Abstract
Abstract. This paper offers a conceptual approach to explore the complex dynamics of floodplains as fully coupled human-water systems. A number of hydrologists have recently investigated the impact of human activities (such as flood control measures, land-use changes, and settlement patterns) on the frequency and severity of floods. Meanwhile, social scientists have shown how interactions between society and waters in deltas and floodplain areas, including the frequency and severity of floods, have an impact on the ways in which social relations unfold (in terms of governance processes, policies, and institutions) and societies are organised (spatially, politically, and socially). However, we argue that the interactions and associated feedback mechanisms between hydrological and social processes remain largely unexplored and poorly understood. Thus, there is a need to better understand how the institutions and governance processes interact with hydrological processes in deltas and floodplains to influence the frequency and severity of floods, while (in turn) hydrological processes co-constitute the social realm and make a difference for how social relations unfold to shape governance processes and institutions. Our research goal, therefore, is not in identifying one or the other side of the cycle (hydrological or social), but in explaining the relationship between them: how, when, where, and why they interact, and to what result for both social relations and hydrological processes? We argue that long time series of hydrological and social data, along with remote sensing data, can be used to observe floodplain dynamics from unconventional approaches, and understand the complex interactions between water and human systems taking place in floodplain areas, across scales and levels of human impacts, and within different hydro-climatic conditions, socio-cultural settings, and modes of governance.
Highlights
Since the earliest recorded civilisations, such as those in Mesopotamia and Egypt that developed in the fertile riparian areas of the Tigris and Euphrates and Nile rivers, humans have settled in floodplain areas, as the ecological conditions and geographical location offered favourable conditions for cultural organisation, agricultural development, trade, and economic growth (Di Baldassarre et al, 2010)
While human settlements and subsequent methods of production and land use have changed in composition and form over time, they have undoubtedly grown in sheer size and ecological impact
Flood risk is dramatically increasing in many parts of the world because of increasing population growth in floodplains, leading to considerable changes in land use and/or the impact of climate change (Milly et al, 2002; Di Baldassarre et al, 2010)
Summary
Since the earliest recorded civilisations, such as those in Mesopotamia and Egypt that developed in the fertile riparian areas of the Tigris and Euphrates and Nile rivers, humans have settled in floodplain areas, as the ecological conditions and geographical location offered favourable conditions for cultural organisation, agricultural development, trade, and economic growth (Di Baldassarre et al, 2010). Flood risk is dramatically increasing in many parts of the world because of increasing population growth in floodplains, leading to considerable changes in land use and/or the impact of climate change (Milly et al, 2002; Di Baldassarre et al, 2010). This risk is not distributed throughout society, as some population groups have more resources than others to prevent, mitigate, or recover from flood events (Masozera et al, 2007). We set out our argument, based on the above, as to why floodplain research and flood risk science require a new transdisciplinary approach (Sect. 6), and we conclude by exploring the way forward to develop the necessary research methodologies needed to understand the combined social and natural composition of floodplains across time and space (Sect. 7)
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