ABSTRACT
The chapter selects five historic Dutch towns to explain their origin in locations that are related to the five discharge basins of the delta. The narrative starts with Dordrecht, a city near the confluence of the Maas and Rhine River distributaries, but also under historical tidal influence. The chapter reports how on successive visits initial observations gathered on site needed confirmation and correction about the town’s origin. The results are maps that give an interpretation of the initial design intent in a manner that is borrowed from Joseph Rykwert’s approach in his The Idea of a Town. The diagrams are verified by 16th century maps made by Jacob van Deventer. Thus the new maps show how city design has evolved over the centuries and how various design elements can still be traced when shown on contemporary satellite images. The same technique of direct observation, interpretation and verification is then applied to Leiden near the historical mouth of the Rhine River, where the river once created a separate delta no longer visible except on soil maps. Next is the town of Alkmaar in North Holland. This town originated at the northern end of the dune barrier, where incisions into the peat landscape created direct access to the North Sea and the former Zuider Sea, now the IJssel Meer. In the Scheldt estuary, the chapter discussed Middelburg, located on Walcheren, a former island between the Western and Eastern Scheldt. The chapter takes the reader to Kampen, an early Hanseatic city that eventually lost its importance to Amsterdam because its access to the North Sea became blocked by sediments from the River IJssel. The chapter concludes with the lessons learned from history. Cities do not behave like organisms with their restorative ability after stress. Cities need to adapt to changing conditions. In all five examples, natural processes had profound consequences to their existence and reasons for adaptation.
