Talk:Land reclamation in the Netherlands

https://brilliantmaps.com/netherlands-land-reclamation/ says it's 17%, not half. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 142.112.251.53 (talk) 01:53, 1 November 2019 (UTC)

Sea level 'fell': Wrong figures.

From start of 'History' section: "In the northern parts of the Netherlands sea levels fell exposing new land at a rate of 5–10 meters per year between 500 BC and 500 AD."

This is clearly wrong as it implies that water levels fell 5 to 10 km over 1000 years. As far as I know the sea levels have been globally pretty much static since 5000 BCE. In the Baltic land has (and is) rising at a rate of 1 m per century due to isostatic rebound (post ice age effect). Conversely land is sinking in adjacent areas that were not covered in ice - partly explaining why by now 65% of Netherlands is below sea level.

I suggest the statement should be that between 500 BC and 500 AD the 'sea level' ROSE by 5 to 10 m. 92.28.23.179 (talk) 09:10, 5 February 2022 (UTC)

A Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion

The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion:

• NetherlandsReclamation1300-2000.gif

Participate in the deletion discussion at the nomination page. —Community Tech bot (talk) 04:51, 26 May 2022 (UTC)

Image reversion

To the IP who keeps reverting the image (can't add them specifically since it keeps changing but stays within the same range) – what source do you have which confirms that the data shown is inaccurate? I don't necessarily doubt that what you say is true, but reliable sources go both ways, so I'm curious to see what exactly is factually incorrect about the gif. 47.20.177.163 (talk) 18:18, 7 June 2022 (UTC) Wikipedia:Sockpuppet_investigations/Zhomron

You can look up the history of any of the cities or regions that, according to this map, used to be in the middle of the sea. The Zeelandic town of Hulst for instance, was a blooming city with a continuous land connection throughout the middle ages - yet according to this map, it was all sea back then. See for instance: M.K. Elisabeth Gottschalk, De Vier Ambachten en het land van Saaftinge in de middeleeuwen. Een historisch-geografisch onderzoek betreffende Oost Zeeuws-Vlaanderen (Assen: Van Gorcum, 1984); for an extensive study of the medieval history and geography of this region.

This gif is made by a user on Reddit, who used the map that you can see in the last image of the gif as his source. This original map was made by historian prof. dr. Sander van der Leeuw. I have sent him an e-mail to ask him about this map, to which he replied: "I intended to summarize the drained swamps and lakes, some of which were created by the inhabitants of the various periods concerned. I did not intend to depict actual sea turned into land. The legend of the figure in my book makes this very clear: 'Overview of the areas of the Netherlands that were artificially drained in various periods of the country’s history'."

So this means that the original map depicted any kind of drainage; including, for instance, walkable wet fields that just weren't quite fit for farming. This got misinterpreted by the Reddit user who made the gif, who believed that all of the drained land used to be sea. So the gif implies that a large part of the country used to be sea, which is very incorrect. Flilix (talk) 16:47, 8 June 2022 (UTC)