Rottummerplaat

Nature as pure as you can get, but...still with a dike.
Barrier island in the Wadden area.

Groningen - Wadden sea

Land-reclamation works to the left of the dike,
the resulting cultivated area to the right.

Ruiten Aa

Creating nature. Newly man-made meanders in a previously channelised, but originally meandering brook.

Hondsbossche zeewering

Coastal defence. 150 years ago, a wash-over inlet became finally closed by a dike, which was constructed in alignment with the coastal dunes. Since then, the dunes have retreated due to erosion.

Waterland

Cultivated peatlands: raised bogs after 800 years of cultivation.

Hillegom

Cut-over coastal dunes turned into bulb-fields.

Kagerplassen

Bank-erosion by wind and waves has widened a small river,
draining former peatland, into lakes.

Soesterduinen

"Atlantic deserts". Past mis-landuse has turned Pleistocene cover sands into man-threatening inland dunefields. Only after applying fertilizer and promoting increased afforestation has desertification been controlled.

IJssel

A northern branch of the river Rhine at flood-stage.
Are more frequent flood events a hint of coming climate-change?

Lek

A southern branch of the river Rhine flowing slowly through endless lowlands. Groynes prevent the river from lateral migration and the dikes prevent farmland from flooding.