{"id":3315,"date":"2015-10-20T02:15:26","date_gmt":"2015-10-20T02:15:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/?p=3315"},"modified":"2015-10-20T02:15:26","modified_gmt":"2015-10-20T02:15:26","slug":"the-dutch-province-flevoland-a-peculiar-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/the-dutch-province-flevoland-a-peculiar-story\/","title":{"rendered":"The Dutch Province Flevoland – A Peculiar Story"},"content":{"rendered":"

The province of\u00a0Flevoland<\/em> has not always existed. Not only in its name and demarcation – no, the\u00a0actual land<\/em> did not exist. It came into existence as the last of the twelve Dutch\u00a0provincies<\/em>. The northern\u00a0Noordoostpolder\u00a0<\/em>(the top red part of the province in the map below) was added to the already existing land. The lower two parts of the province,\u00a0Oostelijk\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0Zuidelijk Flevoland\u00a0<\/em>(Eastern and Southern Flevoland) are detached from the mainland. They are connected with five bridges to the rest of the country. This makes this part of Flevoland the largest artificial island in the world.<\/p>\n

\"Flevoland<\/a>

Flevoland – see how close it is to Amsterdam? (Image by Google at Maps.google.com)<\/p><\/div>\n

The land is used differently than it would be used normally. Agriculture is the primary land use. There are a few major cities in Flevoland too, though. Almere, Emmeloord and Lelystad, its capital.<\/p>\n

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What the Flevoland’s landscape looks like – a lot of windmills, and a lot of flat, agricultural lands (Image by Floris Oosterveld at Flickr.com)<\/p><\/div>\n

Why?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Now, it must have been a huge job to drain so much land. Why all the hassle? Already 400 years ago, the\u00a0Zuiderzee<\/em>, as the former\u00a0IJsselmeer\u00a0<\/em>was called, caused many\u00a0overstromingen\u00a0<\/a><\/em>(floods). The idea was to tame the sea through giving it less space. However, in the 1600s, the technologies to buy dykes had not progressed far enough.<\/p>\n

In 1891, then Minister van Waterstaat\u00a0<\/i>Cornelis Lely published his proposal of the\u00a0Zuiderzeewerken<\/em>. This included the now famous\u00a0Afsluitdijk<\/em>, to convert the lower part of the\u00a0Zuiderzee\u00a0<\/em>into the\u00a0IJsselmeer\u00a0<\/em>– from sea into a lake. The upper part was named the Waddenzee<\/em>, which is mainly the water between the Dutch islands and the mainland.\u00a0This conversion\u00a0would calm the\u00a0Zuiderzee\u00a0<\/em>down much more, and would make it more controllable. However, security was not the primary aim anymore. The\u00a0kleigronden\u00a0<\/em>(clay soils) were very useful for agriculture, but were under a layer of water of the\u00a0Zuiderzee<\/em>. So another part of the\u00a0Zuiderzeewerken\u00a0<\/em>plan was the\u00a0inpoldering<\/em> (reclamation of land) of certain areas. Today, you can see very well that the province’s main purpose is agriculture.<\/p>\n

How it was done<\/strong><\/p>\n

So how was Flevoland created? Dijken\u00a0<\/em>(dykes) are built to keep the water out, and with\u00a0gemalen\u00a0<\/em>(pumping station – do not confuse\u00a0gemaal\u00a0<\/em>here with its other meaning, husband!) the water was pumped out. As you can guess, Flevoland lies below the sea level – about 5 m (15 ft)!<\/p>\n

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A gemaal. You can see the pipes through which the water is pumped from the lower side to the higher side. The lower side becomes drier, and the dykes keep it from getting wet again. Many windmills also used this purpose. (Image by Johan Wieland at Flickr.com)<\/p><\/div>\n

First, the Afsluitdijk\u00a0<\/em>was built, already in 1932, to calm down the\u00a0Zuiderzee<\/em>, and make it much easier for the inpoldering<\/i>.\u00a0\u00a0For Flevoland, the\u00a0Noordoostpolder\u00a0<\/em>was added first, in 1942. The\u00a0drooglegging\u00a0<\/em>(drainage) continued with\u00a0Oostelijk Flevoland\u00a0<\/em>in 1957, and ended with\u00a0Zuidelijk Flevoland\u00a0<\/em>in 1968.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, Urk, a city in the\u00a0Noordoostpolder<\/em>, formerly was an island! The same counts for Schokland, which was added to the mainland in 1942.<\/p>\n

Flevoland is very close to Amsterdam too in the\u00a0Zuidelijk Flevoland\u00a0<\/em>part. The city of Almere has already agglomerated to Amsterdam. And from the very natural province of Flevoland, you can have an excellent view over the skyline of the Dutch capital.<\/p>\n

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View on the skyline of Amsterdam (Image by Raymond Klaassen at Flickr.com)<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

The province of\u00a0Flevoland has not always existed. Not only in its name and demarcation – no, the\u00a0actual land did not exist. It came into existence as the last of the twelve Dutch\u00a0provincies. The northern\u00a0Noordoostpolder\u00a0(the top red part of the province in the map below) was added to the already existing land. The lower two parts…<\/p>\n

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