LEUVEN STREAM

Most brooks in the Netherlands were once used for agricultural purposes; in fact, some brooks seem to have been specifically dug for this purpose. A pattern of main brooks splitting into tributaries downstream allows for the water to be directed in all possible directions. Such a pattern is the work of humans, as brooks do not naturally split downstream in higher grounds.
Many brooks in the Netherlands are located against the slopes of cover sand ridges and seem to avoid low-lying areas. In most cases, these brooks were dug to collect mineral-rich water, which could then be drained to adjacent or further away grasslands. Besides draining excess water, it was apparently intended to retain as much good quality water as possible. Farmers dug ditches from spring area to spring area, preferably along the (meandering) edges of the cover sand ridges, to tap into as much calcium-rich water as possible for irrigation through the creation of flow meadow systems. These are water systems that enabled farmers for centuries to literally control groundwater and surface water, with the main goal of keeping pasture land frost-free through irrigation and/or naturally fertilizing with calcium-rich silt. Meandering water channels formed along and between the cover sand ridges, which we often incorrectly perceive as 'naturally meandering'.
After World War I, artificial fertilizers became affordable, which brought an end to the practice of irrigation. Water now needed to be drained off the land instead of being retained. The affordable, yet still costly, artificial fertilizers should especially not be washed away. To minimize problems caused by excess rainfall, existing brooks and water channels were 'normalized', meaning they were deepened and straightened.
It is known that in the past, irrigation took place in the region of Staverden and Leuvenum. Water was drained upstream and then led over lower-lying grasslands further down.

Biker