Cross-disciplinary working in the sciences and humanities: historical data rescue activities in Southeast Asia and beyond

Abstract

This paper argues that more work is needed to facilitate cross-disciplinary collaborations by scholars across the physical sciences and humanities to improve Data Rescue Activities (DARE). Debate over the scale and potential impact of anthropogenic global warming is one of the dominant narratives of the twenty-first century. Predicting future climates and determining how environment and society might be affected by climate change are global issues of social, economic and political importance. They require responses from different research communities and necessitate closer inter-disciplinary working relationships for an integrated approach. Improving the datasets required for long-term climate models is an important part of this process. Establishing a multi-disciplinary dialogue and approach to DARE activities is increasingly being recognised as the best way to achieve this. This paper focuses on the recovery of the long-term instrumental weather observations used for models and reconstructions of the climate over the past two-hundred years. Written from the perspective of an historian working in the field, it does not seek to explore the reconstructions themselves but the process of data gathering, advocating a closer working relationship between the arts, social sciences, and sciences to extend the geographic and temporal coverage of extant datasets. This is especially important for regions where data gaps exist currently. First, it will offer a justification for extending data recovery activities for Southeast Asia and the China Seas region. Second, it will offer a brief overview of the data recovery projects currently operating in that area and the typesof historic source material that are used. Third, it will explore the work currently being undertaken for Southeast Asia and China under the Atmospheric Circulation Reconstructions over the Earth initiative as an example of a successful cross-disciplinary program. Finally, it will argue the importance of advertising DARE activities across different fields and the benefits of a more joined-up discussion on potential data sources by exploring the use of the resource by the wider academic community.

The co-evolution of historical source materials in the geophysical, hydrological and meteorological sciences

“…Recent recognition of the value of historical source materials beyond the traditional historical field has seen a growth in data rescue, both nationally and internationally (Williamson, 2016), with an increasing appreciation of the value of historical data when looking beyond the confines of regions with good instrumental data (Macdonald et al, 2010). Historical sources are seen as a mechanism for better understanding magnitude and frequency relationships, but also community and societal responses in areas where little instrumental data exists (Nash et al, 2015; Van Bavel and Curtis, 2016).…”

The impact of weather extremes on urban resilience to hydro-climate hazards: a Singapore case study

“…From a climatological standpoint, the continued evolution of extreme-event attribution research can yield useful information when applied to urban resilience. This evolution will very likely occur in several ways: first, by the expansion of weather station records though history with paleoclimate research, and with initiatives such as data rescue (Williamson, 2016) of weather data from ship log books, farmer almanacs and government reports to produce higher-quality records of historical extreme weather events before the twentieth century. Second, robust climate modelling developed from existing research covered in Herring et al (2014Herring et al ( , 2015 can be rapidly applied to present events to detect potential climate change signals; this has already been applied for the August 2016 extreme precipitation event in the United States, which resulted in floods in Louisiana (van der Wiel et al, 2016).…”

The impact of weather extremes on urban resilience to hydro-climate hazards: a Singapore case study

“…This evolution will very likely occur in several ways: first, by the expansion of weather station records though history with paleoclimate research, and with initiatives such as data rescue (Williamson, 2016) of weather data from ship log books, farmer almanacs and government reports to produce higher-quality records of historical extreme weather events before the twentieth century. Second, robust climate modelling developed from existing research covered in Herring et al (2014Herring et al ( , 2015 can be rapidly applied to present events to detect potential climate change signals; this has already been applied for the August 2016 extreme precipitation event in the United States, which resulted in floods in Louisiana (van der Wiel et al, 2016).…”