A shipping canal connecting the Belgian port of Antwerp with the Rhine River traverses Zuid-Beveland.

The commercial centre of Zuid-Beveland was Goes, but Reimerswaal to the east, which later would be destroyed by floods also played an important role at this time.

[1] The island was again badly impacted forty years later in November 1570 by the All Saints' Day Flood (Allerheiligenvloed / Inondations de la Toussaint).

Between 1568 and 1648, during the course of what by its weary end had become the Eighty Years' War, the surviving lands of Zuid-Beveland were frequently in the military theatre of operations.

The construction in 1871 of the Sloedam, topped off with a roadway and a railway track, across the old Sloe Channel, connected Zuid-Beveland with Walcheren.

The North Sea flood on the night of 31 January and the morning of 1 February 1953 caused 1,836 deaths in the southwest of the Netherlands.

The landscape is dominated by dikes surrounding polders, due to recurring periods of floods and land reclamation.

Agriculture, in particular crop cultivation, livestock breeding, aquaculture and fruit orchards are the economic mainstays.

South Beveland specializes in the growing of wheat, potatoes, sugar beets, and fruits and is also known for its fisheries and oyster culture.

In spring the blooming trees and the small-scale landscape make for a popular place for outdoor activities.

More or less parallel to the motorway, a railroad connects Zuid-Beveland to Roosendaal, the Roosendaal–Vlissingen railway, with stations in (from west to east) Goes, Kapelle-Biezelinge, Kruiningen-Yerseke, Rilland-Bath and Krabbendijke.