How the Dutch Reclaimed Land From the Sea

Podcast Transcript

The Netherlands is unlike any other country on Earth.

What sets the Netherlands apart from every other country isn’t its size; it’s the fact that 17% of the area of the country was once in the sea.

Turning the sea into land is no easy feat, but it is something that the Dutch have been doing for centuries. Not only have they expanded the territory of the Netherlands, but they have also created a system that protects the country from flooding and storms.

Learn about how the Dutch managed to reclaim land from the sea on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.

There is an old saying in real estate that you should buy land because no one is making any more of it.

That’s mostly true, but it isn’t totally true. You can actually make more land; it’s just really difficult and expensive to do.

Reclaiming land is something that has been done in many places around the world, albeit usually on a pretty small scale. This will often just be reclaiming land the size of a park, an airport, or a housing development.

This is usually done by moving soil, silt, or sand, piling it up, and building stuff on top of it. That is a vast oversimplification, of course, but that is the rough method for how it’s done.

Land reclamation in the Netherlands has been done at a much larger scale and in a totally different way.

To understand what the Dutch have done, we need to understand the Netherlands’ geography.

The first important thing to know about the geography of the Netherlands is that the country is really flat. It isn’t just flat. It is flat, with about 50% of the country at or near sea level.

Much of this has been caused by agriculture over the centuries due to something called peatland subsidence.

Peatland subsidence occurs when peat-rich soils, which are naturally waterlogged, are drained for agriculture or development. As the water is removed, the peat becomes exposed to oxygen, leading to oxidation, decomposition, and compaction.

This process causes the land to shrink and sink over time, sometimes by several centimeters per year.

In the Netherlands, centuries of peat drainage for farming and urban expansion have led to widespread land subsidence, making many areas that were once above sea level now at or below sea level.

Another important fact is that the Netherlands has approximately 450 km (280 mi) of coastline along the North Sea, making it highly vulnerable to storm surges.

Moreover, the Netherlands is the drainage basin for several major European rivers.

The Rhine River, the Meuse River, and the Scheldt River are three of the largest.

These rivers create a dense delta system, emptying into the North Sea.

Seasonal high river discharges from rainfall or snowmelt can cause flooding, especially in the winter and spring.

So you have a very low area with lots of water coming in rivers and potentially a lot of water coming in from the North Sea.

Historically, much of what is now the Netherlands was a soggy mix of marshes, peat bogs, and flood-prone river deltas.

At this time, the Netherlands had a large inland sea known as the Zuiderzee.

As early as 500 BC, settlers built terps, or artificial mounds, to raise homes and farmland above flood levels. These were small-scale efforts by Frisian and other coastal communities.

The Romans, who occupied southern parts of the region, introduced basic hydraulic engineering, such as ditches and small embankments, to drain wetlands for agriculture.

As the population grew in the 9th century, communities began constructing primitive dikes, which were earthen walls, to protect farmland from tides and river floods. These early dikes were often breached, but they marked the start of proactive water control.

From the 11th century, the Dutch dug peat for fuel, inadvertently lowering the land as it dried and compacted. This made flooding worse, requiring better defenses.

Larger dikes created the first polders, which was land reclaimed by draining water from behind the dikes. The process was labor-intensive, using shovels and buckets to dig drainage ditches.

It was during the 13th century that the Dutch wooden shoe, or klompen, was first created. The reason for the use of wooden shoes was because of the water. Unlike leather or cloth shoes that would rot when they got wet, wooden shoes held up better.

To coordinate efforts, local “waterschappen” or water boards, emerged around 1250. These democratic bodies—among the oldest in the world—oversaw dike maintenance and water management, spreading costs and expertise to localities to coordinate efforts.

The introduction of windmills in the 1400s revolutionized drainage. Initially used for grinding grain, they were adapted to power scoop wheels and Archimedes’ screws, lifting water from polders into canals. The Kinderdijk windmills, built in the 1740s, were based on earlier designs and are a famous example.

If you ever want to see authentic Dutch windmills, Kinderdijk is by far the best place to do so. It is located outside of Rotterdam, and it is easy to reach by water taxi from the city. It was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997.

The 17th century and the Dutch Golden Age really kicked Dutch water management into high gear. The Netherlands became wealthy from trade, fueling ambitious reclamation projects. Merchants and cities funded efforts to expand arable land.

The Beemster Polder, completed in 1612, was a landmark. A lake north of Amsterdam was drained using 43 windmills, turning it into fertile farmland. It was a model of precision, with geometric layouts still visible today.

I visited the Beemster Polder several years ago and was shocked at how similar it was to my home state of Wisconsin. There is a thriving dairy industry there, and the similarities were shocking.

The Beemster Polder was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1999.

The thing with polders is that while they provide land for agriculture, it isn’t something you create and forget. Polders need constant maintenance because they are under constant threat of flooding. Water needs to be pumped constantly, and in the event of a storm, they may have to pump a lot of water.

Windmills grew larger and more efficient, often grouped in “gangs” to lift water in stages. By 1700, over 3,000 windmills operated across the country.

The 19th century brought steam pumps, which didn’t rely on wind. The first major steam-powered project was the Haarlemmermeer, which was pumped dry from 1840 to 1852. It was a 170-square-kilometer lake drained by three massive pumping stations. The Cruquius pumping station, built in 1849, was one of the largest steam engines ever built.

If you have ever flown to Amsterdam, you’ve been there because it is the location of Schiphol Airport.

Steam pumps allowed deeper drainage, tackling areas previously too wet or low. There is still at least one steam pump in operation today. The Wouda pumping station has a steam pump built in 1920, and while it isn’t one of the primary pumps, it is used if they need extra pumping power in a pinch.

The Wouda pumping station is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The late 19th and early 20th centuries saw a growing population and shrinking farmland, and reclamation became a national priority. The government took a more active role in funding infrastructure.

Canals were widened, and dikes were reinforced with stone and brick.

The 20th Century saw industrialization and electrification, which increased polder creation and land reclamation.

This era saw the Netherlands undertake some of its most ambitious projects, fundamentally reshaping its landscape and reinforcing its reputation as a global leader in hydraulic engineering.

The Zuiderzee had long been a source of both economic opportunity and danger, as storms routinely breached dikes and flooded farmland. Plans to tame it had been floated since the 17th century, but it wasn’t until the catastrophic flood of 1916 that the government committed to action.

Engineer Cornelis Lely’s vision, first proposed in 1891, gained traction: enclose the Zuiderzee with a massive dam and drain parts of it for new land. Construction of the Afsluitdijk began in 1927, a 32-kilometer marvel of concrete and clay that stretched from North Holland to Friesland.

This is also one of the top attractions in the Netherlands if you ever get the chance. It is a wonder of engineering.

Completed in 1932, it turned the saltwater Zuiderzee into the freshwater IJsselmeer, a lake that could be controlled and partially reclaimed. This wasn’t just a defensive move—it was an offensive one, aiming to create more space for agriculture and settlement.

Reclamation of the IJsselmeer began as soon as the Afsluitdijk was completed.

Then came the 1953 North Sea Flood, a disaster that redefined Dutch water management. On the night of January 31, a storm surge overwhelmed dikes in the southwest, drowning over 1,800 people and flooding 9% of the nation’s farmland.

The shock spurred the Delta Plan, an audacious response to protect the Rhine-Meuse-Scheldt delta. Rather than simply rebuilding higher walls, the Dutch engineered a flexible, interconnected system of dams, sluices, and storm surge barriers known as the Delta Works.

Construction spanned decades, from 1958 to 1997, with standout features like the Oosterscheldekering, a 9-kilometer barrier completed in 1986. Unlike the Afsluitdijk, this wasn’t a solid wall—its movable gates could close during storms but stay open to preserve the tidal ecosystem,

The creation of the Delta Works and the Afsluitdijk also saw an overhaul of the Dutch approach to water control. Pumping stations grew more efficient, often running on diesel or electricity, and were paired with an intricate canal system to manage both drainage and irrigation.

The reclaimed polders, however, brought new challenges. Subsidence meant some sank as much as 6 meters below sea level, requiring constant pumping to keep them dry.

Today, the Netherlands is not only larger but better fortified. Its water system is a blend of hard infrastructure and adaptive strategy, poised to face the 21st century.

However, the system of Dutch water management isn’t finished. In fact, it can never really be over.

The Afsluitdijk is over 90 years old and is undergoing a major upgrade to handle higher sea levels and more extreme weather. Started in recent years and expected to continue into the late 2020s, this project involves raising and strengthening the dike, adding new sluices to manage water discharge, and installing massive pumps to move water into the North Sea even when tides resist.

The Netherlands we know today wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for the Dutch system of water management.

This isn’t just hyperbole; this is a very literal truth. I don’t just mean the 17% of the country’s land that was reclaimed from the sea.

A 2007 study found that without the protective barriers, pumps, and dykes that are in place, 60% of the country would be underwater during high tide, and during a major storm, that percentage would be even higher.

That means that if the zombie apocalypse should ever happen, the Netherlands is probably not the place you want to be. Because if the pumps ever stop working, most of the country will be gone.

The Executive Producer of Everything Everywhere Daily is Charles Daniel. The Associate Producers are Austin Oetken and Cameron Kieffer.

Today’s review comes from listener Hal HI over on Apple Podcasts in the United States They write.

I have no idea

I am a kid. I somehow finished all the episodes.

Thanks, Hal! Welcome to the completionist club! You managed to it the same way everyone does it. You just download and listen to one episode at a time.

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