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Dieren en planten

Geese   Greylag goose   Barnacle goose   Brent goose   Predators   Seals   Harbour seal   Grey seal   Ringed seal   Dolphins   Porpoise   Swimming birds   

Water en land

Coastal areas   Tidal flats and shallows   Biotope   Delta   Delta region   Delta Works and nature   

Mens en Milieu

Coastal protection   Breakwaters   Freshwater management   Sluices   

Delta region

The delta region has always formed a unique ecological area. It is the intersection of three large-scale ecological links: the east-Atlantic migrating route for water fowl, the mouths of the Rijn, the Maas and the Schelde and the influx of Atlantic Ocean water via The English Channel. This position gives the region an exceptional function for many types of plants and animals. In its original state, the delta region comprised a few branched estuaries with extended salt marshes, shoals, shallows and stretches of water. The northern estuary was even multiply branched, which occurred nowhere else in Europe. The extensive intertidal zone was maintained by the tidal dynamics and the influence from the riversl. The extremely gradual transitions between fresh and saline, deep and shallow, high and low, sandy and muddy were very characteristic for the area.

  • Human influence
    Storm surge barrier Oosterschelde, foto fitis, sytske dijksen

    The delta region has been inhabited for many centuries. Therefore due to the continual stride with water, dikes have been built since around the year 1000 and outer dikes have been reclaimed. The natural meandering of the rivers in the landscape were restrained. Nevertheless, the delta region retained a large amount of naturalness up till the 1950s. That changed with the execution of the Delta Works and the far-reaching regulation of the flowing river water. When all dams, sluices and a storm surge barrier were built, a large part of the delta had lost its tidal movement and therefore a large surface of fresh, brackish and saline intertidal regions. Sandbanks and mud flats in the Oosterschelde in the sea channels that were totally closed off threatened to disappear. New intertidal regions only formed in the Voordelta.

  • Nature value
    Hellegatsplaten, foto fitis, sytske dijksen

    The contribution of the delta region to the national and international biodiversity has declined. Deltas have become more rare than closed water basins. A multiple estuary with an extensive brackish zone, as formerly found in the northern part of the delta region, was unique for all of Europe.
    In the Ecosystem vision Delta, an image has been sketched for development of more nature values in the delta region.