Arcadia, 2012, no. 9

Atlantropa – Endless Energy from the Mediterranean Sea

by
Felix Mauch

The construction of a giant dam across the Strait of Gibraltar, proposed by the Munich architect Hermann Sörgel (1885–1952), would have created the largest hydroelectric facility in the world.
Arcadia, 2012, no. 7

Disaster Ahead: How Danube Floods Created Telegraph Networks

by
Michael Neundlinger

During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, massive floods regularly threatened cities and settlements along the Danube River. The introduction of wide-reaching telegraph networks enabled Habsburg authorities in Vienna to protect the most important city of the empire.
Arcadia, 2012, no. 6

The Great Flood of 1962 in Hamburg

by
Felix Mauch

The Great Flood of 1962 was the most devastating natural disaster to strike Germany in the twentieth century. In Hamburg, over one hundred thousand people were trapped by the water, and 315 people died, despite massive rescue operations.
Arcadia, 2012, no. 5

Rioting Townsmen Destroy Abbey’s Salmon Weir in Medieval Scotland

by
Richard Hoffmann

A well-recorded instance of medieval conflict over aquatic resources, in this case the rich salmon fisheries of medieval Scotland, highlights the historic importance of this resource and incidentally documents technical and social elements of its exploitation.
Arcadia, 2012, no. 3

London’s New River

by
Carry van Lieshout

The New River was a canal opened in 1613 to supply London’s growing population with fresh water, which was commercially sold by the New River Company. Its construction and use played an instrumental part in the shift from freely available water that had to be fetched to a commercial service that was laid into people’s homes.
Arcadia, 2012, no. 1

Seeking Environmental Knowledge from an Inuit Shaman

by
Shane McCorristine

British Arctic explorers lacked local knowledge of the environments through which they passed and sometimes consulted Inuit shamans, whose geographical knowledge was known to be extensive. One expedition to seek the Northwest Passage exemplifies how they supplemented their deficit with indigenous environmental knowledge.
Arcadia, 2011, no. 8

Expecting Disaster: The 1963 Landslide of the Vajont Dam

by
Wilko Graf von Hardenberg

On October 9, 1963, a landslide above the Vajont Dam created a wave that destroyed several villages in the valley, killing about 2,000 people. Opinion as to whether to interpret the disaster as natural or one caused by human error remains divided.