Extent of deterioration

More than half of the Dutch cultural landscapes have over 25% damage to their historical identity. The most spoiled landscapes are the shoreline landscape, the "old land" in the province of Zeeland, and the water meadows.

Current situation

The land reclamations of the shoreline and beach plains (the landward margins of the dunes) have been severely damaged because land has been levelled for bulb-growing and horticulture, and because of land consolidation schemes (particularly in Ameland and Schiermonnikoog), urbanisation, and the construction of facilities for recreation. After the disastrous floods of 1953, the creek levee and pool reclamations in the province of Zeeland were drastically subdivided into lots. In the oldest peat settlements in the country, those in western Brabant (near 's Gravenmoer and Roosendaal, for example), the only landscape elements that survive are the waterways once used for transporting peat. The water meadows along the major rivers and the river terrace reclamations along the Meuse have suffered severe damage from clay and sand extraction and, more recently, from nature development schemes. The extent of nature area has fallen sharply since 1850, with virtually the only exception being the dunes.

The landscapes that have deteriorated by 50 to 75% are the peat settlements in Friesland and Groningen provinces, the brook valley reclamations, the basin reclamations and certain polders. Like the creek levee and pool reclamations, these landscapes have suffered greatly from drastic forms of land consolidation. This has been exacerbated by autonomous enlargement of fields in arable areas such as the Dollard and Hoekse Waard.

• Excavated terrain
• Raised terrain
• Levelled terrain
• Only the main lines of the reclamation history are visible; all that remains is the main structure of the landscape, i.e. roads, dikes and large watercourses.
• The reclamation history is barely identifiable; in these landscapes even the main structure has vanished.