(marshland)

Sumer. wr. aya₄"marshland" Akk. išiktu

marsh (постоянное, проточное), fen (затапливаемые берега рек и озер), bog (постоянное, слабопроточное, чаще верховое), mire, marshland, swampmoor, swampland, waterlogged area

Where the ground is moist extensive bogs exist .

Bog (mire) is permanently waterlogged habitats, often anaerobic and acid, with little flow of water; typically blanket bog is in uplands, but raised bog generally in lowlands; both produce peat, and require high rainfall. Bogs in areas of high water table include valley bog (through-drainage) or basin bogs (largely stagnant) .

Fen (mire) is regarded as sub-category of marsh. It is waterlogged habitat found on shallow margins of lakes and slow rivers, and on alluvial flood plains with impeded drainage. Rich fen is base- and species-rich. Seasonal fen displays wide cyclical variation in the extent of waterlogging .

Freshwater marsh is permanently waterlogged habitats, usually well-oxygenated and with steady through-flow of water. Tends towards reedbed, reed-swamp .

Saltmarsh is tidally inundated and cleansed with brackish water .

wr. aya₄ "marshland" Akk.  išiktu

wr. aya₄ "to surround?"

marshland (болотистая местность)

fenland (болотистая местность)

-ους τό N 3 4-0-6-0-2=12 Ex 2,3.5; 7,19; 8,1; Is 19,6

1 [met betrekking tot de oppervlakte] (low) fen ⇒ marsh

2 [met betrekking tot de opbouw] peat bog

3 [gebied] fen(s) ⇒ marshland

1 marshland, swampland

SUBJECT AREA: Ports and shipping

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Peter the Great was a man with a single-minded approach to problems and with passionate and lifelong interests in matters scientific, military and above all maritime. The unusual and dominating rule of his vast lands brought about the age of Russian enlightenment, and ensured that his country became one of the most powerful states in Europe.

Peter's interest in ships and shipbuilding started in his childhood; c. 1687 he had an old English-built day sailing boat repaired and launched, and on it he learned the rudiments of sailing and navigation. This craft (still preserved in St Petersburg) became known as the "Grandfather of the Russian Navy". In the years 1688 to 1693 he established a shipyard on Lake Plestsheev and then began his lifelong study of shipbuilding by visiting and giving encouragement to the industry at Archangelsk on the White Sea and Voronezh in the Sea of Azov. In October 1696, Peter took Azov from the Turks, and the Russian Fleet ever since has regarded that date as their birthday. Setting an example to the young aristocracy, Peter travelled to Western Europe to widen his experience and contacts and also to learn the trade of shipbuilding. He worked in the shipyards of Amsterdam and then at the Naval Base of Deptford on the Thames.

The war with Sweden concentrated his attention on the Baltic and, to establish a base for trading and for the Navy, the City of St Petersburg was constructed on marshland. The Admiralty was built in the city and many new shipyards in the surrounding countryside, one being the Olonez yard which in 1703 built the frigate Standart, the first for the Baltic Fleet, which Peter himself commanded on its first voyage. The military defence of St Petersburg was effected by the construction of Kronstadt, seawards of the city.

Throughout his life Peter was involved in ship design and it is estimated that one thousand ships were built during his reign. He introduced the building of standard ship types and also, centuries ahead of its time, the concept of prefabrication, unit assembly and the building of part hulls in different places. Officially he was the designer of the ninety-gun ship Lesnoe of 1718, and this may have influenced him in instituting Rules for Shipbuilders and for Seamen. In 1716 he commanded the joint fleets of the four naval powers: Denmark, Britain, Holland and Russia.

He established the Marine Academy, organized and encouraged exploration and scientific research, and on his edict the St Petersburg Academy of Science was opened. He was not averse to the recruitment of foreigners to key posts in the nation's service. Peter the Great was a remarkable man, with the unusual quality of being a theorist and an innovator, in addition to the endowments of practicality and common sense.

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AK / FMW

SUBJECT AREA: Civil engineering

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At the beginning of the seventeenth century, several wealthy men in England joined forces as "adventurers" to put their money into land ventures. One such group was responsible for the draining of the Fens. The first need was to find engineers who were versed in the processes of land drainage, particularly when that land was at, or below, sea level. It was natural, therefore, to turn to the Netherlands to find these skilled men. Joachim Liens was one of the first of the Dutch engineers to go to England, and he started work on the Great Level; however, no real progress was made until 1621, when Cornelius Vermuyden was brought to England to assist in the work.

Vermuyden had grown up in a district where he could see for himself the techniques of embanking and reclaiming land from the sea. He acquired a reputation of expertise in this field, and by 1621 his fame had spread to England. In that year the Thames had flooded and breached its banks near Havering and Dagenham in Essex. Vermuyden was commissioned to repair the breach and drain neighbouring marshland, with what he claimed as complete success. The Commissioners of Sewers for Essex disputed this claim and whthheld his fee, but King Charles I granted him a portion of the reclaimed land as compensation.

In 1626 Vermuyden carried out his first scheme for drainage works as a consultant. This was the drainage of Hatfield Chase in South Yorkshire. Charles I was, in fact, Vermuyden's employer in the drainage of the Chase, and the work was undertaken as a means of raising additional rents for the Royal Exchequer. Vermuyden was himself an "adventurer" in the undertaking, putting capital into the venture and receiving the title to a considerable proportion of the drained lands. One of the important elements of his drainage designs was the principal of "washes", which were flat areas between the protective dykes and the rivers to carry flood waters, to prevent them spreading on to nearby land. Vermuyden faced bitter opposition from those whose livelihoods depended on the marshlands and who resorted to sabotage of the embankments and violence against his imported Dutch workmen to defend their rights. The work could not be completed until arbiters had ruled out on the respective rights of the parties involved. Disagreements and criticism of his engineering practices continued and he gave up his interest in Hatfield Chase. The Hatfield Chase undertaking was not a great success, although the land is now rich farmland around the river Don in Doncaster. However, the involved financial and land-ownership arrangements were the key to the granting of a knighthood to Cornelius Vermuyden in January 1628, and in 1630 he purchased 4,000 acres of low-lying land on Sedgemoor in Somerset.

In 1629 Vermuyden embarked on his most important work, that of draining the Great Level in the fenlands of East Anglia. Francis Russell, 4th Earl of Bedford, was given charge of the work, with Vermuyden as Engineer; in this venture they were speculators and partners and were recompensed by a grant of land. The area which contains the Cambridgeshire tributaries of the Great Ouse were subject to severe and usually annual flooding. The works to contain the rivers in their flood period were important. Whilst the rivers were contained with the enclosed flood plain, the land beyond became highly sought-after because of the quality of the soil. The fourteen "adventurers" who eventually came into partnership with the Earl of Bedford and Vermuyden were the financiers of the scheme and also received land in accordance with their input into the scheme. In 1637 the work was claimed to be complete, but this was disputed, with Vermuyden defending himself against criticism in a pamphlet entitled Discourse Touching the Great Fennes (1638; 1642, London). In fact, much remained to be done, and after an interruption due to the Civil War the scheme was finished in 1652. Whilst the process of the Great Level works had closely involved the King, Oliver Cromwell was equally concerned over the success of the scheme. By 1655 Cornelius Vermuyden had ceased to have anything to do with the Great Level. At that stage he was asked to account for large sums granted to him to expedite the work but was unable to do so; most of his assets were seized to cover the deficiency, and from then on he subsided into obscurity and poverty.

While Cornelius Vermuyden, as a Dutchman, was well versed in the drainage needs of his own country, he developed his skills as a hydraulic engineer in England and drained acres of derelict flooded land.

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KM / LRD

Infrastruktur & Entwurf marshland

Infrastruktur & Entwurf marshland, moor

Infrastruktur & Entwurf marshland, swampy soil

1. marshland

2. wetland

n, m

undyked / undiked marshland

1. marsh

2. marshland

1. march

2. walk