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Project properties |
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| Title | Hostile ground or valuable land? Bog ownership and value according to the 1830 cadastral mapping |
| Group | Cultural Geography Group |
| Project type | thesis |
| Credits | 36 (MSc) |
| Supervisor(s) | Maurice Paulissen (GEO) and Roy van Beek (GEO/SGL), possibly Ron van Lammeren (GRS) |
| Examiner(s) | Dr Roy van Beek (GEO/SGL) |
| Contact info | Maurice Paulissen, maurice.paulissen@wur.nl, T 0317 481801 |
| Begin date | 2018/09/01 |
| End date | 2022/03/15 |
| Description | Raised bogs (hoogvenen) are peat moss-dominated wetlands consisting of organic soils, and once covered large parts of Northwest Europe and the Low Countries in particular. Most bogs have disappeared since the Middle Ages, leaving numerous cultural remains in the landscape such as specific place-names and parcellation types.
Persistent clichés describe bogs as remote, hostile, dangerous and poorly accessible places. However, historical and archaeological evidence demonstrates that bogs were integral parts of human settlement territories and were used in various ways. Well before large-scale peat exploitation and reclamation took place many bogs were already contested lands, suggesting substantial utility value. In this project, you will use the first Dutch nation-wide cadastral mapping (1830) to gain better understanding of the real value of bogs to humans and of the factors determining the survival or disappearance of bogs. You will have access to the complete 1830 cadastral mapping of the formerly bog-rich Northern and Eastern Netherlands (data from HISGIS, https://hisgis.nl/). Data include detailed land parcellation maps and information about land owners, land use types, estimated value of the land, and local field-names. In a comparative approach using ArcGIS, these data will be analysed to better understand why some bogs have completely disappeared through human action since 1830 while others have persisted until present. Literature and/or archival sources will be used to substantiate and explain the findings. You will be part of the Home Turf project team (http://www.boglandscapes.eu/), and your project results will likely be used by ongoing and future studies on past and present human use and perceptions of bog landscapes. |
| Used skills | |
| Requirements | • At least basic GIS skills.
• Enthusiasm for the subject. Also possible as minor Master thesis. |