The Afsluitdijk, a 32-kilometre barrier dam completed in 1932, closed off the Zuiderzee from the North Sea and converted it into the freshwater IJsselmeer. Following engineer Cornelis Lely's plan, large polders — Wieringermeer, the Noordoostpolder and Flevoland — were then pumped dry and settled, adding new farmland and the planned province of Flevoland. The works combined flood protection, freshwater supply and land creation at national scale. The new towns of the polders were laid out from scratch.
The Zuiderzee Works were a defining twentieth-century demonstration of state-led land creation and integrated water engineering.
See it on the timeline →