Dutch Manscape Excursions

Each semester, the Faculty of Spatial Sciences of the University of Groningen, in cooperation with ESN Groningen, offers two different excursions:

The Dutch Manscape: Dutch Watermanagement at Work. This excursion explores the ways the Dutch have protected themselves from the threat of water floodings in the past, as well as the expected adjustments to future threats caused by global warming. Much of the changing strategies and required future adjustments are illustrated by the 'Zuider Zee' project, the impressive multi-sided project that transformed the former Zuyder Sea into a fresh water lake (IJsselmeer), thereby reducing the coastline and creating large tracts of new land ('polders') where nowadays people and businesses live and operate 3 to 5 metres below sea level. The 550 kilometre (350 mile) long excursion includes many stops, for example at 1,000 year old man-made elevations in the landscape ('terps'), old and new 'dikes', land reclamations and former as well as resurfaced islands. Click here for more information.

The Dutch Manscape: Randstad Holland and the Green Heart. The two internationally well-known concepts of 'Randstad Holland' (the major cities of Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague and Utrecht, as well as numerous smaller cities and towns) and the 'Green Heart' (the open area in between these large cities, labelled by some as the 'strongest and oldest planning metaphor' of the Netherlands) are explored by means of stops and on-site explanations of urban expansions into the Green Heart (e.g., Amsterdam Bijlmermeer, where the ideas of Le Corbusier only lived a short life), separation of functions between the largest Randstad cities (e.g., The Hague - centre of government) and Europe's largest port (Rotterdam). The excursion includes a search into the precise nature and character of the Green Heart.

These excursions are offered to visiting international students, researchers and faculty members of the University of Groningen. The excursion dates are:

1. Saturday, October 1, 2022, 8:15 to 19:30: Dutch Water Management at Work
2. Saturday, November 19, 2022, 8:15 to 23:00: Randstad Holland and the Green Heart

Tickets are available at ESN Groningen (Pelsterstraat 23). More information: exchange.fss@rug.nl. 

The ticket price in 2022/2023 has been set at 20 Euro for the 'Dutch Water Management at Work' excursion, and 25 Euro for the 'Randstad Holland and the Green Heart' excursion.