a variation of the Archimedes' screw, as designed by A. Baldwin Wood. The stations, completed in February 1930, managed to drain the polder after six months of continuous pumping. "Drained" in this context does not mean the land was wholly dry; extensive pools of shallow water still littered the muddy landscape. To make the soil usable it had to be further drained by a network of drainage canals. Many small ditches were dug that led to larger watercourses, which in turn transported their water to the main drainage canals. These canals, which had been dredged when the polder was still filled with water, conducted the surplus water to the pumping stations. The resulting dehydration caused the former seabed to sink, by well over a metre at some places. Once the ground had settled, the smaller ditches were replaced with underground drainage tubes, which would be used for the normal drainage of the polder. A Diesel engine built by MAN AG in 1906 Rudolf Diesels 1893 patent on his engine design The diesel engine is a type of internal combustion engine. ... Medemblik (population: 8,037 in 2004) is a town in the north-western Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. ... Safety engineering is an applied science strongly related to systems engineering. ... Archimedes screw, Archimedean screw, or screwpump, is a machine historically used for transferring water from a low-lying body of water into irrigation ditches. ... Albert Baldwin Wood (December 1, 1879 - May 10, 1956) was an inventor and engineer from New Orleans, Louisiana. ...

With the hydrological infrastructure in place, the virgin land was developed to prepare for its later cultivation. The first plant to establish itself, though more so in the later polders than in the Wieringermeer, would be reed, sown from the air by plane onto the muddy flats while the polder was still being drained. This sturdy plant helped evaporate the water and bring air into the soil thereby solidifying its structure and further preventing the emergence of unwanted weeds. June 29 is the 180th day of the year (181st in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 185 days remaining. ... Year 1920 (MCMXX) was a leap year starting on Thursday. ... July 31 is the 212th day (213th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 153 days remaining. ... 1924 (MCMXXIV) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... May 23 is the 143rd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (144th in leap years). ... 1932 (MCMXXXII) was a leap year starting on Friday (the link will take you to a full 1932 calendar). ... July 27 is the 208th day (209th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 157 days remaining. ... 1929 (MCMXXIX) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... August 31 is the 243rd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (244th in leap years), with 122 days remaining. ... Year 1930 (MCMXXX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link is to a full 1930 calendar). ... December 13 is the 347th day of the year (348th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1940 (MCMXL) was a leap year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1940 calendar). ... September 9 is the 252nd day of the year (253rd in leap years). ... Year 1942 (MCMXLII) was a common year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1942 calendar). ... September 13 is the 256th day of the year (257th in leap years). ... Year 1956 (MCMLVI) was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... June 29 is the 180th day of the year (181st in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 185 days remaining. ... Year 1957 (MCMLVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... October 25 is the 298th day of the year (299th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1967 (MCMLXVII) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar (the link is to a full 1967 calendar). ... May 29 is the 149th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (150th in leap years). ... 1968 (MCMLXVIII) was a leap year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1968 calendar). ... September 4 is the 247th day of the year (248th in leap years). ... 1975 (MCMLXXV) was a common year starting on Wednesday. ... Water covers 70% of the Earths surface. ... species Pragmites australis Reed is a generic term used to describe numerous plants including: Common Reed (Phragmites australis Cav. ...

After the first infrastructure was put in place, the reed was burnt and replaced by rapeseed, turning the newborn polder into a yellow sea of flowers in spring. These crops were succeeded by various species of grain; in the Wieringermeer the first was rye, but the later polders followed the order of wheat, then barley and finally oat. This process would take several years, but once finished allowed farmers to plant the crops they wanted. At the same time, other infrastructure such as roads and housing was built so that the polder was ready for people to live and work in. Binomial name Brassica napus L. Rapeseed (Brassica napus), also known as Rape, Oilseed Rape, Rapa, Rapaseed and (one particular cultivar) Canola, is a bright yellow flowering member (related to mustard) of the family Brassicaceae. ... This article is about cereals in general. ... Binomial name Secale cereale M.Bieb. ... Species T. aestivum T. boeoticum T. compactum T. dicoccoides T. dicoccon T. durum T. monococcum T. spelta T. sphaerococcum References:   ITIS 42236 2002-09-22 For the indie rock group see: Wheat (band). ... Binomial name Hordeum vulgare L. Barley (Hordeum vulgare) is a major food and animal feed crop, a member of the grass family Poaceae. ... Binomial name Avena sativa Carolus Linnaeus (1753) The Oat (Avena sativa) is a species of cereal grain, and the seeds of this plant. ...

The Wieringermeer, as the first of the envisioned five polders, served as a major testbed for ideas and techniques for the following projects. It's closest to the original concept of the new land being primarily used as agricultural land and it has retained a strong rural character. Four villages (Slootdorp (1931), Middenmeer (1933), Wieringerwerf (1936) and Kreileroord (1957) eventually were formed in the polder. The local governance presented a new problem at first; the area was divided among the mainland municipalities according to the boundaries used when there was still water, a configuration that wasn't always practical on the ground and one that unnecessarily split up responsibilities over several parties. The first solution was a form of government called an openbaar lichaam or "public body", a complicated arrangement which incorporated both the government body in charge of the actual development and an appointed committee responsible for public governance. As the polder became more populated, the demand for proper representation increased until finally on July 1, 1941 the municipality of Wieringermeer was established. Slootdorp (52°51′N 4°58′E) is a town in the Dutch province of North Holland. ... Middenmeer () is a town in the Dutch province of North Holland. ... Wieringerwerf is a village in the municipality of Wieringermeer in the north-western part of the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. ... Kreileroord (52°50′N 5°5′E) is a town in the Dutch province of North Holland. ... July 1 is the 182nd day of the year (183rd in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 183 days remaining. ... For the movie, see 1941 (film). ... Wieringermeer (population: 12,583 in 2004) is a municipality in the north-western Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. ...

Most of the hard work of the 1930s in building the Wieringermeer would come to naught as the Second World War drew to a close. The Netherlands was occupied by Nazi Germany and on April 17, 1945 a vengeful German command ordered the dike of the Wieringermeer to be blown up. No one was killed as the polder slowly submerged again, but the high water and a subsequent storm destroyed most of the infrastructure built in the previous decade. Reconstruction followed quickly and by the end of 1945 the polder was declared drained again and rebuilding the roads, bridges, houses and farms was greatly facilitated by the experience of building them the first time. Mushroom cloud from the nuclear explosion over Nagasaki rising 18 km into the air. ... Nazi Germany, or the Third Reich, commonly refers to Germany in the years 1933–1945, when it was under the firm control of the totalitarian and fascist ideology of the Nazi Party, with the Führer Adolf Hitler as dictator. ... April 17 is the 107th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (108th in leap years). ... Year 1945 (MCMXLV) was a common year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1945 calendar). ...

Noordoostpolder

The original 1891 plan called for the largest, southeastern polder to be built after the Wieringermeer, but it was decided in 1932 to give precedence to the smaller, and therefore considered easier, northeastern one. This would be the Noordoostpolder (Northeast-polder). Initial financial difficulties meant that it wasn't until 1936 that construction began. Two dikes, totaling 55 km in length, steadily grew in the IJsselmeer, one starting from Lemmer in Friesland and from the island of Urk, the other from Vollenhove in Overijssel and again Urk. The outbreak of the Second World War meant the construction of this latter dike and the necessary pumping stations had to be delayed; it wasn't until December 1940 that the encircling dikes were both closed, and the pumping stations would not be ready to start draining until early 1941. The Noordoostpolder was considered to be sufficiently drained in September 1942 and the developmental process was then put in motion on the 480 km² of new land. Lemsterland is a municipality in the northern Netherlands. ... Urk is a municipality and a town in the Flevoland province in the central Netherlands. ... Steenwijkerland (before 2003 called Steenwijk) is a municipality in the eastern Netherlands. ... Flag of Overijssel Overijssel is a province of the Netherlands, located in the central eastern part of the country. ...

The task of building the Noordoostpolder was eased by the earlier experience, the now placid waters of the IJsselmeer and the mechanisation of the construction process. Machines, sometimes made specifically for the Zuiderzee Works, were increasingly used for this and the final polders. Land usage would be much the same as in the Wieringermeer, again focusing on farming and areas with less fertile soil designated as forest land. Land in the polders was state-owned during the entire developmental process, but several years after this was completed the various plots could be distributed among private parties. Priority was at first given to the early pioneers who had been in the polder since the start; afterwards, interested farmers from all over the Netherlands were eligible for the remainder and candidates were put through a selection process before receiving their own piece of new land.

The North Sea flood of 1953 made the government change their priorities. Instead of selecting the best farmers, a huge number of farmers from the flooded province of Zeeland were accepted as new inhabitants. North Sea flood of 1953 in the Netherlands The North Sea flood of 1953 and the associated storm combined to create a major natural disaster which affected the coastlines of the Netherlands and England on the night of 31 January 1953 – 1 February 1953. ...

Contained within the polder are two former islands, the glacial moraine hill of Urk and the elongated strip of peat land, abandoned in the 19th century, known as Schokland. Urk was then and is still today a fishing community and it served as a natural construction-island for both dikes as well as a base of operations for the later exploitation of the polder. Both ceased to be islands; Urk on October 3, 1939 when the dike reaching from Lemmer was closed and Schokland when the surrounding water was consequently drained away. Both islands stand out in the new land, both physically and figuratively, as the community of Urk in particular has remained an entity somewhat distinct from the "mainland", e.g. it constitutes a separate municipality from the rest of the polder which formed the proper municipality of Noordoostpolder in 1962. Moraine at Mono Lake, California, United States Moraines clearly seen on a side glacier of the Gorner Glacier, Zermatt, Switzerland. ... Urk is a municipality and a town in the Flevoland province in the central Netherlands. ... Schokland (mun. ... October 3 is the 276th day of the year (277th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1939 (MCMXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ...

At the heart of the Noordoostpolder, where the three main drainage canals intersect, is the town of Emmeloord (1943). Planned from the outset to be the first and the only major town of the polder, it serves as the local governmental and services centre. Ten smaller villages, conceived more as agricultural communities, were planned in a wide circle around Emmeloord, with the distances between them determined so as to be easily reachable by bicycle. The first settlements were Ens, Marknesse and Kraggenburg (1949), followed by Bant (1951), then Creil and Rutten (1953), and finally Espel, Tollebeek and Nagele (1956). From Emmeloord three canals take their water to three pumping stations, the Buma near Lemmer, the Smeenge at Vollenhove and finally the Vissering in Urk. The first two are electrically powered (though connected to different power-plants) while the latter one has diesel-engines doing the pumping. Like all pumping stations of the Zuiderzee Works, they too were named after individuals who had at some point made a significant contribution to the project. Emmeloord is the administrative center of the polder and the municipality of Noordoostpolder, Flevoland, Netherlands. ... For other uses, see Bicycle (disambiguation). ... ENS may stand for: École Normale Supérieure (elite French grande école) Enhanced Network Selection (for Cingular Wireless) This page concerning a three-letter acronym or abbreviation is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Marknesse (52°43′N 5°52′E) is a town in the Dutch province of Flevoland. ... Noordoostpolder is a municipality in the central Netherlands. ... Bant (52°46′N 5°45′E) is a town in the Dutch province of Flevoland. ... The CREIL (Coherent Raman Effect on Incoherent Light) is a radiation transfer of ordinary incoherent light. ... Rutten (52°48′N 5°42′E) is a town in the Dutch province of Flevoland. ... Espel (52°43′N 5°39′E) is a town in the Dutch province of Flevoland. ... Tollebeek (52°41′N 5°41′E) is a town in the Dutch province of Flevoland. ... Nagele (52°39′N 5°44′E) is a town in the Dutch province of Flevoland. ...

The Flevolands

The period immediately following World War II was spent restoring the Wieringermeerpolder and catching up with work on the Noordoostpolder, but it wasn't long before attention turned towards the next project: Oostelijk Flevoland (Eastern Flevoland), which at 540 km² was the largest of the new polders. In 1950 work commenced on several construction-islands in the middle of the IJsselmeer, the largest of which would be Lelystad-Haven which housed a community of dike-builders. The experience of the Noordoostpolder had shown that groundwater from the higher old mainland would flow to the lower new land, causing subsidence and dehydration in the old land. It was therefore decided to geohydrologically detach the new polders from the mainland by leaving a string of peripheral lakes in between the two, requiring a much longer dike of 90 km to encircle the polder. Groundwater is water located beneath the ground surface in soil pore spaces and in the fractures of geologic formations. ... A road destroyed by subsidence and shear. ... Hydrogeology (hydro- meaning water, and -geology meaning the study of rocks) is the part of hydrology that deals with the distribution and movement of groundwater in the soil and rocks of the Earths crust (commonly in Aquifers). ...

The plans for a single south-eastern polder had by this time given way to two separate polders that would have a joint hydrological infrastructure, with a dividing dike in the middle, the Knardijk, which would keep one polder safe should the other be flooded. The two main drainage canals that would traverse the dike could be closed by weirs in such an event. The eastern polder would be the first of the two and the encircling dike began to take form in 1951, progressing nicely until the North Sea flood of 1953 struck the south-western Netherlands, for which people and machinery were transferred for repair work (further work here would later result in the Delta Works). Work on Eastern Flevoland resumed in 1954 and the dike was finally closed on September 13, 1956. The pumping stations started draining the polder that same day and they completed their task in June 1957. Three were built: the Wortman (diesel powered) by Lelystad-Haven, the Lovink near Harderwijk and the Colijn (both electrically powered) along the northern dike beside the Ketelmeer. All three were built with extra capacity with the future southern polder in mind. The bridge and weir mechanism at Sturminster Newton on the River Stour, Dorset. ... North Sea flood of 1953 in the Netherlands The North Sea flood of 1953 and the associated storm combined to create a major natural disaster which affected the coastlines of the Netherlands and England on the night of 31 January 1953 – 1 February 1953. ... // The Delta Works are a number of constructions that were build between 1950 and 1997 in the southwest of the Netherlands to protect a large area of land from the sea. ... September 13 is the 256th day of the year (257th in leap years). ... Year 1956 (MCMLVI) was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Harderwijk is a municipality and a city in the eastern Netherlands. ...

A new element in the design of this polder was the intention to establish a larger city to serve as a regional centre for all the polders and perhaps the capital of a potential new province. This city, located in the centre of the reclaimed lands, would be Lelystad (1966), named after the man who had played a crucial role in the design and realisation of the Zuiderzee Works. Other more conventional settlements were already in existence by then; Dronten, the local major town, was founded in 1962, followed by two smaller satellite villages, Swifterbant and Biddinghuizen in 1963. These last three were incorporated in the new municipality of Dronten on January 1, 1972; Lelystad would be large enough to form its own municipality, which it became on January 1, 1980. The modern day Netherlands are divided into twelve provinces (provincies in Dutch), listed below with their capital city: Map of the Netherlands, with provinces and capital cities See also the ranked list of Dutch provinces // Structure A Dutch province represents the administrative layer in between the national government and the... Lelystad ( ▶ (help· info)) is a municipality and a city in the centre of the Netherlands, and it is the capital of the province of Flevoland. ... Dronten is a municipality and a town in the central Netherlands. ... January 1 is the first day of the calendar year in both the Julian and Gregorian calendars. ... 1972 (MCMLXXII) was a leap year starting on Saturday. ... January 1 is the first day of the calendar year in both the Julian and Gregorian calendars. ... 1980 (MCMLXXX) was a leap year starting on Tuesday. ...

Though agriculture was initially again the main purpose of the polder, the post-war period saw a shift in the design goals of the new polders. More farming communities, similar to the Noordoostpolder, had originally been planned, but changing agricultural needs and increased motorised mobility meant many weren't necessary and thus their number was eventually reduced to just two. Work on one village, Larsen, was just about to start when it was cancelled. However, the amount of agricultural land did not increase; rather it diminished as a result of the building of Lelystad (a city envisioned to eventually house at least 100.000 inhabitants, but in 2005 had only 70.000) and assigning more than just infertile soil for forests and nature reserves, a trend that would continue in the next polder.

Zuidelijk Flevoland (Southern Flevoland) is the name of the fourth polder of the Zuiderzee Works, built adjacent to its larger sibling, Eastern Flevoland. Since its northeastern dike, the aforementioned Knardijk, already existed, only 70 km of the dike remained to be built. Starting in early 1959, this was finished in October 1967.

Only one pumping station ('gemaal'), the diesel powered De Blocq van Kuffeler, needed to be built because of the hydrological union of the two Flevolands; once the polder was finished it would simply join the previous three in maintaining the water-level of both polders. Before it could do that however the newest gemaal had to first drain the 430 km² polder of its water all by itself, completing its job in May 1968.

Due to the geographically favourable location of the southern polder to the heavily urbanised centre of the Netherlands and in particular Amsterdam, the planners devised a design that would include a large new urban area, to be called Almere, in order to relieve the housing shortage and increasing overcrowding on the old land. It was to be divided into 3 major settlements, initially; the first, Almere-Haven (1976), situated along the Gooimeer (one of the peripheral lakes), the second and largest, Almere-Stad (Almere City) (1980), which was to fulfil the role of city centre, and the third, Almere-Buiten (1984), to the northwest towards Lelystad. Amsterdam Location Flag Country Netherlands Province North Holland Population 741,329 (1 August 2006) Demonym Amsterdammer Coordinates Website www. ... Almere can mean: A large lake that in early times was in the area of the southern part of the Zuiderzee, - see for more information. ...

The area in between Lelystad and Almere was designated for heavy industries, but since enough space was still available on the old land for those industries this part of the polder was left alone for the mean time. After only a couple of years this landscape of shallow pools, islets and swamps became a popular resting and foraging area for many species of waterfowl, to the extent that it rapidly turned into a nature reserve of national significance. The Oostvaardersplassen as they are known are by origin accidentally, but by the 1970s they had become the definitive destination for this section of the polder. The Oostvaarderplassen is a nature reserve in the Netherlands. ...

The centre of the polder most closely resembles the pre-war polders in that it is almost exclusively agricultural. In contrast, the south-eastern part is dominated by extensive forests. It is also home to the only other settlement of the polder, Zeewolde (1984), again a more conventional town acting as the local centre. Zeewolde became a municipality at the same time as Almere, on January 1, 1984, which in the case of Zeewolde meant that the municipality existed before the town itself, with only farms in the surrounding land to be governed until the town started to grow. Zeewolde ( (help· info)) is a municipality and a town in the Flevoland province in the central Netherlands. ... January 1 is the first day of the calendar year in both the Julian and Gregorian calendars. ... 1984 (MCMLXXXIV) was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

The fifth polder

The fifth polder does not yet exist and may never be completed. It had been the intention to start building the south-western polder, known as the Markerwaard, at several points during the project, but other polders took precedence. Parts of it have in fact been built; in 1941 it was decided to begin work on the first section of dike, but the German occupiers stopped construction that same year. This dike originated on Marken, the last of the IJsselmeer islands, and went north for some 2 km where it ends abruptly today. After World War II, the eastern polder was chosen as the next project, but Marken was not wholly ignored; on October 17, 1957 a 3.5 km long dike was closed, running south of the now former island to the North Holland mainland. Marken (pop: 1,846 in 2004) is a town in the Netherlands, located in the municipality Waterland in the province North Holland. ... October 17 is the 290th day of the year (291st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1957 (MCMLVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Capital Haarlem Queens Commissioner Mr. ...

When construction started in 1959 on a new dike it had not yet been decided whether this would be the northern dike of Southern Flevoland or the southern dike of the Markerwaard, but the choice eventually fell to the former and another chance for the Markerwaard had passed. A minor flood near Amsterdam in 1960 had demonstrated the danger a large IJsselmeer still presented. A further planned element of the Markerwaard was subsequently executed: a 28 km dike between Lelystad and Enkhuizen, including two complexes of locks and discharge sluices at either end, was to split the IJsselmeer in two, with the largest portion (1250 km²) continuing as the IJsselmeer and the smaller lake (700 km²) being named the Markermeer. Construction of this dike, known later as the Houtribdijk or Markerwaarddijk, progressed slowly, lasting from 1963 to 1975, after which it also served as an important road connection between the north of North Holland and the eastern Netherlands. The Houtribdijk did not however result in the construction of the rest of the Markerwaard, as had been hoped by many. Enkuizen Enkhuizen ( West Frisian: Inghúze) is a municipality and a town in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. ... View across the Markermeer The Markermeer (Lake Marken) is a 700 km² lake in the central Netherlands in between North Holland, Flevoland and its larger sibling, the IJsselmeer. ...

The debate on whether to build the Markerwaard would continue for many years. The need for new agricultural land had mostly disappeared by this time and extra space for housing wasn't necessary in this region. The existing ecological and recreational value of the Markermeer was considered by many to be equal or superior to any potential such value the Markerwaard would offer. Doubts began to surface about the overall cost-effectiveness of the polder. The original post-war designs had called for a 410 km² polder yet many different proposals were later put forth in an effort to combine the benefits of both the Markerwaard and Markermeer, all to no avail. Although several cabinets had previously intended in principle to proceed with the Markerwaard, it was decided to indefinitely postpone the project in September 1986, though the possibility of the fifth polder has so far not been completely ruled out. An alternative purpose that has been proposed is to use the lake as a water reservoir for hydropower combined with wind-power from windmills on the dikes, eliminating the unpredictability of the latter - when there is an overcapacity of wind, use that to fill the lake and when there isn't enough, use the high water level for hydropower. Alternate meanings in cabinet (disambiguation) A Cabinet is a body of high-ranking members of government, typically representing the executive branch. ...

The loss of the Markerwaard did not affect plans to create a new province out of the polders. The older Wieringermeer in the north, long since part of North Holland, would not become a part of it, but the municipalities of the other three and the islands of the Noordoostpolder would together form the 12th province of the Netherlands, Flevoland. The need for a new province was not immediately clear; Urk and the Noordoostpolder had been part of Overijssel up to that point and Dronten fell under Gelderland. After the new municipalities of Southern Flevoland were established in 1984, belonging to no province as was the case with Lelystad, the provincial issue required renewed attention. With only six municipalities and without the Markerwaard the area was considered by opponents to be too light for an entire province, but the polder municipalities were unanimous in their desire: on January 1, 1986 the province of Flevoland was inaugurated. With a population of 356.400 (2004) it is the least inhabited province, but the province of Zeeland has only 378.300 and it has a higher population density than four other provinces. The modern day Netherlands are divided into twelve provinces (provincies in Dutch), listed below with their capital city: Map of the Netherlands, with provinces and capital cities See also the ranked list of Dutch provinces // Structure A Dutch province represents the administrative layer in between the national government and the... Wieringermeer (population: 12,583 in 2004) is a municipality in the north-western Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. ... Capital Haarlem Queens Commissioner Mr. ... Flevoland is a province of the Netherlands. ... Flag of Overijssel Overijssel is a province of the Netherlands, located in the central eastern part of the country. ... Capital Arnhem Queens Commissioner Clemens Cornielje Religion (1999) Protestant 31% Catholic 29% Area  â€¢ Land  â€¢ Water   4,975 km² (1st) 161 km² Population (2005)  â€¢ Total  â€¢ Density 1,970,865 (4th) 393/km² (6th) Inclusion {{{inclusion}}} Anthem Ons Gelderland ISO NL-GE Official website www. ... January 1 is the first day of the calendar year in both the Julian and Gregorian calendars. ... 1986 (MCMLXXXVI) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Capital Middelburg Queens Commissioner drs. ...

The Zuiderzee Works had come to an end. The administration responsible for the construction and development of the new land had changed names over the years, but it had now served its purpose; in 1996 it was reorganised as a normal administration in charge of maintaining the sluices, locks, bridges and dikes in the region. The Zuiderzee Works had successfully transformed the once capricious heart of the Netherlands into fertile agricultural land with many new communities combined with an extensive fresh water supply and, although not originally envisioned, a collection of valuable ecological and recreational areas.

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Afsluitdijk

• Delta Works for another major waterworks project in the Netherlands.
• Flood

Image File history File links Commons-logo. ... Wikimedia Commons logo by Reid Beels The Wikimedia Commons (also called Commons or Wikicommons) is a repository of free content images, sound and other multimedia files. ... // The Delta Works are a number of constructions that were build between 1950 and 1997 in the southwest of the Netherlands to protect a large area of land from the sea. ... Look up flood in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

External links

• Nieuw Land Poldermuseum — A Flevoland museum on the Zuiderzee Works and Dutch water management in general.
• The Zuiderzee Museum — Dedicated to the history and culture of the former Zuiderzee.
• Directorate IJsselmeer Region — The administration responsible for maintaining most of the Zuiderzee Works.