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GEOGRAPHY OF THE NETHERLANDS Introduction Without human inventions the Netherlands wouldn't exist. The inhabitants say: "God created the sea an we Dutch created the land.". The name "Netherlands" tell you the geographic position. Ca. ¼ of the country with 41526 sq.
km smaller than Switzerland, lie underneath sea level. 1/10 of all are midland. The highest point of the Netherlands is the Vaalsermountain with 321m. The lowest point is the polder by Rotterdam. It's lieing 6,7 m under sea level. For centuries the Dutch have built embankments, dikes and windmills.
Seaarms and lakes were dried. Only to save the land against the storm-tides and flooding. So large part of the Netherlands has been created by human hands. No wonder that the humans are very restricted in their living place. Statistically the distance between the 16 Mio. inhabitants is 49m on the countryside, and in the four biggest cities only 27m.
The geographic position between the 51st and 54th parallel and the Gulf Stream make sure for the tempered oceanic climate. The average temperature is 1°-3° in January and in July 16° -19°. The rainfall the year lies around 730mm. In the west and north there is the North Sea with 280 km coast, in the south the Netherlands border on Belgium and in the east on Germany. Although the biggest share of the countries the lowland, there are also other types of landscapes: the down of Southlimburg, a 200000 year old moraineterritory in the east of Friesland and in Drenthe, the wooded morainehill of the Veluwe in the province Ultrecht. Furthermore the fenareas and the coastarea with his its 60m high dunes.
These dunes are 1000 years old. The dunechain go partly till 5 km in the midland. The dunes save not only against storm-tides, they are also reservoirs for the fresh-water, that will be fill up through the river. This is a big drinkingwaterreservoir for the big cities. The unusual features of the Dutch vegetation 1.Physical Geography The Netherlands climatically are characterised by the North Sea mainly àoceanic, Atlantic climate.
The phenotype of the North Sea coast with its many sand dunes is the result of extensive deforestation in the Middle Ages. The many river estuaries and deltas with little islands are another essential element of the coastal picture. The West Friesian islands form the continuation of the mainland dune belt, they are off the Waddenzee. The Hinterland is protected by dykes. Through the land reclamation in the Zuidersee, come into being polders who were use agrarian. The Delta-plan in the south-west, made since 1953 through the building of dykes Abschneidungen of sea bays.
The largest part of the eastern half of the Netherlands is covered by a sandy alluvial land, deposits of glaciers of the postglacial rivers. The coastal regions have a completely artificial design of the water net. Natural courses of a river are still found only in the eastern country steep one. The Vaalsberg is a foothill of the Rhenish Schiefergebierges. 2. Development of the riverside In the course of time, until how, the human has had an effect on the waterways in a variable way in the areas of the Netherlands.
The alluvial land and the meadow woods (schwemmland) disappeared as a result of straightenings and Eindeichungen and the groundwater level sank. Graphic of the lower stretches The graphic shows the development of the riverside. In the first part the river meadow begins to produce loam. The groundwater drops, and the high water begins to rise. In the second part the loam become more and more and the area is use more. The groundwater further drops.
Now the humans adjust the river meadow. Then the humans build dykes next to the river. Now they had a river and the alluvial area is ready to use in the farming. 3. Shares of the forest area The share of forest in the area of the Netherlands is very little as compared to Germany. 4.
Shares of the needle and deciduous trees in the woods area The conifers take the greatest area, as in Germany, in the Netherlands as utilisable lumbers. This trend is even more distinctive in the Netherlands because the deciduous trees aren\'t even represented here half as strongly with an area share of 14% as in Germany. While there is a mix from beeches and oakwoods, jaw woods as well as sprucewood forests in Germany, the natural vegetation has disappeared almost completely in the Netherlands. Jaw forests and artificial cultivated areas of exotics in Parks put the main inventory here. 5. From bush dunes to dune woods Unlike the East Friesian islands there are numerous societies with participation of bush and tree ways on the Dutch islands.
Acid pointing and acid tolerant mosses and herbs give references to the tendency toward the education of floor sour oakwoods. 6. Degenerate fens The originally landscape was rich at fens, this one has changed strongly under the influence of humans. Only still few remains of fen are available such as the high Venn at the German border. An interesting biotop is the Hochmoor. Nowadays they're mostly drained.
A Hochmoor rise independent of the groundwater level, but by enduringly weiterwachsende Torfmoose. They can "drink" the rainwater. This is a result of their song-being. The lowest parts of the moss die off and will be peat. Indicated plant are Wollgras, Sauergräser, Krähenbeere and Sumpfporst. Indicated trees are alder, pine and birch.
Different as the Hochmoor, is the Niedermoor. Mainly the Niedermoor lain in the south-east of Friesland and in the north-west of Overijssel. They nourish each of the groundwater. It is for this reason more nutrient- rich. The indicated plants are reed, bulrush, mosses, shrubs, Sauergräser, Binsen and Rohrkolben. 7.
No specifically Dutch vegetation The more frequent societies aren\'t specifically for the Netherlands but by the agricultural use: · Bush company · Rubus rich hedge · pine rich needle forest company · food meadows and cutting lawn (smooth oatmeal company variations) · smooth oatmeal meadow 8. Summary vegetation Over the centuries the natural countryside of the Netherlands has been changed by human strongly. An \"agricultural desert\" is well the apt expression for this agrarian dominated area. There are only few areas, which were left in their natural condition, part of it are different bog areas and heath areas as well as the dune areas at the coasts. The originally available birch oak woods are only available in small remains. The woods share of at present approximately 8% contained mainly pinewood forests.
Dunes and marshes Dunes are fast changing things and are part of the geological latest appearances of the country. The development started before 10000 years after the end of the last ice age and isn\'t completed to this day. So you can see, in the Netherlands between \' s-Gravenzande and Haarlem, older dunes made of brownish, weathered sand which spitzwinklig goes to today\'s coast. On them spread the tulip fields between Leiden and Haarlem. The young, snow-white dune fields reach a breadth of 5.5 km and heights of more as 50 m.
The dunes protect the hinterland from storm tides, serve as a sweet water reservoir and offer the biotop for birds and plants; they are under conservation. Long ago are on them fishing villages which have grown to famous seaside resorts, e.g. Zandvoort or Scheveningen. At the inside nascent bigger cities like The Hague, once hunting seat of the count of Holland and later king residence and administrative capital. The Marschen exist out of sea-warp, who had discard him in the stagnant water of the flood and gone along the estuaries far in the inland.
The tight , glayly mass is relaxed by pebble and skeletons of small shellfishes. So the mass will be also fertile. Especially the Marsch of the young polders is a very productive acre-ground. The prior Marschen are mainly covered by Niedermooren and conduce for pastureland. climate The climate of the Netherlands is characterised by the compensating influence of the sea strongly. Here the foothills of the Gulf Stream provide the temerated oceanic seaclimate.
No place is father away from the coast as 150 km. That means mildly winters, delightful summers and puny variation in temperature. It can rain in every season. But the least rainfall is in spring. I. ll.
lll. winter (dec.-feb.) 2,5 61 160 spring (mar.-may) 8,3 69 499 summer (jun.-aug.
) 16,3 35 615 autumn (sep.-nov.) 10,4 63 296 l. average temperature °C ll. days with rainfall lll. Sunshine-hours The midland The midland isn't so influence with the climate as the coast.
In the midland the variation in temperature between night and day is much bigger. Also between summer and winter. In the Summer the midland has warmer temperatures as the coast. For it the sunshine-hours decrease. From the north to the south the sunshine-hours and temperature increase. The rainfall decrease in the south.
The wind, temperature and rainfall The fresh wind at the coast impresses the flat landscape manifold. The most time the wind come from the west and carries on the windmills. The average temperature is 1°-3° in January and in July 16° -19°. The rainfall is, like in Germany, very high. It can rain anytime. But the Netherlands has the problem, that parts of the country are underneath sea level.
So the rainfall cannot drain off. The Dutch must drain ca. 300 mm with help of pumps. Conservation The Netherlands is a very culture intense use area. But the natural vegetation and the animal world are go back. Till today they become smaller and smaller.
In 1990 the Netherlands create a program to help the nature. It was planed that there build new biotopes, to help the animals and the plants to survive. They create special programs to save animals, like the otter, partridges. The numbers of seals and badgers recover. The EU want to test, to run to seed the old agrarian fields. In these new natural areas should big animals to be subjected to, like cattle and wild horses.
One of these projects was realised in Oostvardersplassen between Almere and Lelystad on Flevoland. The provinces province capital area qkm inhabitants townships Drenthe Assen 2 756,97 178 695 12 Flevoland Lelystad 2 412,30 341 500 6 Friesland Leeuwarden 5 753,04 636 539 31 Gelderland Arnhem 5 136,00 1 934 314 71 Groningen Groningen 2 797,48 570 369 25 Limburg Maastricht 2 211,70 1 142 737 48 Noord-Brabant sHertogenbosch 5 100,24 2 390 900 70 Noord-Holland Haarlem 3 960,93 2 535 064 65 Overijssel Zwolle 3 438,60 1 048 509 26 Utrecht Utrecht 1 449,14 1 128 521 33 Zeeland Middelburg 2 683,87 377 231 17 Zuid-Holland Den Haag 2 943,99 3 397 744 92 The land underneath and over sea level Picture of the division of the provinces
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