Fresh Kills Landfill in Staten Island, New York, was the subject of a struggle over where to dispose of the waste of a city strapped for space. While the landfill was closed in 2001, the events of 9/11 and the need to clear the large amounts of rubble and human remains from the site of the Twin Towers attack turned Fresh Kills into hallowed ground, which posed new questions about the future of the site.
The Sardar Sarovar Dam is constructed in India to aid in the country’s industrialization, providing irrigation, electricity, and economic stimulus. After heavy controversy and international pressures to examine the costs of the project, the World Bank cuts financial assistance, exposing the social costs surrounding modernization and wide scale infrastructure projects.
Following catastrophic flooding of the Red River in 1950 in Winnipeg, citizens demanded a more permanent solution to flooding control in the city. The result was the Red River Floodway, a feat of engineering affectionately referred to as “Duff’s Ditch”.
The Sundarbans, one of the largest remaining areas of mangroves in the world with an exceptional level of biodiversity, is inscripted as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Yindabad deals with the flipside of Indian economic development, and how the enormous Narmada Valley Development Project impacts an indigenous population.
A cultural and historical analysis of the recent past of the Nile Valley shows how interpretations and perceptions of territory, space, and nature are not necessarily indisputably “true” and definitive principles. On the contrary, they are constructed and, therefore, changeable.
This book presents one of the first comparative histories of rivers on the continents of Europe and North America in the modern age. The contributors examine the impact of rivers on humans and, conversely, the impact of humans on rivers.
Tina Loo is talking about hydro-electric development and high modernism and Jonathan Peyton is interviewed on the history of resource conflict in northern British Columbia.
