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The Netherlands – Vecht River

Source:  http://edepot.wur.nl/176364

Canalisation of the river Vecht went along with changes in land-use and took place during three major time-intervals: ±1895-1905, 1925-1935, and 1955-1965. The area of heather and moorland peat decreased dramatically as the agricultural, urban and other human uses increased. The percentage of forest remained the same over the whole period. In general, the morphological features of the streams in the Vecht catchment show degradation over the last one hundred years.

The total stream length was shortened by about 20% while the valley length remained about the same. Forty percent of the connected side-arms got lost and the number of oxbows increased in the thirties due to straightening of the major streams but decreased until today with about 38%. In general, most streams were meandering around 1900, in the thirties and sixties some were still slightly meandering, and currently most are straight.