Factors and actors in the transformation towards a Fluvial Anthroposphere prior to the industrial period.
Fluviosocial Metabolism
We use the concept of the Fluvio-social Metabolism to illustrate the complex interactions between anthropogenic and natural processes that determine the transition of pristine river systems into a Fluvial Anthroposphere. The Fluvio-social Metabolism is understood as the result of interactions between social, climatic and geomorphological systems and is reflected in time- and site-specific patterns of material fluxes in the catchment and floodplain. We hypothesise that specific socio-natural and political constellations, including territorial shifts, economical exploitation, institutions, conflicts, climatic variability and extremes, as well as riverine floods, determined path dependencies and trajectories of fluvial landscape evolution that found their expression in the floodplain record as legacy sediments.
Major aims
The aim of the project is to establish a process-related system understanding of pre-industrial floodplains of tributary river systems in the Upper Rhine region. The necessary reconstruction of significant changes is carried out by determining the Fluvio-Social Metabolism.
Methodological Approach
We follow a multidisciplinary approach that integrates the expertise from different disciplines, combining historic, climatic, and geomorphologic expertise. In three interlinking work packages, we investigate how
- actors, socio-political constellations and institutions influenced floodplain development,
- regional climate variability and extreme events impacted socio-ecological processes, and
- natural and societal dynamics found their expression in the floodplain sedimentary record.
Synthesising these various strands of social, climatic and geomorphologic results, we ultimately aim to integrate our insights into deciphering the fluvio-social metabolism. Finally, we evaluate to which degree our results can contribute to model this dynamic fluvio-social metabolism empirically, numerically and multivariate-statistically.
Our Study Area
Raphael Longoni, Floodplains through the letter – Land use and fluvial dynamics in the Upper Rhine area reconstructed from written sources, 1200-1700, in: Mittelalter. Interdisziplinäre Forschung und Rezeptionsgeschichte 7 (2024), S. 41–45, DOI: https://doi.org/10.26012/mittelalter-34427.
Principal Investigators
Unser Team
Kooperationspartner
Co-Investigator
The Team
