Documentary proxies and interdisciplinary research

Authors: Pavel Raška Vilém Zábranský Jakub Dubišar Antonín Kadlec Alena Hrbáčová Tomáš Strnad

Publish Date: 2013/09/04

Volume: 70, Issue: 1, Pages: 705-732

PDF Link

Abstract

During the last two decades documentary data written and iconographic sources have been increasingly employed in geomorphologic research aiming at reconstruction of territorial distribution temporal occurrence and social and economic impacts of various geomorphologic hazards The goal of this paper is to broaden the previous discussion Glade et al The use of historical data in natural hazard assessments Kluwer Dordrecht 2001 of the methodological constraints on the use of documentary data for geomorphologic hazard research Using the interdisciplinary approach of geomorphology historiography and medial studies we firstly summarise the major finding of papers that have employed various types of documentary data sources to study geomorphologic hazards in different regions In the second section we present case studies from the Czech Republic resulting from the ongoing research project that is devoted to the assessment of the potential of documentary data to reconstruct past occurrences of and mitigation strategies for geomorphologic hazards Finally we discuss three main methodological issues emerging from our research a problems emerging from the positivist approach to documentary data sources and the necessity for critical analyses of documentary data sources based on modern historiographic approaches b constraints arising from the combination of documentary data from different spatiotemporal scales and c lacks in the use of documentary data to study localbased adaptation strategies to cope with geomorphologic hazardsThe research was supported by GACR Project 1302080P “Documentary data sources for research of social perception and adaptation strategies to selected historic natural hazards in the Czech Republic” and by IGA UJEP Project “Reference framework of documentary proxies for research and practical applications of problems of geomorphologic hazards” The authors would like to thank Language Editing Services for English style correctionsThe timeline of the development of early modern cadastral inventories in the Czech Republic Explanation shaded boxes stand for major war conflicts 30YW the 30 years War WAS the War of the Austrian Succession Boxes below the timeline list the names of emperors The cadastral inventory used in the case study of this paper is in boldThe time context of the newspaper source Aussiger Anzeiger used in the case study Explanation shaded boxes stand for major war conflicts and political events Boxes below the timeline list and describe the political history of the territory CZE Czechoslovak Republic BM Protectorate Böhmen und Mähren during the World War II CSSR Czechoslovak Socialistic RepublicThe national diversity of the Czech lands which had roots as early as the medieval period and which consisted of two major nationalities of Czechs majority and Germans approximately 30  of inhabitants has accelerated the cultural differences among the individual regions in the territory The German speaking population lived primarily in the peripheral districts of the territory and this situation did not changed until the end of World War II The area with a prevailing German speaking population for the period of the first half of the twentieth century is shown in Fig 6a in Sect 233 The German population created a strong feeling of regional identity see Paasi 2003 for the explanation of the concept which was also reflected in the variety of local and regional newspapers

Keywords: