Paper short abstract:

This paper discusses changes in the Dutch use of land reclamation to cultivate coastal environments and make them more suitable for changing human needs. It reflects on changing perceptions of the land-water boundaries within Dutch narratives of floods, safety, and challenges of climate change.

Paper long abstract:

Civil engineering projects formed the Dutch landscape over the centuries, predominantly to keep sea water out. Continued land reclamation schemes are necessary to maintain and protect a country in which one-third of the land lies below sea level. The Dutch endeavours of recreating land lost to or threatened by the sea aim to engineer current living conditions and shape and reflect relationships between people and the land and sea. This paper analyses the narratives around shifting land-sea boundaries used in Dutch land reclamation processes and related technologies. With reference to the history of Dutch water management, I discuss how transformations in Dutch coastal civil engineering and land reclamation can offer us insights on social changes and the shifting assessment of local ‘productive’ landscapes. Previous approaches to flood management were formed around ideas of risks reduction and to control the impacts of (temporary) marine and riverine floods. Lately, the perception of boundaries between land and water has been reconfigured and re-evaluated. Rather than a rigorous separation of land and water, land reclamation now offers new adaptation strategies and novel approaches towards cultivating coastal environments with more fluid barriers between land and water.