What does polder mean in Dutch?
Definition of polder noun. a tract of low land, especially in the Netherlands, reclaimed from the sea or other body of water and protected by dikes.
What is the purpose of polders?
Polder is a Dutch word originally meaning silted-up land or earthen wall, and generally used to designate a piece of land reclaimed from the sea or from inland water. It is used for a drained marsh, a reclaimed coastal zone, or a lake dried out by pumping.
Which is the main river of polder land?
One example is the flooding of the polders along the Yser River during World War I. Opening the sluices at high tide and closing them at low tide turned the polders into an inaccessible swamp, which allowed the Allied armies to stop the German army.
How did the Dutch make polders?
polder, tract of lowland reclaimed from a body of water, often the sea, by the construction of dikes roughly parallel to the shoreline, followed by drainage of the area between the dikes and the natural coastline.
Is New Orleans a polder?
New Orleans consists to a large extent of polders. At the North and West side the area has to be protected against flooding by the Mississippi River. At the South and West side it has to be protected against flooding from the Carribean (Figure 1). The US Army Corps of Engineers publishes Polder Vertical Datum Reports.
Is the Netherlands a swamp?
The Netherlands is situated in a low-lying delta formed by the outflow of three major rivers: the Rhine, the Meuse and the Scheldt. In accordance with the Dutch saying that “God created the world and the Dutch created Holland,” the country is in large part an engineered landscape reclaimed from swamps and marshes.
Where are polders located?
Netherlands
The polders are located in the lake’s southern part and along its eastern shore (except for Wieringermeer in the northwest). Part of the north dam (the Afsluitdijk) across the IJsselmeer, Netherlands.
What is a polder simple definition?
Definition of polder : a tract of low land (as in the Netherlands) reclaimed from a body of water (such as the sea)
What countries have polders?
The traditional polders in The Netherlands have been formed from the 12th century onwards, when people started creating arable land by draining delta swamps into nearby rivers. In the process, the drained peat started oxidizing, thus soil levels lowered, up to river water levels and lower.
What is the problem with a polder?
Maintenance has become a major problem for the polders. Poor maintenance has resulted in the deterioration of infrastructure. There are many actors such as Water Management Organizations (WMOs), local government institutions, different ministries, NGOs, etc.
Why did the Dutch need to create polders?
The development of using windmills for pumping water in the 15th century allowed the draining of significant bodies of water. This resulted in the creation of polders.