The Katinger Watt is an area near Kating (a village in the municipality of
Tönning
Tönning ( German; Low German ''Tünn'', ''Tönn'' or ''Tönnen''; Danish: ''Tønning''; North Frisian: ''Taning'') is a town in the district of Nordfriesland in the German state of Schleswig-Holstein.
History
Tönning was destroyed in the ...
) in the south of the
Eiderstedt
Eiderstedt (, ; ; North Frisian: ''Ääderstää'') is a peninsula in the district of Nordfriesland in the German federal state of Schleswig-Holstein.
Overview
It is approximately 30 km in length and 15 km in width and has been cre ...
peninsula in the north German state of
Schleswig-Holstein
Schleswig-Holstein (; ; ; ; ; occasionally in English ''Sleswick-Holsatia'') is the Northern Germany, northernmost of the 16 states of Germany, comprising most of the historical Duchy of Holstein and the southern part of the former Duchy of S ...
which is partly maintained by the German Nature and Biodiversity Conservation Union,
NABU
Nabu (, ) is the Babylonian patron god of literacy, scribes, wisdom, and the rational arts. He is associated with the classical planet Mercury in Babylonian astronomy.
Etymology and meaning
The Akkadian means 'announcer' or 'authorised pe ...
. The Katinger Watt is part of two larger
protected area
Protected areas or conservation areas are locations which receive protection because of their recognized natural or cultural values. Protected areas are those areas in which human presence or the exploitation of natural resources (e.g. firewood ...
s, of the
Ramsar site
A Ramsar site is a wetland site designated to be of international importance under the Ramsar Convention,8 ha (O)
*** Permanent 8 ha (P)
*** Seasonal Intermittent < 8 ha(Ts)
**
SPA
A spa is a location where mineral-rich spring water (sometimes seawater) is used to give medicinal baths. Spa health treatments are known as balneotherapy. The belief in the curative powers of mineral waters and hot springs goes back to pre ...
Eider
The eiders () are large seaducks in the genus ''Somateria''. The three extant species all breed in the cooler latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere.
The down feathers of eider ducks and some other ducks and geese are used to fill pillows and qu ...
, it was drained as part of
land reclamation
Land reclamation, often known as reclamation, and also known as land fill (not to be confused with a waste landfill), is the process of creating new Terrestrial ecoregion, land from oceans, list of seas, seas, Stream bed, riverbeds or lake ...
activity and protected from
flooding
A flood is an overflow of water ( or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are of significant concern in agriculture, civi ...
by the
Eider Barrage
The Eider Barrage () is located at the mouth of the river Eider (river), Eider near Tönning on Germany's North Sea coast. Its main purpose is to protect against storm surges from the North Sea. It is Germany's largest coastal protection stru ...
. Today a third of it is farmed, the rest is a mix of woodland and bodies of water. On the far (opposite) bank of the Eider lies the nature reserve of
Dithmarscher Eiderwatt
The Dithmarscher Eiderwatt, officially the Dithmarscher Eidervorland mit Watt ("Dittmarschen Eider Foreland and Watt"), is a nature reserve in the districts of Dithmarschen and Nordfriesland in the north German state of Schleswig-Holstein. The s ...
, which was created in 1989 in order to moderate the
ecological
Ecology () is the natural science of the relationships among living organisms and their environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere levels. Ecology overlaps with the closely re ...