Polder Oostzaan in the Netherlands is one of the most beautiful and ancient peat polders in the Netherlands near Amsterdam
The western part of the Netherlands has a typical Dutch landscape with drained peat meadows in polders below sea level. The area is used in concert for agriculture, recreation, residence, and nature conservation. Water lev- els are being artificially controlled in the area. Large areas of this region are fen-meadows that consist of wet pasture lands with drained peat soils alternated by natural and artificial lakes, ditches, reed swamps and quaking fens. The current fen-meadows have originated from the drainage of a large peat system dating back from 1800 To keep the land suitable for agricultural use, the peat area has been drained deeper in recent decades. This drainage has resulted in a subsidence of the soil and as a result the polders with fen-meadows are now 1–2 m be- low sea level. In between the fen-meadows, deep polders with a clay soil are found. These deep polders used to be large lakes, which have been reclaimed in the 17th century for agricultural use. Presently, these polders are 2-6 m below sea level. The observation of subsidence of wet- lands is notoriously difficult using conventional geodetic techniques, due to the absence of fixed benchmarks
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Photo credit: © Lex van Doorn / Alamy / Afripics
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Keywords: agriculture, amsterdam, bridge, canals, drainage, fishing, holland, level, netherlands, oostzaan, peat, polder, recreation, rowing, sea, system, typical, village, water
