Between Adaptation and Mitigation: The Nineteenth-century North Sea Storm Surges and the Entangled Socio-Natural Transformation of the Limfjord Region, Denmark

Abstract

This article presents an assessment of nineteenth century socio-natural transformations in the Limfjord region of northwest Denmark in light of the dramatic impact of several storm surges. The 1825 storm surge breached the narrow isthmus previously separating the North Sea from the brackish Limfjord, while later storm surges affected both the shore and the fjord. The consequences of particular historical events highlight the value of combining the impact of natural hazards at the North Sea shoreline, with socioeconomic developments in the hinterland as well as what unfolded beneath the surface. Inspired by contemporary disaster history the first section discusses the immediate and intermediate flood responses. The second section focuses on the development of infrastructure, trade and commerce in the face of a changing natural environment. Enthused by marine environmental history, the third section revolves around the changing connectivity between humans and life in the sea providing an assessment of local fisheries and the changing marine ecosystem in the Limfjord. The multitude of socionatural transformation processes shows how sudden events such as storm surges can reverberate for several decades in constant interaction with underlying structural socio-natural developments, moving at a pace unrecognized in their own era.