Environmental history of the rhine-meuse delta: An ecological story on evolving human-environmental relations coping with climate change and sea-level rise

Abstract

This unique text presents the environmental history of the delta of the lowland rivers Rhine and Meuse. It is an ecological story of evolving human-environmental relations and how they cope with climate change and sea-level rise. The text offers a combination of in-depth ecology and environmental history. It deals with the exploitation of land and water, the development of fisheries and agriculture, changes in biodiversity, and invasive exotics. The book is unique in that it is the first book written in English on the integrated environmental history of the delta, from pre-historic times up to the present day. It covers the legacy of human intervention, the inescapable fate of reclaimed, yet subsiding and sinking polders, and 'bathtubs' attacked by numerous floods. These latter were reclaimed in the Middle Ages and were unwittingly exposed to the rising sea-level and the increased amplitude between high and low water in the rivers. The present-day Delta is a large wetland several meters below sea-level, where humans 'keep their feet dry' only by the application of advanced technical means. The synthesis presents. © 2008 Springer Science + Business Media B.V.