RECONSTRUCTION OF THE HOLOCENE EVOLUTION OF THE DUTCH COAST

Abstract

In 1986 the TOW Coastal Engineering Research Programme was merged with the Coastal Genesis Research Programme. Rijkswaterstaat, the financer and initiator of these programmes, concluded that the growing interest in the longer term development of the coast in relation to sea-level rise and other climatic changes made it necessary to approach the research questions from a wider perspective than just the coastal engineering discipline. Geology, historical geography and physical geography were included as disciplines, and a multidisciplinary approach to a holistic understanding of the Dutch coast was undertaken. The results of the first phase of the Coastal Genesis Programme became available in 1987, comprising a reconstruction of the Holocene evolution of the Dutch coast, and a view on the available knowledge regarding the physical processes responsible for this evolution. A summary of the reported conclusions is given here.