Zuiderzee Works in the context of "Noordoostpolder"

Land reclamation in the Netherlands has a long history. As early as in the 14th century, the first reclaimed land had been settled. Much of the modern land reclamation has been done as a part of the Zuiderzee Works since 1919. Land reclamation in the 20th century added an additional 1,650 square kilometres (640 sq mi) to the country's land area.

It is estimated that about 65% of the country would be under water at high tide if it were not for the existence and the country's use of dikes, dunes and pumps. 26% of the Netherlands by area, and 21% by population, is located below the mean sea level.

The Markermeer (Dutch pronunciation: [ˌmɑrkərˈmeːr]) is a 700 km (270 sq mi) lake in the central Netherlands in between North Holland, Flevoland, and its smaller and larger neighbors, the IJmeer and IJsselmeer. A shallow lake at 3 to 5 m in depth, matching the reclaimed land to its west, north-west and east it is named after the small former island, now peninsula, of Marken on its west shore.

The Markermeer was not originally intended to remain a lake. It was formerly part of the Zuiderzee, a saltwater inlet of the North Sea, that was dammed off by the Afsluitdijk (Closure Dike) in 1932, turning the Zuiderzee into the freshwater IJsselmeer. The following years saw the reclamation of extensive tracts of land as large polders in an enormous project known as the Zuiderzee Works. One of these, the Markerwaard, was to occupy the area of the current Markermeer. Part of the construction of this polder was building the Houtribdijk, also called Markerwaarddijk, finished in 1976, which hydrologically splits the IJsselmeer in two, the southern section being the Markermeer.

Cornelis Lely (Dutch pronunciation: [kɔrˈneːlɪs ˈleːli]; 23 September 1854 – 22 January 1929) was a Dutch politician of the Liberal Union and civil engineer who was Minister of Water Management and Governor of Suriname. The designer of Afsluitdijk, the largest dam and causeway at its time of construction, in 1932, he oversaw the Zuiderzee Works as Minister, turning the Zuiderzee into a lake and making possible the conversion of a vast area of former seabed into dry land. His plan deeply transposed and influenced the current geography of the Netherlands. Lelystad, the capital of the province of Flevoland, is named after him.

The Delta Works (Dutch: Deltawerken) is a series of construction projects in the southwest of the Netherlands to protect a large area of land around the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta from the sea. Constructed between 1954 and 1997, the works consist of dams, sluices, locks, dykes, levees, and storm surge barriers located in the provinces of South Holland and Zeeland.

The aim of the dams, sluices, and storm surge barriers was to shorten the Dutch coastline, thus reducing the number of dikes that had to be raised. Along with the Zuiderzee Works, the Delta Works have been declared one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World by the American Society of Civil Engineers.

The Houtribdijk is a dam in the Netherlands, built between 1963 and 1976 as part of the Zuiderzee Works, which connects the cities of Lelystad and Enkhuizen. On the west side of the dike is the Markermeer and on the east is the IJsselmeer. The 26-kilometer-long dike was intended for the Markerwaard, but the construction of this polder was abandoned in 2003 due to environmental concerns. The Houtribdijk was widened and reinforced between 2017 and 2020.

Although called a dike (withholding water from land area), the Houtribdijk is actually a dam (separating water bodies).