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An overview of history & present situation
Sophie Visser
April 11, 2014
National Landscape ‘Green Heart’
The peat landscapes of Holland:
A matter of opportunities and challenges
Peat lakes and ‘meadows’ of Reeuwijk
7500 BP – Mainly tidal area 4750 BP - Coastal Barrier 1200 BP – Middle Ages
The Holocene as the basis: a quick overview (1)
Before the Reclamations: trees along the Old Rhine
Flood basin
Natural levees + deposits
Crevasses and perimarine creeks
Meije
Age of the channel belts (based on sedimentation):
-former rivers : from 7200 BP on-present rivers : until 800 BP
-sea deposits (until 1000 BP)
The Holocene as the basis: a quick overview (2)
http://www.geo.uu.nl/fg/palaeogeography/
Former and present rivers and sea clay deposition in this area
Brook peatland bog peatland
´The Peat Wilderness´
The Holocene as the basis: a quick overview (3)
Sphagnum peat not shown
Brook peats
Sedge peat
Reed peat
Hardly sphagnum peat or raised bog domes between Gouda and Nieuwkoop
The Holocene as the basis: a quick overview (4)
Growth of the peatover time
The Holocene as the basis: a quick overview (5)
At the surface in the present
Generalisation of the soil map 1:50.000Soil map 1:10.000
Kade = low dikeSluis = sluice
Principle of peat reclamations: ditches, dikes, and drainage
After cutting and burning the shrubs and trees ….
South of the Old Rhine (1): the early reclamations
Count of Holland Bishop of
Utrecht
The year 944:Rights to the wildernessgranted to Count andBishop by German Emperor
Border Count – Bishop around 1100
Mound, stronghold
South of the Old Rhine (2): all reclamations by about 1300
South of the Old Rhine (2): all reclamations
Few ´Cope´- ontginningen, but
-Based on fixed depth?-Based on known contract?
After the reclamations: subsidence => to ´peat meadows´ and peat lakes
Arable land: rye, grain, hemp
Grassland, moderate dry, hay Grassland, rather wet Turf, peat lakes
Peat
Groundwater level
Drained peat
The resulting landscape: idyllic or ….
Roelofs, circa 1865
Paul Gabriël 1890
Peat dredging > 1530,on an educative illustration
… desolate and poor?
Map of ‘droogmaking’ ‘Tempel’ e.o. 1734:should be finished in 1784, final permission in 1874
About 1900
South of the Old Rhine (3): the ‘droogmakerij’ of Tempel
Breaches in the ´ringdijk´in 1866, 1876, 1878, 1881, because of clay 50 cm beneath the surface
South of the Old Rhine (4): the ‘droogmakerij’ of Tempel
Principle of making a ringdijk
Along the Old Rhine (1) – on a map from 1746
Along the Old Rhine (2) – a more complete picture from 1762
Along the Old Rhine (3) – Oude Hollandse Waterlinie
Along the Old Rhine (2) – River landscapes
Former towpath, restored
Old Rhine and north: geomorphology, archaeology, clay digging
North of the Old Rhine (1): not much changed, except for ……
Reclamation borderHistorical farm-´lint´
Mi?
Stronghold Count of Holland, about 1200, still tracesStronghold Count of Holland, about 1200, no traces
Count of Holland
Bishop of Utrecht
…… some roads and villages, e.g. Zegveld
In the 18th century
New roads 1960
…. And the landscapes in Nieuwkoop
Private water management in South-Nieuwkoop, 1631
South-Nieuwkoop, 1900
1742
North of the Old Rhine (3): Peat digging north of Nieuwkoop
1790: even worse, and threatening to Holland
1809 => ‘rational parcellation’
North of the Old Rhine (3): ´Droogmakerij´ Nieuwkoop and up north
relief inversion
´droogmakerij´
Concluding (1): low, lower, lowest …..
x shrinkage,oxidation
Concluding (2): continuing the drainage of the peat land?
Concluding (3): What to do and what is feasible (and what is not)?
