Flevopolder: The world’s largest manmade island
We all know what an island is, don’t we? A natural piece of land surrounded by water. What if we told you that some of them are created by humans? Yes, that’s right! But there are artificial islands too and Flevopolder happens to be the largest among them.
Flevopolder: A Guiness world record holder
Flevopolder, situated in the Flevoland province of the central Netherlands, holds the Guiness record for being the world’s largest artificial island. It derives its name from its location, the ancient lake Flevo and the way of its formation. Flevopolder has an area of 970 square kilometres. Together with its neighbouring polder called Noordoostpolder, it forms the province of Flevoland. It is a land combined by two polders i.e., is an area of ground reclaimed from a sea or other waterbodies.
Flevopolder and its neighbours
Flevopolder is surrounded by a chain of lakes in the Netherlands, such as Veluwemeer, Ijesselmeer, Ketelmeer and Gooimeer. These lakes separate Flevopolder from other provinces, namely, Gelderland and Utrecht. Flevopolder also has three major settlements with respect to population, the largest one being Almere.
Origin of Flevopolder
The Romans were the first to describe the area that is now called Flevopolder. They saw a river that formed a northern branch from the river Rhine and named it Flevum. South of what would become the Zuiderzee region later, Flevum river widened into a lake that the Romans named as Flevo Lacus or 'Lake at the Flevum'. Thus, when the area was developed into a polder by the first Dutch settlers, Frisians, it was named Flevopolder.
Interestingly, a major part of the Netherlands, including the Flevopolder, was built by the never-yielding efforts of the Dutch. Frisians began building barriers (a wall of stone or earth) to protect their land from the North Sea. However, in 1287, the barrier failed and led to a massive flood. This, in turn, forced them to establish a shallow bay called Zuiderzee in the north-western part. The word Zuiderzee means ‘southern sea’ in Dutch. However, this bay wasn't successful either and hampered their farming and dwelling. So, over the next few centuries, the Frisians kept trying to keep the water from overflowing Zuiderze. To do so, they constructed a system comprising embankments, dams, dykes, drainage projects, and land reclamation.
Unfortunately, in 1916, another flood forced the Dutch to close the inland sea Zuiderzee permanently. This was when they started building polders in 1920, which took the shape of Flevoland over the years. At first, the Afsluitdijk dam was built in 1932, leading to Ijsselmeer formation. Later, post-World War II, levees (a barrier that prevents flooding) were constructed around the bordering lakes. This was followed by land reclamation and the creation of the eastern Flevopolder in 1955 and the southern one in 1968. Finally, the additional water was drained out by electric or diesel pumps to keep the area dry.
The design was such that even if one part of Flevopolder got flooded, the other remained protected. However, unlike most artificial islands, Flevopolder has not been raised above sea level. On 1st January 1986, Flevoland was officially declared the country’s youngest and 12th province (territory).