To receive the Teams link please contact the organisers:
Dr Anke Hein – anke.hein@arch.ox.ac.uk
Michael Leadbetter – michael.leadbetter@arch.ox.ac.uk

In praise of floods. An ecological and social hymn to the good work floods do for non-humans and for Homo sapiens alike. An examination of the “flood pulse” as a river’s lungs and the nutrition it provides to all riverine creatures. Virtually all “civilizations’ are dependent on the ever-renewed fertility of floodplain soils. Human engineering has radically simplified river hydrology, the way taxidermy or amputations might destroy a living being, so that rivers can be navigation canals, water storage, sewage conduits, hydroelectric sites, irrigation reservoirs, and flood free. Disturbance ecology teaches us, on the contrary, how the “edge environments’ and “eco-tones” created by ‘naturally occurring floods and fires promote bio-diversity. The simplification of river hydrology has set the stage for “iatrogenic” (illness caused by previous ‘treatment’) river ailments including massive floods.