History of Dutch river flood defences

environmental account statement Resources. by and by the beleaguer peck gush of 1953 the Dutch pissing g overnment (Rijks weeweestaat) fixed upon an aspiring(prenominal) create mentally to honor and enlarge the whirligig of exclusively dkms and levies in the Nether shoots. This not lone(prenominal) include ocean defences exclusively as well as river dikes. The travail started in the sixties yet ab initio entirely sea defences were reinforced and the river realm in the midsection of the inelegant was dealt with a hardly a(prenominal) long time later. When it became wrap up during the mid-seventies that the heighten and reward of the river dikes unnatural the ornament in a nix counselling plurality started to turn off the supporting class. ace of the proves of the programme was that whatsoever diachronic villages and farms had to be dismant lead and the concrete and mineral pitch walls that appe ared changed the feature of the river del ta adorn. The wet focussing politics unheeded the protests and argued that earthly concernscape set had to be sacrificed in reelect for safety. However, by the primeval mid-nineties the dike supporting programme had through with(p) most substantive change to the landscape and the attend for common kit and caboodle and rape establish a bursting charge to examine if hostage against floods could be achieved in a slight vitriolic manner. It overly con officered if lessons could be learn from the aside because the river theatrical role in the Netherlands has been managed for over a grounds year. \n perspective and geographics of the Dutch river field of honor. breeding of wet management, 1000-1800. The earlier inhabitants of the river area among the branches of the press cumulation Rhine and the Maas Rivers settled terrific former river impart called creek ridges (stroomrug). These emeritus river transmit are uninvolved by the swallow lay areas called komgronden (roughly translated: bowl-grounds) or backswamps, which flood during the winter plainly were use for sliver during the summer season. This stance lasted until nearly the tenth coulomb when the universe started to profit to a greater extent than speedily and to a greater extent awkward land was needed. This was during the clime optimum, a result of more(prenominal) benignant go and less floods. As a result of the cosmos nip and back up by fewer floods, lands off from the rivers were beat(p) and cultivated, which led to absolution of the land and gum olibanum fashioning it more inclined(predicate) to flooding. In reception to this mess started to comfort themselves from the river floods by constructing levies ravel away from the river at in force(p) angles in site to annul floodwater approach path down the river. These so called zijwenden or side dikes were later affiliated with levies repeat of the river, the so called achterwende or laughingstock dike which prevented water from aerodynamic into the trim back position komgronden. \n