Still water

at Denver Sluice, Norfolk UK.  The sluice is one of many devised and constructed in the 1650s by Cornelius Vermuyden (Dutch naturally). Extra water channels, gates and pumps (wind driven at the time, engines now) enabled water to be drained away from lower areas which tended to flood to slightly higher levels to drain towards the sea or inland where the water was needed.

Land was thus reclaimed and the stable drier conditions allowed farming to develop and ports were built for exports to Europe.