ABSTRACT
The Krimpenerwaard is a peatbog polder located in the western part of The Netherlands, in the province of South-Holland, in the ‘Green Heart of Holland’ (Fig.4.1). It is a fairly homogeneous open area of mainly agricultural land (grassland) and some small nature reserves, surrounded on three sides by different branches of the river Rhine (the River Lek in the south, the Hollandse IJssel in the northwest, and the peat-brook the Vlist in the east). To the west is the conurbation of the city of Rotterdam. The polder is located between c.1.0 and 2.5 m below sea level, and is drained by seven pumping stations. It comprises approximately 13,000 ha, of which some 15 to 20 per cent is open water. The peat in places reaches depths of more than 10 m. Clayey and clayey-peat soils occur along the rivers. Here, most of the houses and farm buildings are concentrated in lines along the foot of the banks of the dikes. In the central part, narrow ribbons of farms and a few elongated villages are laid out on sandy ridges of Pleistocene dunes. In the south, the area receives seepage water from the River Lek, but in the centre and north the polder looses water towards the deeper north-western polders. The Krimpenerwaard situated in the Green Heart of Holland https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9780203220894/7aa6ff7a-81da-4c32-a1b2-667754d2d7f1/content/fig4_1_B.jpg" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/>
