The newest state of the United States of America is Hawaii which joined the union in 1959.
Italy’s newest region is Molise which separated from Abruzzo in 1970. Meanwhile, France almost
completely changed their regions in 2015. I could make a video on each of these cases
but a similarity is shared between them all.
Each country has a fixed amount of land which it splits up into subdivisions. To create
a new one, land must be taken from other subdivisions, be it that they are divided up or joined into
a larger one. This seems quite self-explanatory, until we come to Flevoland, the newest province
of the Netherlands and the world’s largest land-reclamation project.
Intro
The name Netherlands literally means lowlands. And that’s not just in English. The French
name for the country is Pays-Bas meaning “low country” while the Irish name “Isiltir”
means exactly the same thing.
The Netherlands is a very flat country with only 50% of its land more than 1 metre above
sea level and nearly 17% below sea-level. Yet the Dutch people live on these lands and
built entire cities there. This is a result of a war that has lasted thousands of years.
A war between the Dutch and the Sea.
In the first half of the 20th century, the Dutch constructed the Afsluitdijk dam which
blocked off the Zuiderzee, a massive inlet of the North Sea that regularly flooded. This
turned the salt-water sea into the freshwater Lake Ĳssel or IJsselmeer. This lake was further
drained to reclaim new lands called polders.
The main purposes for the construction of the Afsluitdijk dam were to improve flood
protection in the Netherlands after the deadly flood of 1916, while also creating additional
land for agriculture which was especially needed for a small country with a high population.
The process of creating the polders started with damming off sections of the IJsselmeer
and pumping out all of the water. The first polder, Wieringermeer, was dammed in 1929
and fully drained in 1930. Next was the Noordoostpolder, which was not fully drained until 1942.
After the Second World War, work started on the largest project; the Flevolands. Flevoland
was built in two parts. Eastern Flevoland was finished in 1957 while southern Flevoland
was drained in 1968.
In 1986 something special happened, a new province was added to the Netherlands. Named
Flevoland, it consisted of Flevopolder and the Noordoostpolder.
This area is 2,400km2 though 1/3rd of this is water. Its land area is 1,400km2 which
is larger than Bahrain or County Dublin.
The name Flevoland comes from Lake Flevo, a former lake in the area. The name was given
by the Roman Geographer Pomponius Mela.
The Southern Flevoland and Eastern Flevoland polders are divided by a dyke in the middle
called the Knardijk which would keep one polder safe if the other was flooded. The land facing
sides of the 3 polders are separated from the mainland with bordering lakes. These were
created to isolate water management on the low-lying polders and to prevent the water
table falling on the mainland, which would cause soil there to dry out.
The construction of Flevoland had many impacts. Once coastal towns were now located inland
while small islands were now surrounded by new land. The fishing town of Urk on the Noordoostpolder
is located on a former island which is home to the highest natural point in the province,
at a whopping 7 metres above sea level.
Flevoland is the smallest province of the Netherlands. It is home to over 420,000 people
and is on average, 5 metres below sea level. The province is split into 6 municipalities,
including its capital Lelystad which is located on the Eastern Flevoland Polder and is home
to 77,000 people.
The largest city in the province isn’t Lelystad. It's Almere in Southern Flevoland which has
a population of over 200,000. A city known for its architecture, it’s the fastest growing
city in the Netherlands, with a big reason for this being its proximity to Amsterdam.
The province is home to one small airport at Lelystad while many towns are connected
by rail to Amsterdam and other cities. Noordoostpolder used to have a small airport but it was closed
in the 1990’s due to the expansion of the town of Emmeloord.
The A6 motorway forms a backbone to the province, passing through all 3 polders. As this is
the Netherlands, there is also a large amount of cycling infrastructure.(N706)
Creating new land gave the rare opportunity to fully plan the cities, agriculture and
infrastructure of the province. Let's examine the Noordoostpolder as an example. The administrative
centre and largest town is Emmeloord which is located in the centre of the polder. Zoom
out and we see a ring of smaller villages around the edge of the polder which are all
connected to Emmeloord and to each other with a circular road.
Throughout the polder we find agricultural land which is laid out in a grid pattern.
Note the difference between the farms of the polder and the original mainland.
The GDP of the Flevoland province was 14 billion euros in 2018 and some of the main agricultural
produce include apples, cereals, flowers and dairy cattle.
Tourism has developed in the past few decades. Some major attractions include the Batavialand
heritage park, these nature reserves, the National Aviation Museum, this strange outdoor
ice skating rink and the Lowlands festival in the village of Biddinghuizen.
Flevoland is also said to be the largest shipwreck graveyard in the world, with over 450 wrecks
found around the province.
The province of Flevoland is even home to a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Schokland and
Surroundings. Schokland was a former island in the Zuiderzee which is known today for
its nature, culture and history. In 1995, it became the first UNESCO World Heritage
Site in the Netherlands.
Flevoland is actually still expanding. There was a proposed Markerwaard polder to the west
of Flevoland but it was cancelled in 2003. However, the 30km long Houtribdijk was constructed.
This resulted in the Markermeer Lake being separated from Lake Ijssel. The Markermeer
is used as a freshwater reservoir and a buffer against floodwaters and droughts. A recent
project called the Marker Wadden is creating some islands to the north of the Markermeer.
These would become a wetland nature reserve and a breeding ground for seabirds. On 11
May 2016, the first new island was completed. In March 2017, it was announced that four
other islands should be completed before 2020. It was named after the Wadden Sea which lies
between the Netherlands and Denmark which has a similar wetland. The Marker Wadden will
form a unique ecosystem that will boost biodiversity in the Netherlands.
In conclusion, the newest province of the Netherlands is the result of an amazing feat
of engineering. The Zuiderzee Works are one of the 7 Engineering wonders of the world
along with the Delta Works in the south-east of the Netherlands.
Real Engineering has a great video on the topic if you want to learn more. The completely
new province of Flevoland proves the old Dutch saying that “God created the world, but
the Dutch created the Netherlands.”
Finally, I find the flag of Flevoland to be extremely interesting so I’ll be making
a completely different video on the matter.
Thank you so much for watching this video. If you have any ideas for future videos, put
them in the comments section below. Stay safe and merry Christmas. Subscribe for more on
Ireland, Europe and the World.