In less than a century, the Dutch landscape has changed beyond recognition. Peat areas were excavated, undulating fields were levelled. But the transformation of the landscape started much earlier.
The metamorphosis that the Dutch landscape has undergone is unprecedented. It is only a century ago that large areas of 'desert land' were reclaimed. A beautiful publication by Wageningen Academic Publishers pays attention to the old and new soil use.
The Wageningen magazine Resource headlined:'Wageningen's most beautiful dictation'. And the editors may be right. The two books under the title Landscapes of the Netherlands, together in a beautifully executed box, the Wageningen standard aspires to be a standard work on the Dutch landscapes and their origin. What is special about the almost 1000-page work is that geomorphology, soil science and geology are combined:a combination of landscape, shallow soil and deep layers of the earth.
Virgin
The formation of the Dutch landscape is strongly related to land use. Only 10,000 years ago, the Netherlands was still 'virgin':during the ice ages and intermediate warmer interglacials sculpted by glaciers, polar winds and meltwater. Soon after, human influence began to take hold of landscape formation. Land use by humans, with often irreversible effects on the landscape, started thousands of years ago. Forests were cut down, dikes were built, soils were excavated.
Cultural Landscape
It may be hard to digest, but natural landscapes are rare in our country. The Dutch landscape is one large cultural landscape:the hand of man can be recognized everywhere. What we now experience as 'nature' is largely a cultural landscape. Many 'rivers' have even been dug, such as parts of the Maas and the Linge. In Landscapes of the Netherlands For each landscape type, the origin of the natural landscape, the cultural landscape and the current landscape is discussed.
Controlling the water already started before the Middle Ages. The oldest dikes are about a thousand years old. But the damming of rivers started much earlier, in Roman times. Without dikes, large-scale drainage and other interventions, only high-lying areas would have been possible to live in. Prehistoric settlements can therefore be found in these high-altitude areas.
Fertile and vulnerable delta
The authors of Landscapes of the Netherlands (all were or are working at Wageningen University or TNO) describe the Netherlands as a 'delta environment'. It is attractive for people to live because of the supply of nutrient-rich soil material, a flat landscape without the risk of erosion and intensively used, as are the deltas of the rivers Euphrates, Tigris, Nile and Ganges. Vulnerable also because of its dependence on fluctuating sea levels and peak river discharges.
Soil exhaustion is of all times
How can the soil be used sustainably, the authors wonder. A question of all times, because the soil was locally depleted centuries ago. Such as, for example, the excavation of peat for peat extraction; in the Golden Age peat was the main fuel in our country. Peat was also used for salt production, by burning it, so-called moernering.
Paper-thin bottom layer
Today more than ever, soil and landscape are demanded:for the production of agricultural crops, for storage of, among other things, water, as a living environment for flora and fauna, supplier of raw materials, archives and last but not least housing and transport function for humans. To use the soil sustainably, knowledge is needed about the origin and properties of the soil and landscape. This book – which contains no less than six years of work – aims to contribute to the knowledge of the “paper-thin and vulnerable soil layer”.