Northeast Polder

(Local Name: Noordoostpolder) The Noordoostpolder is an area of 47,600 hectares/119,000 acres of fens reclaimed from the IJsselmeer between 1937 and 1942. Now a peninsula projecting into the IJsselmeer from the east, it has been since 1986 part of the new province of Flevoland. On the south the polder is separated from the neighboring Flevopolder and from the mainland by the narrow Ketelmeer; in the north it reaches up to the little town of Lemmer; and on the east it is bounded by a narrow strip of sandy heathland, up to 5m/16ft above sea level, running from north- west to southeast.

This expanse of fertile fens, lying between 4.5m/15ft and 5.7m/19ft below sea level, is drained by a complicated system of canals, sluices pumping stations. From Emmeloord, in the center of the polder, three drainage canals run north to Lemmer, southwest to the former island of Urk and south-east to Vollenhove, where the pumping stations and sluices are located.

The new land on the polder is divided into 1600 holdings ranging in size between 12 and 48 hectares (30 and 120 acres). The principal crops are sugar-beet, corn, rape, flax and pulses, with flowers, fruit and vegetables in the southeast.