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 (german: Eiderstedt, ; da, Ejdersted; 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& ...

peninsula in the north German state of

Schleswig-Holstein Schleswig-Holstein (; da, Slesvig-Holsten; nds, Sleswig-Holsteen; frr, Slaswik-Holstiinj) is the northernmost of the 16 states of Germany, comprising most of the historical duchy of Holstein and the southern part of the former Duchy of Sc ...

which is partly maintained by the German Nature and Biodiversity Conservation Union,

NABU Nabu ( akk, cuneiform: 𒀭𒀝 Nabû syr, ܢܵܒܼܘܼ\ܢܒܼܘܿ\ܢܵܒܼܘܿ Nāvū or Nvō or Nāvō) is the ancient Mesopotamian patron god of literacy, the rational arts, scribes, and wisdom. Etymology and meaning The Akkadian "nab ...

. The Katinger Watt is part of two larger protected areas, of the Ramsar site ''Schleswig-Holstein Wadden Sea and adjacent areas'' and of a similarly named SPA. Once a region of mudflats in the estuary of the river

Eider 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 quil ...

, it was drained as part of land reclamation 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 an area of study of the discipline hydrolog ...

by the

Eider Barrage The Eider Barrage (german: Eidersperrwerk) is located at the mouth of the 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 pr ...

. 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, which was created in 1989 in order to moderate the

ecological Ecology () is the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere level. Ecology overlaps wi ...

consequences of the Eider Barrage.

External links

NABU's Katinger Watt Nature CentreKatinger Watt
Nordfriesland Eider (river) {{SchleswigHolstein-geo-stub