Polder Landscapes of the World

Polders can be found in coastal and alluvial lowlands all over the world. In these reclaimed areas water levels are artificially controlled so people can live and work there. This often centuries-old interaction between man and water has produced a rich variety of polder landscapes with their own cultural identity and spatial, functional, and ecological characteristics. This book addresses polder landscapes as cultural expressions rather than only as results of water engineering - while providing backgrounds, overview maps, descriptions of iconic polders as a means to understand the similarities and differences of these particular landscapes.