What: Academic writing, visual archival research, literary research.

Role: Writer, researcher.

A research study on the infamous Hertogin Hedwige-Prosperpolder, a 465-hectare polder landscape which includes a border, dividing the Dutch Hertogin Hedwigepolder from the Belgium Prosperpolder. The whole area, located along the Wester Scheldt river, has been polderized since 1907 and was originally part of the larger drowned swampland of Saeftinghe. Because of the growing globalization and the parallel rise of the port of Antwerp at the end of the river, the Wester Scheldt estuary is becoming polluted and highly fatigued. As a consequence, committees and treaties have been established at the national and European level to improve the ecological health of the South-Western Delta in the past two decades.

Known for its many societal and political implications, the cross-border de-polderization project between the state powers of Belgium and the Netherlands is a perfect example of the complexity and failure in which Delta Urbanism operates in diplomatic fields today. To get an overview of this new political decision-making body and the process behind de-poldering, it is essential to outline the economic, political, territorial and social interests that prevail and dominate in these situations.  Here, one can see that politics is changing. On a national level, the hunger for popularity of the political parties for subjects such as de-polderization is irrationally great, and the short-term policies make for an unnecessarily complex, emotional and laborious process. In addition, due to globalization and the increasing geopolitical interests involved, power is shifting with international diplomacy and big money winning from other local political interests such as preserving own farmland.  

The misleading disguise of higher economic interests as ‘nature compensation’ leaves a large, concerned group behind with much confusion. What really is the ‘new nature’? A traditional polder with a farm or a custom-made nature reserve ready for contemporary human consumption, like a container full of plants. Ready to be shipped wherever the port wants.