Holland is well-known for its peat landscapes dating from the Middle Ages on. These landscapes are threatened now as the peat gets lower and lower. This presentation explained the general developments and present situation in the area of Gouda-Nieuwkoop - being a part of the Green Heart of Holland - and ends up with questions of what to do now. The presentation was part of the excursion program for a group of international geologists,

1. An overview of history & present situation
Sophie Visser
April 11, 2014
National Landscape ‘Green Heart’
The peat landscapes of Holland:
A matter of opportunities and challenges
Peat lakes and ‘meadows’ of Reeuwijk

2. 7500 BP – Mainly tidal area 4750 BP - Coastal Barrier 1200 BP – Middle Ages
The Holocene as the basis: a quick overview (1)
Before the Reclamations:
trees along the Old Rhine
Flood basin
Natural levees
+ deposits
Crevasses and perimarine creeks

3. Meije
Age of the channel belts (based
on sedimentation):
-former rivers : from 7200 BP on
-present rivers : until 800 BP
-sea deposits (until 1000 BP)
The Holocene as the basis: a quick overview (2)
http://www.geo.uu.nl/fg/palaeogeography/
Former and present rivers and sea clay deposition in this area

4. Brook peatland bog peatland
´The Peat Wilderness´
The Holocene as the basis: a quick overview (3)
Sphagnum peat not shown
Brook peats
Sedge peat
Reed peat

5. Hardly sphagnum peat
or raised bog domes
between Gouda and Nieuwkoop
The Holocene as the basis: a quick overview (4)
Growth of the peat
over time

6. The Holocene as the basis: a quick overview (5)
At the surface in the present
Generalisation of the soil map 1:50.000Soil map 1:10.000

7. Kade = low dike
Sluis = sluice
Principle of peat reclamations: ditches, dikes, and drainage
After cutting and burning the shrubs and trees ….

8. South of the Old Rhine (1): the early reclamations
Count of
Holland Bishop of
Utrecht
The year 944:
Rights to the wilderness
granted to Count and
Bishop by German Emperor
Border Count – Bishop
around 1100
Mound, stronghold

9. South of the Old Rhine (2): all reclamations by about 1300

10. South of the Old Rhine (2): all reclamations
Few ´Cope´- ontginningen, but
-Based on fixed depth?
-Based on known contract?

11. After the reclamations: subsidence => to ´peat meadows´ and peat lakes
Arable land:
rye, grain, hemp
Grassland, moderate dry, hay Grassland, rather wet Turf, peat lakes
Peat
Groundwater level
Drained peat

12. The resulting landscape: idyllic or ….
Roelofs, circa 1865

13. Paul Gabriël 1890
Peat dredging > 1530,
on an educative illustration
… desolate and poor?

14. Map of ‘droogmaking’ ‘Tempel’ e.o. 1734:
should be finished in 1784, final permission in 1874
About 1900
South of the Old Rhine (3): the ‘droogmakerij’ of Tempel

15. Breaches in the ´ringdijk´in 1866, 1876,
1878, 1881, because of clay 50 cm
beneath the surface
South of the Old Rhine (4): the ‘droogmakerij’ of Tempel
Principle of making a ringdijk

16. Along the Old Rhine (1) – on a map from 1746

17. Along the Old Rhine (2) – a more complete picture from 1762

18. Along the Old Rhine (3) – Oude Hollandse Waterlinie

19. Along the Old Rhine (2) – River landscapes
Former towpath, restored

20. Old Rhine and north: geomorphology, archaeology, clay digging

21. North of the Old Rhine (1): not much changed, except for ……
Reclamation border
Historical farm-´lint´
Mi?
Stronghold Count of Holland, about 1200, still traces
Stronghold Count of Holland, about 1200, no traces
Count of Holland
Bishop of Utrecht

22. …… some roads and villages, e.g. Zegveld
In the 18th century
New roads 1960

23. …. And the landscapes in Nieuwkoop
Private water management in South-Nieuwkoop, 1631
South-Nieuwkoop, 1900

24. 1742
North of the Old Rhine (3): Peat digging north of Nieuwkoop

25. 1790: even worse, and threatening to Holland
1809 => ‘rational parcellation’
North of the Old Rhine (3): ´Droogmakerij´ Nieuwkoop and up north

26. relief inversion
´droogmakerij´
Concluding (1): low, lower, lowest …..
x shrinkage,
oxidation

27. Concluding (2): continuing the drainage of the peat land?

28. Concluding (3): What to do and what is feasible (and what is not)?

29. Thank you!
j.s.visser@planet.nl