Countries of the World/COUNTRYS.BIN/dp/0257/02575.txt

Text File | 1991-06-25 | 23KB | 410 lines

$Unique_ID{COW02575}
$Pretitle{433}
$Title{Netherlands
Physical Background}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{H. Meijer}
$Affiliation{Information and Documentation Center}
$Subject{netherlands
land
north
sea
fig
high
areas
farming
south
clay}
$Date{1989}
$Log{Castle de Haar*0257501.scf
Table 5.*0257501.tab
Table 6.*0257502.tab
}
Country:     Netherlands
Book:        The Kingdom of the Netherlands
Author:      H. Meijer
Affiliation: Information and Documentation Center
Date:        1989

Physical Background

[See Castle de Haar: Courtesy Embassy of Netherlands, Washington DC]

Situation

     The Netherlands forms part of the northwest European plain (Fig. 1) and
is bounded in the east by West Germany, in the south by Belgium and in the
north and west by the North Sea. It is crossed almost at its central point by
latitude 52 degrees North and longtitude 5 degrees East. It covers an area
slightly larger than Belgium but slightly smaller than Denmark or Switzerland.
The total official area is 41,864 sq. km., which includes territorial waters,
inlets etc. The official name of the country is 'Nederland' or the
Netherlands, but foreigners often refer to it as Holland which, strictly
speaking, only applies to the two western coastal provinces of North and South
Holland.

     The official name literally means low land. The highest point in the
Netherlands is in the extreme south-east, 321 metres above sea level. The many
areas in the north and west which lie below sea level account for nearly half
of the total land area (Fig. 5). The lowest point is an area of reclaimed land
(polder) north-east of Rotterdam which is 6.7 metres below sea level (Fig. 2).

     Over the centuries the maritime position of the Netherlands has had both
beneficial and adverse effects for both the land and its people. Time and
again the low-lying areas have been ravaged by floods, obliging the
inhabitants to wage an unceasing battle against the sea. As early as the
Middle Ages the Dutch decided that the best form of defence was attack, and
with the reclamation of the Zuyder Zee and other areas in the course of this
century (see the volume on Public Works), an area roughly equivalent in size
to that relinquished to the sea in centuries past has been reclaimed. On the
credit side, though, the country's maritime position encouraged the
development of a fishing industry and later helped to promote trade, which was
also stimulated by the fact that the estuaries of three major rivers, the
Rhine, the Maas (Meuse) and the Scheldt are in the Netherlands. This
established the basis for a firmly outward-looking economy.

     Since the Middle Ages the Netherlands has had important ports serving a
hinterland extending across a considerable part of Western and Central Europe.

     Its international links are of importance not only for trade and
communications but also for agriculture and the manufacturing industries,
which use imported raw materials and fuels to produce quality goods, a large
proportion of which are exported. The high population density has, of course,
always compelled the Dutch to look abroad for additional sources of
prosperity, but it is the country's geographical location that has been the
decisive factor in shaping its development, more so perhaps than that of any
other nation.

Climate

     The Netherlands lies in the temperate zone of the northern hemisphere and
has a maritime climate owing to the North Sea and the Atlantic Ocean and to
prevailing sea winds. Daily and annual temperature ranges are moderate as the
graph shows (Fig. 3): the mean temperature in January is 2C rising to nearly
17C in July. There have, however, been instances of extreme temperatures: the
maximum and minimum temperatures recorded by the Royal Netherlands
Meteorological Institute at De Bilt near Utrecht are 36.8C and -24.8C. The
histogram in Figure 3 shows that although spring is usually drier than autumn,
rainfall is fairly even throughout the year. Annual rainfall is about 800 mm.
There is little variation in climate from region to region since the country
is small, but the difference in latitude between north and south (over 300 km)
does have some effect on temperature, while the maritime influence is less
inland. Together these factors can give rise to marked regional differences in
temperature. Figure 4 shows that the average number of summer days (with a
maximum temperature of 25C or over) ranges from 5 in the Frisian Islands off
the north coast to more than 35 in the southern province of Limburg. Contrary
to what might be expected, there is no gradual decrease in rainfall away from
the coast, since summer storms are more frequent inland.

     The effects of the climate on the nation and its economic life are in
some respects favourable, in others less so; agriculture and transport are the
sectors most susceptible to climatic factors. The mild, damp climate is suited
to grassland, dairy and livestock farming and to horticultural production in
the coastal areas where there is a lower incidence of frost than in inland
areas.

     However, there is too little sunshine in the summer months for many
arable crops. The mild winters mean that shipping is seldom ice-bound; the
frequent changes in the weather - changeability being a main feature of the
Dutch climate - often cause fog and slippery road conditions in winter.

Topography

     Despite its small size, the Netherlands contains a wide variety of
scenery. One of the reasons for this is its fairly complex geological history,
particularly over the past million years. After the land had been shaped by
nature, man began to make his definite mark, first by taking a variety of
measures to make the land inhabitable and to keep it that way; by building
dykes, reclaiming land and draining marshes. Then the land was prepared for
agriculture; it was divided up and cultivated, farms were built and villages
started. Soon there were towns which have grown, like traffic and the
infrastructure, at a tremendous rate during the present century.

Geology

     In Figure 5 the country is divided into two main regions, one comprising
those areas which would be regularly flooded by the sea without dykes (Low
Netherlands), and the other areas which are high enough to escape flooding
(High Netherlands). Though primarily based on elevation, this classification
coincides to a marked degree with a broad division of the country according to
geological formation. The landscape of the High Netherlands was formed mainly
in the Pleistocene Ice Age (which began about 2 million years ago and ended
about 10,000 years ago), and is composed chiefly of sand and gravel; the
surface of the Low Netherlands is younger, having been deposited in the
Holocene period (less than 10,000 years ago), and consisting mainly of clay
and peat.

     There are also distinct differences in topography; the High Netherlands
is undulating and even hilly in places, with woodland and heath (Fig. 6). The
Low Netherlands is predominantly flat 'polderland' - land enclosed by dykes
where the water table is artificially regulated by pumping stations (which
have replaced the traditional windmills (Fig. 7)). This part of the country is
intersected by numerous natural and man-made waterways which are important to
both transport and water management (Fig. 8).

     In the detailed topographic map (Fig. 9), areas 1 to 5 roughly correspond
to the High Netherlands and areas 6 to 9 to the Low Netherlands. (The figures
correspond with those in the key to Fig. 9).

1 The South Limburg Plateau

     This is the only part of the country which cannot be classed as lowland.
The hills which rise to over 300 metres, are the foothills of the Central
European Plateau. This is also virtually the only area in the Netherlands
where rock which is over a million years old and which lies under the country
in declivitous strata running from south-east to north-west is found at or
near surface level. Everywhere else it is covered by more recent deposits. Its
value is depen