Utrecht University Library makes 125 years of water management history digitally accessible

The Utrecht University Library, in collaboration with external partners, has digitized the Waterstaatskaart (‘Water Management Map’) and made it accessible online. The Water Management Map provides an accurate picture of the drainage of The Netherlands and is full of water management information, including polders, windmills, pumping stations, weirs, and sluices

This detailed, nationwide map series (scale 1:50,000) appeared between 1865 and 1992 in five editions and many hundreds of map sheets. Now that the national government wants to focus its spatial planning on ‘water and soil management’, the map series has become completely relevant again. Commissioned by the water control boards and the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands, Delft University of Technology has therefore developed the internet application Watertijdreis (in Dutch only). 

The Utrecht University Library has ensured the rapid scanning and publication on the internet of all sheets of the Water Management Map, which is available in its entirety within the Special Collections. The application provides access to the complex series of maps in an ingenious and intuitive way. This has made a relevant source of information available not only to water management institutions, but also to historians and others interested in the historical water management of the Netherlands. 

In the future, Watertijdreis will be expanded with even more old maps that depict Dutch water history.