This article assesses the data on snow and snow-cover contained in the Diarium or diary of Martinus Crusius (1526–1607), one of the 16th century’s German humanists. This data is compared with the relevant 20th century meteorological data.
A smoke prevention committee supervised the work of two specialist inspectors and maintained detailed minutes. These show how councillors decided that ‘black smoke’ was preventable.
Detailed examination of the fabric records suggests that there is no simple, direct relationship between coal use and fabric repair costs. Complicating the relationship are a whole set of complex human systems involved in identification of decay, the style of restoration and management of the repair work.
Despite the devastating impact that flooding, drought and fire associated with the 1982/3 and 1997/8 El Nino events had on both the natural environment and human society, there is little information on the persistence or impact similar events may have had in the ‘deeper’ past…
This medieval environmental history examines the tenth-century industrial and trade town of Wolin which grew rapidly on an island immediately off the northwestern coast of Poland.
The author uses a critical realist perspective to investigate relations between social constructions and the dynamics of nature.
This essay traces the development of the physical and cultural infrastructure of colonial flood control in the Indus valley.
Urban environmental history comprises both human and ecological experience; the two were and are inseparable, and their interaction is dynamic. This essay explores the human and bioregional history of the Penrith Lakes Scheme at Castlereagh in outer Western Sydney as a case study in integrating the two approaches.
In this article Disco describes the repertoires developed by the municipal waterworks of two large Dutch cities, Amsterdam and Rotterdam. Two main repertoires are visible: 1) ‘coping’ by means of technical fixes and vigilance and 2) ‘transnational technopolitics’ aimed at institutionalising regulatory regimes to curb pollution.
As Czechoslovakia’s communist planners continually increased norms for power and coal production in the 1950s through 1970s, the sprawling surface mines of the north Bohemian brown coal basin expanded voraciously, swallowing 116 villages and parts of several larger cities by 1980.
