Markermeer
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Markermeer | |
|---|---|
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| Coordinates | |
| Basin countries | Netherlands |
| Surface area | 700 km² |
The Markermeer is a 700 km² lake in the central Netherlands in between North Holland, Flevoland and its larger sibling, the IJsselmeer. A shallow lake at some 3 to 4 m in depth, it is named after the small former island, now peninsula, of Marken that lies within it. The southwest side of the lake that begins where the IJ once emptied into the Zuiderzee is known as the IJmeer.
The Markermeer was not originally intended to remain a lake. It used to be part of the Zuiderzee, a salt water inlet of the North Sea, that was dammed off by the Afsluitdijk (Closure Dike) in 1932, turning the Zuiderzee into the fresh water IJsselmeer. The following years saw the reclamation of extensive tracts of land as large polders in a massive project known as the Zuiderzee Works (this article has a map of the area). One of these, the Markerwaard, was to occupy the area of the current Markermeer. Part of the construction of this last polder was building the Houtribdijk, also called Markerwaarddijk, finished in 1976, which hydrologically splits the IJsselmeer in two, the southern section being the Markermeer.
Because of changing priorities and doubts about the financial feasibility, the Markerwaard was indefinitely postponed in the 1980s and the Markermeer has since begun to become a valuable ecological and recreational asset of its own.
The Markermeer is used as a freshwater reservoir and a buffer against flood waters and droughts. In 2003 Holland was hit by drought, and several peat dikes were endangered or even collapsed. The Dutch reversed water flows in the Amsterdam area, so that water from the Markermeer helped to wet the endangered areas.
