De stormvloed van 1 februari 1953 in het Land van Waas: de Melselepolder, vóór en na de overstroming
Snacken, F. (1955). De stormvloed van 1 februari 1953 in het Land van Waas: de Melselepolder, vóór en na de overstroming. Natuurwet. Tijdschr. 37(7-8): 189-201, 3 plates
The diked land of Melsele (Melselepolder) belongs to the most intensely destroyed areas along the Scheldt river, after the disastrous inundations of February 1st, 1953. On the basis of a soil map, made in 1948, the alluvial deposits are studied and an attempt is made to correlate them with historically known inundations. Out of the distribution of the sediments, an explanation is given to characteristics of micro-topography and drainage-pattern, even of land-use. After the final reclamation of the inundated polder of Melsele in 1953, a map of the freshly deposited sediments was made. On the basis of this map and of features observed in the field, the general mechanism of the inundation is sketched. The nature and distribution of the new sediments is compared with the same characteristics of the older sediments and out of their similarities and contrasts several conclusions are drawn. Among them the most significative are : -The mechanism of sedimentation and of erosional processes has not been modified since the XIVth century, but the rate of these processes seems to have increased with time. Accumulation is the dominant characteristic, but erosional effect increases with increasing duration of the inundation. -A typical drainage-pattern is formed, diverging from the breach out, and characterized further inland by a subsequent orientation of the main flood-channel along the limit between the higher located sandy and the lower clayey sediments. -The recent deposits extend farther inland than any older alluvial deposit, showing, at least locally, a transgressive movement of the water level in the lower Scheldt-basin.
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