Remembering and forgetting floods and droughts: lessons from the Welsh colony in Patagonia

Abstract

Sustainable flood memories – defined as those formed of folk memories of flooding, flood heritage and other local, lay knowledges – have been identified as having great potential for increasing community resilience to floods. Focusing on the social and cultural aspects of flood and drought memory, we present the findings of archival research, interviews with residents of the Welsh colony in Argentine Patagonia ( Y Wladfa in Welsh), and critical textual analysis of museum spaces. This analysis enables reconstruction of flood and drought history over the ~150 years of the colony, provides insights into the impact, emotive power and perception of floods and droughts, and highlights the ways in which lay knowledge and flood and drought memories are transmitted vertically and shared horizontally in material and immaterial ways. We argue that specific thresholds of memory exist, as related to flood/drought magnitude, duration, social impact and memorialisation, which ensure that some events are encoded, transcribed and transmitted through the collective memoria of a community, while other events may fade from memory. Ensuring long-term sustainability of the Welsh-language community, and integration of these flood/drought memories with those from other cultures and languages, will help develop community resilience to 21st century hydroclimatic changes.

A horizon scan for novel and impactful areas of physical geography research in 2023 and beyond

“…Given that physical geography provides the template upon which social and ecological systems establish and operate, we argue a case for redefining such systems as socio-geo-ecological systems, or some similar variant (e.g., Stanley et al, 2023). Recent discussions about ‘critical physical geography’ and ‘sociogeomorphology’ (e.g., Ashmore, 2015; Lave et al, 2018; Koppes and King, 2020) provide a basis for doing so, while also demonstrating greater potential for integration of physical geography knowledge derived from the western scientific tradition with knowledge derived from lay communities, including some marginalised indigenous communities; for example, inherited or personal memories of hydroclimatic extremes or landscape changes (Griffiths and Tooth, 2021; Pullanikkatil and Hughes, 2022; Wilkinson et al, 2020).…”

Integrating historical, geomorphological and sedimentological insights to reconstruct past floods: Insights from Kea Point, Mt. Cook Village, Aotearoa New Zealand

“…Although interviews with direct witnesses of events are limited to a maximum of ~80 years ago, valuable information can be gained via memories, oral traditions and folklore. Memories of flooding can be transmitted from generation to generation, provided that the floods or their impacts are of a certain magnitude (Griffiths and Tooth, 2020) and issues related to the accuracy of these memories can be overcome through integration of various types of data.…”

“…The range of potential datasets, and the types of information that they offer, will depend upon a variety of social and cultural factors, as well as physical factors, which will vary by place, country and time. For example, the availability of historical documents and artefacts will depend upon a society's norms for documenting, and archiving written work, and the transmission of this information to future generations may also depend on social and cultural factors (Griffiths and Tooth, 2020). The age, magnitude, spatial extent, geological and geomorphological context, and magnitude/frequency of subsequent flood events are some of the physical factors that may influence the success of using documentary, sedimentological, geomorphological, and dating resources.…”

Adapting Social Impact Assessment to Flood Risk Management

“…• Risk culture: the system of values, meanings and behaviours related to the representation of, knowledge of and response to flood risk of the population and institutions responsible for management. Risk culture may be determined by historical exposure to floods, past disaster experiences, or institutional promotion of risk awareness and knowledge [123,124].…”