Polder

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It has been suggested that Flood control in the Netherlands#Polders be merged into this article or section. (Discuss)

Image:Satellite image of Noordoostpolder, Netherlands (5.78E 52.71N).png

A polder is a low-lying tract of land that forms an artificial hydrological entity, enclosed by embankments known as dikes. Some need drainage by pumps to prevent the water table within it from rising too high. Some can be drained by opening sluices at low tide. The best-known examples are those polders that constitute areas of land reclaimed from a body of water, such as a lake or the sea, and are consequently below the surrounding water level.

Polders are most commonly found, though not exclusively so, in the Netherlands, the country they are frequently associated with. This also leads to the expression used to describe Dutch decision making - the Polder Model.

POLDER is also the acronym used for the name of an environmental satellite radiometer developed by the French space agency CNES.

[edit] Examples of polders in Britain

Traeth Mawr
Sunk Island (on the north shore of the Humber east of Hull)
Parts of The Fens
Parts of the coast of Essex
Some land along the River Plym in Plymouth
Some land around Meathop east of Grange-over-Sands, reclaimed as a side-effect of building a railway embankment