ABSTRACT
The 1924 international planning conference in Amsterdam, organized by the institute, had also emphasized the importance of urban centers in a regional context, or considering regional planning as an essential part of local problem solving. In 1919 a new department of the Ministry of Transport and Water Management officially started planning the reclamation of large parts of the Zuiderzee, the large inland sea in open connection with the North Sea. Two independent authorities—The Zuiderzee Project Department and the IJsselmeerpolders Development Authority (IJDA)—acted as developing agents throughout the seventy years of the Ijsselmeer polders' reclamation and development. It was the IJDA's solution to present a more or less independent planning force that would have the confidence of the IJDA, and at the same time withstand the critical review of the many that would be following the whole procedure from the outside.
