Drought shows the old landscape

Farmer Twan van der Heijden made a revealing picture of his cornfields with a drone. On what you see that his land is withered, because of the drought, but that along some lines in the landscape the corn is green. On these lines, there were locks up to over forty years ago.

"You can see the situation before the consolidation of the land," says Van der Heijden (35), who is a farmer and holds nine hundred pigs to feed the maize. "At the location of the old ditches, the corn is higher, beautiful in green."

The interest in the photo is great. Journalists call it boring and on social networks it's raining reactions, with references to England, where aerial photographs clearly show how drought has betrayed the contours of missing sheds, settlements and gardens complete ornament of the nineteenth century. According to Van der Heijden, the motifs in the landscape of Soerendonk in East Brabant correspond to an old map of the region and the oral tradition. "My grandmother still knew the small parcels."

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The question arises as to why wet ditches seem to contain more water than their environment. "The old ditches are likely filled with materials that retain moisture better than the surrounding sand area," reports Perry of Louw, groundwater specialist at the Deltares Water Institute. "Think of a soil with a high organic matter content or a slightly sulphidic or loamy soil.In addition to good moisture retention properties, they also have very good capillary properties.This means that it is a lot easier to take off from a greater depth of groundwater and reach the root zone. "

For archaeologists, drought is an outdoor opportunity. Heleen van Londen, Lecturer in Landscape Archeology at the University of Amsterdam: "You can get the topography of an area without having to put a shovel in the ground, and if you want to put a shovel in the ground, you can do it. "She speaks of what is called the marks of culture as can be seen with aerial photographs, and which get a greater contrast because of the drought." She says that not only are Locks can make the old structures of the landscape suddenly visible.This can also occur when the peaty soil oxidizes or the clay resonates. "Such patterns can be of great importance to the body. 39; study and protection of old landscapes so-called buried – especially if there are little or no old maps of the region. "

The farmer Van der Heijden hopes meanwhile." In two weeks. It is now the ear of corn. It must be put in place. "

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