The 1995 near disaster in the Dutch river delta showed the dangers of quick drainage upstream.

In winter, when the groundwater is already close to the surface, and ditches and pounds are full, significant rains lead to an almost immediate discharge to lower areas.

[3] This part of the Kleine Dommel runs from Heeze Castle in the south, to the A 67 motorway in the north.

Up to about 1900, this heath land stretched towards Nuenen in the north, and to what is now the reserve the De Groote Peel in the south.

This relatively well preserved part of the Dommel still shows a hydrological process that has mostly disappeared with the destruction of heath in the Netherlands.

The hydrological process is that precipitation sinks down on the heath, and comes to the surfaces again in the (Kleine Dommel) valley.

This explains the attempts to restore this process and the environment in this part of the Kleine Dommel valley.

About 300 m north of Strabrecht the Kleine Dommel meets a routing sluice, called verdeelwerk.

It had a deeper bed, and a much higher discharge capacity, resulting in a much slower average speed.

About 60 m north of the verdeelwerk, the small drainage canal Rieloop joins this straight section of Kleine Dommel.

[5] As a measure to prevent river flooding, the old meanders of the Kleine Dommel were restored in the early 2000s.

This was a threshold (submerged dam) in the Kleine Dommel, which directed water into the restored bed.

The threshold did not suffice for the environmental objectives set by the 2014 plan, because Meander de Rul did not flow fast enough.

It can direct all the water through Meander de Rul in Summer, while still keeping enough flow in the Kleine Dommel.

It is also able to direct enough water through the bypass in order to prevent excessive flooding, which is expected to happen in some winters.

The owners therefore got permission to change one greenhouse to 10 apartments, and opened a new business as Rulse Hoeve recreatiewoningen.

The new apartment complex was surrounded with a square dyke, part of it realized by heightening the road.

[5] Most of this stretch of the Kleine Dommel and its valley are part of the natura 2000 reserve Strabrechtse Heide & Beuven.

The 2014 plan prescribed some measures to restore this stretch of the Kleine Dommel to a state in which it would again contribute to the environmental value of the area.

The maximum height of the dyke above ground level will be 3-3.5 m. [11] Where the Kleine Dommel crosses the dike, there is an automated sluice.

When the water level of the Kleine Dommel reaches a threshold, the gates of the sluice rise automatically.

The section of the Kleine Dommel from the Eindhovensch Canal to the Watermill at Kollen is a nature reserve known as Urkhovense Zeggen.

Part of it is a type of Mesic grassland vegetation called blauwgrasland, of which only 60 hectares was left in the Netherlands in 2016.

[15] The character of the nature reserve as a wet peatlike area was in part caused by the Watermill at 't Coll, which is located close to the hamlet Eeneind.

The objective was to make it easier for some rarer fish in the Kleine Dommel to pass the mill.