Landscape changes and human–landscape interaction during the first millennium AD in the Netherlands

Pierik, H.J.

doi:10.1017/njg.2021.8

Cited by 10 publications

(17 citation statements)

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“…“Equilibrium” and “steady state” are contested concepts in geology (Pierik, 2021 ; Thorn & Welford, 1994 ; Zhou et al., 2017 ), but are useful in the context of experiments and models with controlled boundary conditions. On the geological timescale of sea‐level fluctuations, estuaries are considered ephemeral systems (Dalrymple & Choi, 2007 ; De Haas et al., 2018 ; Lanzoni & Seminara, 2002 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In case the trigger is large enough, the resultant change in accommodation space can perhaps cause a shift toward another steady state. For example, this happened with the catastrophic formation of the Dollard tidal embayment in the Ems Estuary, the Netherlands (De Haas et al., 2018 ; Pierik, 2021 ; Van Maren et al., 2016 ). A persistent change in boundary conditions could also force the system to another steady state (e.g., Pierik, 2021 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, this happened with the catastrophic formation of the Dollard tidal embayment in the Ems Estuary, the Netherlands (De Haas et al., 2018 ; Pierik, 2021 ; Van Maren et al., 2016 ). A persistent change in boundary conditions could also force the system to another steady state (e.g., Pierik, 2021 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Building and Raising Land: Mud and Vegetation Effects in Infilling Estuaries

et al. 2022

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Many Holocene estuaries were infilled to form convergent, single‐channel systems, while others remained partially or wholly unfilled. This difference in the degree of infilling depends partly on the balance between fluvial and coastal sediment input and the hydrodynamics that can export sediment. However, it remains unclear to what degree this balance is tipped by mud supply and eco‐engineering vegetation, and by what planform patterns the infilling proceeds. This study aims to explore experimentally how mud and vegetation change the degree and process of infilling, elevate and merge bars above intertidal levels and affect the planform of estuaries. To this end, three experiments were conducted in the Metronome, a flume that tilts periodically to create tidal currents, wherein forced tidal asymmetry resulted in net importing estuaries. In the second and third experiments, mud was supplied and in the third experiment seedlings were released of three vegetation species with eco‐engineering traits at a laboratory scale. With only sand, the estuary fills sufficiently to form a multi‐channel pattern with intertidal bars. Both mud and vegetation settle on intertidal bars and on the fluvial bay‐head delta, thereby contributing to bar stabilization and further estuary infilling, pointing at effective strategies to keep up with future sea‐level rise. This reduces channel mobility and effectively narrows the summed subtidal channel width toward an ideally converging funnel shape. This seems especially effective where vegetation stabilizes the mud. The experiments suggest that a range of steady states exists between the end‐members of an unfilled and a completely infilled, ideal estuary.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Building and Raising Land: Mud and Vegetation Effects in Infilling Estuaries

et al. 2022

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“…For the Rhine Delta, Marieke van Dinter (2017 and van Dinter et al, 2017) and Harm Jan Pierik (2017 and Pierik & van Lanen, 2019) were able to show that typical river challenges, such as floods, bank demolitions, or shifting streams, were hazards accepted by the Roman army in trade for direct access to mooring facilities and the waterway. Considering that the troops were primarily supplied by ship, this shows how essential a direct location on the river was for the military.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Lower Rhine (Germany) in Late Antiquity: a time of dissolving structures

Gerlach

Meurers-Balke

Kalis

2022

Netherlands Journal of Geosciences

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From the middle of the 1st century AD, the Lower Rhine was part of the frontier of the Roman Empire (Limes). However, this Limes was not an impermeable line, but rather an open corridor that served as march area and as a trade and supply route for the adjacent military and civilian settlements as well as the hinterland. This required access to the river and permanent harbours. When planning military camps and towns along the Rhine, the existing topography and the challenge of a dynamic riverine landscape had to be taken into account. The prefered location for forts and towns were the raised edges of the Lower Terraces close to the undercut bank of a meander. For many years, research assumed that the river bend adjacent to a Roman site had to be an oxbow lake. The main argument being that only an oxbow situation would have protected the Roman sites against strong currents and the risk of demolition of land and settlements by the main stream (abandoned channel hypothesis). A re-evaluation of the extensive archaeological, sedimentological and palynological archive and published data from the Rhine plain, as well as of supplementary data from new boreholes, lead to a considerable increase in the previously incomplete knowledge of the fluvial history, especially regarding the timing of palaeomeander infilling. It showed that most of the meanders and river bends of the Rhine with Roman settlements on their banks not silted up before Late Antiquity (from the end of the 3rd century AD on). Before that those meanders were part of the main stream. The advantage of steep undercut banks was that a quay could be built on a location that ensured mooring all year round, even at low water level. However, it was necessary that stabilising bank protections were present in order to avoid shifting the course of the river with subsequent destruction of the infrastructure. Such an antique bank protection construction (a so called “Packwerk”) could be recognised in front of the Colonia Ulpia Traiana (CUT, Xanten). With this knowledge in mind, other excavated structures on the banks of palaeomeanders, previously mostly interpreted as Roman harbour remains, could be interpreted as bank protections. At Wesel near the strategically important mouth of the Lippe, the archaeological, sedimentological and palynological data showed that a meander that had silted up in Prehistoric times (Bronze Age) had been reactivated in Roman times and silted up again in Late Antiquity. A man-made diversion (perhaps by building a groyne) of the main stream could have been responsible for this. With the beginning of the Late Antiquity crisis of the Roman Empire at the end of the 3rd century, it presumably became increasingly difficult to maintain these water works. This enabled the river to regain its morphodynamics, by cutting of the meanders that were active during Roman times. We hypothesise that this increase in fluvial activities of the Lower Rhine from the end of the 3rd century onwards is due to an anthropogenic trigger: the collapse of the Roman Empire.

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“…Vos, 2015;De Haas et al, 2018;. From an initially drowned backbarrier basin, it is hypothesised that rapidly expanding salt marshes and peatlands started to confine the estuary in a positive feedback loop (Beets and Van der Spek, 2000;De Haas et al, 2018;Pierik, 2021). The expanding patches of vegetation would dampen the tide and promote the deposition of fines, which decreased the tidal prism and favoured further vegetation expansion.…”

Section: Coastal Palaeo-landscape Reconstructionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Building and raising land: meandering rivers and filling estuaries

Weisscher¹

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Tidal floodplain formation fastened land-level rise in experiments and was tested further in a numerical model of the Western Scheldt Estuary (Chapter 6), where transitional polders (in Dutch: wisselpolders) are being considered to raise low-lying land. Four polders were added to the Western Scheldt and tested for different opening sequences and inlet widths. Findings showed land-level rise in all configurations. Transitional polders opened in an upstream-to-downstream sequence resulted in stronger shallowing of the estuary and hence in smaller tidal ranges than a downstream-to-upstream sequence, suggesting the opening sequence can play a part in managing flood risk. Polders opened later in a sequence temporarily experienced a lag in mud deposition, and net sand import was smaller for polders with a wide foreshore due to deeper inlet erosion.This thesis proposes that tidal floodplains (i.e. mudflats and salt marshes) promote the filling of estuaries, where the balance between floodplain formation and destruction determines the steady state of an estuary. A stronger tendency to form floodplains results in a narrower estuary, similarly to how more extensive floodplains transform rivers from braided to meandering. Fast sea-level rise will probably enhance floodplain destruction in estuaries, which asks for effective strategies such as transitional polders to retain sediments, raise land and maintain ecologically valuable intertidal areas.

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Landscape changes and human–landscape interaction during the first millennium AD in the Netherlands

Cited by 10 publications

References 50 publications

Building and Raising Land: Mud and Vegetation Effects in Infilling Estuaries

Building and Raising Land: Mud and Vegetation Effects in Infilling Estuaries

The Lower Rhine (Germany) in Late Antiquity: a time of dissolving structures

Building and raising land: meandering rivers and filling estuaries

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