Settlements in the new polders of the Netherlands

The Netherlands Most densely populated area in Western hemisphere Much of the country is below high tide level For 100s of years the Dutch have built Dykes called Polders to create new land below sea level

The Zuyder Zee project

Zuyder Zee was a shallow inlet in the Western part of the Netherlands Disastrous storms and loss of life led the Dutch to build a dam and enclose this area They were able to turn this into land for farming and create a lake for domestic use

Formation of a Polder

Settlement patterns in the North-East Polder

Farmers live on family run farms where the fields are laid out in a chessboard fashion Locations of nucleated settlements were chosen carefully Emmelourd is the main urban centre and provides the important services for the entire polder Villages built in radial pattern around Emmelourd

Settlement in Eastern and Southern Flevoland

The new polders of Eastern and Southern Flevoland are very near the Ranstad, a ring of over crowded cities The Dutch decided that the Flevoland would be used to relieve some of the population pressure in the Netherland Lelystad and Almere are now large urban centres with Almere having a population of 183, 000