3.5 Cross section Friesland-Budjadingen

1.  Map of the cross- section (will be substituted soon)

2. Characterization

The cross-section is slightly north-south oriented. Starting in the south within the county Wesermarsch, the cross-section area covers parts of the municipality of Wilhelmshaven and of the county of Friesland. Historically spoken, it contains parts of the cultural entities starting in the south with Stadland and Butjadingen, further in the North with Wangerland and finally with the Frisian islands of Mellum and Wangerooge.

3. Perception of the landscape

The area is characterized throughout by a close interrelationship of settlement history based on pasture or the economic orientation on seafaring, fishing etc. and environmental change. The perception of the landscape of the research area is characterized by its openness. Changes to this environment like large scale stables, highways build on dykes, photovoltaic plants or wind power plants are acting like a foreign body. Another example are power stations such as the nuclear power station of ESENSHAMM which lead to an increasing number of high-tension lines, which do not fit into the natural landscape. Similar to the large-scale stables, they block the view and lead to a new perception of the landscape. In contrast to this development, regions such as WANGERLAND have been able to preserve their traditional shape. This effort is well demonstrated by WANGERLANDS’ participation in a model project for spacial planing aiming at sustainable development of settlement areas, called MORO (2002-2006).
A further problem is the destruction of historic dykes which is not completely documented.

4. Off-shore power plants

A new aspect about off-shore power plants is that it may affect the perception of the landscape. The construction of such a power facility requires the installation of new cable trays which could destroy archaeological sites. Possible options to avoid the destruction of the same could be the bundling of cable lines and/or the use of existing fairways. On the other hand, this new technology is environment friendly and subsidised in terms of sustainable energy development. This technology could gain importance as the use of nuclear energy is planned to be phased out in the next years. Besides, it could be a valuable generator for job creation.

5. Changes in farming and farm modernization

The landscape of STADLAND, BUTJADINGEN and WANGERLAND is characterized by historically grown agriculture. Mayor changes within the field of agricultural productivity are leading to a break with this tradition. Small and medium-scale farming comes to an end, while large-scale farming shifts to industrialized farming methods, with an extensive use of the environment. This process of extensive modernization is regulated by privileged construction projects (e.g. biogas systems) which are effecting the landscape perception by their tall constructions. Further, the modernization process can lead to the destruction of dwelling mounds, because the construction of the cellars containing the liquid manure is often accompanied by the destruction of the historic structures. Therewith amounts of undocumented archaeological archives are vanishing undocumented.

Another alternative to the process of industrialization of the agricultural sector would be a differentiated type of agriculture, one of the main tasks of which would be the landscape conservation. This could possibly be achieved in combination with sustainable regional tourism and could partly be financed by tax incentives.

6. Road Constructions

The construction of new roads, especially of new highways proves to be a substantial problem because it leads to the destruction of the traditional landscape, as well as the destruction of archaeological sites or the vanishing of the ability to experience the traditional landscape. The new highways are often built on dams. These heightened constructions are dissecting the traditional open landscape. 
An example is the area north of RODENKIRCHEN. In connection with earthwork, two dwelling mounds were removed. Thus the open landscape is dissected by the development of new infrastructure such as highways, built on dykes, or tunnels built for the transit traffic, so that the traditional landscape is no longer recognizable.

7. Ports

The construction of the Jade Weser Port in WIHELMSHAVEN has a strong impact on the development of the hinterland. New industries and companies will be established in the neighbouring areas. In this project, the concerned historical structures are not taken into consideration but are rather strongly influenced by the new infrastructure projects. On the other hand, old harbouring sites like BRAKE are stimulated to evolve once again into productive areas.

8. Building areas

The increasing abandonment of traditional settlement sites and at the same time the development of new building areas, as well as the surrounding of old dwelling mounds are scattered by new building activities (e.g. SILLENS). This can bee seen as the most intriguing challenge. An important aspect in this concern refers to Gulf-houses and the fact that their maintenance is hard to attain or that the conditions to re-use them are presumed to be too hard to deal with. That is why people abandon the old buildings too hastily and look for new real estate. A good example proving the opposite is the use of traditional estates in Loquard as a primary school.

A way to deal with this development might be the reduction of licensing new plots of land for building. But while the construction of new real estate is financially supported, the redevelopment of traditional housing is not sustained. All in all, the maintenance of traditional estates seems to work better in East Frisia than within the area of the WESERMARSCH.

Looking at the new type of houses, an increasing individualisation can be noticed, while traditional regional housing types are abandoned. One of the reasons might be the fact that regional administrative and social control authorities actually do not work effectively enough, meaning if a building application is not accepted one may move to the next municipality where the request will be met.

Further, a massive change in the type or style of building structure used can be recognized. On the dwelling mounds in the LANCEWADPLAN area, houses in a Mediterranean or a Chalet style can be found next to standardized prefabricated homes. This increasing uniformity leads to an increasing loss of identity with its worst examples in Elsfleth or MOORRIEM. In ELSFLETH, a building contractor erected randomly single-family homes in between traditional houses. The same was done on WANGEROOGE. The centre of this Frisian island was destroyed in World War II. Nowadays, its appearance is determined by mass tourism and stands in opposition to the most idyllic island of SPIEKEROOG that has been able to keep up its traditional appearance.

Strength:	Traditional buildings can be reused and can be made to fit into modern living (example: gulf houses of LOQUARD and the island of SPIEKEROOG). Efforts to achieve sustainable settlement areas are supported by the German government (MORO 2002-2006).
Weakness:	The maintenance of traditional buildings is too costly and conditions to reuse are not favourable. Thus traditional settlement and housing types are being abandoned. Often the existing infrastructure within traditional settlement sites is destroyed while new infrastructure and new housing estates are under construction.
Opportunities:	Sustainable tourism and the local identity can benefit from the reuse of historic structures in building areas.
Threats:	Traditional settlements structures are decaying and could be lost for good. (With new uniform real estate buildings invading the settlements, a complete loss of the local identity could be experienced.)

9. Tourism

One of the most important economic factors of the Wadden Sea area is the tourism sector. A well known example, also through TV beer commercials, is JEVER with its castle. Traditional holiday locations, such as the very beautiful dwelling mound ZIALLERNS which has kept its historic structure over time, are faced with modern mass tourism that leads, together with the growing randomness in single-family homes, to a certain regional arbitrariness and in the end to a growing loss of regional identity. Products of this mass tourism are planned independently and ignore local constrains. An example is the TROPENPARK near TOSSENS with its exotic plants and its holiday houses. Another example is the sea park resort of BURHAVE, where the operator copies traditional seaside resorts of the Baltic Sea.

10. Chain retailers

A further aspect is the competition of the chains of retail outlets that contribute to a scattered landscape. Chains of retail outlets do not take grown historical structures into consideration when looking for new property but base their choice on evaluated economic potential. That is why chain retailers are located next to tourism centres or ferries, in order to attract their portion of customers. Their marketing strategy is the total conformity in their appearance in the sense of a corporate identity further leading to massif homogenization on a supra-regional scale. Usable historic structures are rejected for the benefit of uniformed functional buildings.