@article{e1532b50a59a4051aa3162db76d7706d,
title = "Urban Infrastructure, Climate Change, Disaster and Risk: Lessons from the Past for the Future",
abstract = "Narratives of lost cities and the exploration of ruins have captivated scholars and travellers for hundreds of years with explanations for their demise ranging from invasions to cataclysmic environmen-tal events. This article explores three case studies to consider the impact of climate change, disaster and risk on urban infrastructure in the past, as well as to reflect on potential lessons of adaptation and resil-ience for modern cities and their inhabitants. The first examines the degree to which historic urban infra-structure can tell us about seismic adaptation in pre-modern Nepal, as well as recognising the increasing challenges to vernacular architecture from climate change. The second, Sri Lanka{\textquoteright}s Medieval cities in the North Central Province, examines the intricate relationship between the ancient city of Anuradhapura and its artificial hydraulic landscape, a relationship which saw resilience defeated by irreversibly engi-neered adaptation. The final example is drawn from the experience of another tropical society on the other side of the globe, the low-density urban Classic Maya of Central America, which offers different yet relevant insights into alternate urban lifeways, both ancient and contemporary. Focusing on issues of successful and unsuccessful adaptations in urban settings over an archaeological time range and eval-uating how archaeologists and historians have explored and presented this evidence, we conclude by considering how archaeology and archaeologists can also play a greater role in future sustainable urban planning.",
keywords = "climate change, lessons learned, path dependency, the Classic Maya, historic infrastructure, tsunamis, earthquakes, pre-modern Nepal and Sri Lanka, adaptation, reliance, risk, disaster, urban infrastructure",
author = "Robin Coningham and Lucero, {Lisa J}",
note = "Although mitigating the impact of flooding with artificial barriers, while benefiting from the proximity of the rich agricultural landscape of the Terai, appears to have been a reasonable risk in the past, the construction of major tiered brick and timber monuments within the tectonic instability of the Kathmandu Valley seems less so. Clearly not an impact of climate change, the study of the Valley{\textquoteright}s architectural history within an extremely intermittent seismic environment provides a striking exemplar of human resilience and successful technical experimentation and adaptation. Indeed, it has been estimated that high magnitude earthquakes affect the Kathmandu Valley every hundred years or so with records of their devastation in 1224, 1255, 1260, 1344, 1408, 1681, 1767, 1823, 1833, 1834, 1869, 1916 and 1934 CE (Gautam et al. 2015: 1–3), making the survival of monuments over this time worthy of study. Despite their significance for lessons learned, while collateral damage to many of Kathmandu{\textquoteright}s historic structures was understandable during the emergency phase immediately following the 2015 Gorkha Earthquake as the dead and injured were recovered, professional concerns were raised that many historic structures and monuments had been irreversibly compromised and their foundations removed without recording during the subsequent clean up operations (Coningham et al. 2019). This destruction resulted in the loss of critical information concerning possible causes for the failure and collapse of individual buildings, as well as information concerning their successful seismic adaptation. In order to present an exemplar, a multi-disciplinary Nepali and international team drawn from the Government of Nepal{\textquoteright}s Department, the Nepal chapter of the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), Tribhuvan University, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), University of Stirling, Newcastle University and Durham University{\textquoteright}s UNESCO Chair was mobilised to investigate the foundations of Kathmandu{\textquoteright}s eponymous monument, the Kasthamandap. Funding for the project{\textquoteright}s fieldwork, laboratory analysis and impact was provided by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), UNESCO and the British Academy{\textquoteright}s Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) Cities and Infrastructure programme under the joint direction of Kosh Prasad Acharya and Robin Coningham, one of the present authors. University of Bradford, and other partners. The British Academy{\textquoteright}s Global Challenges Research Fund{\textquoteright}s Project {\textquoteleft}Reducing Disaster Risk to Life and Livelihoods by Evaluating the Seismic Safety of Kathmandu{\textquoteright}s Historic Urban Infrastructure{\textquoteright} (CI170241) sponsored the fieldwork, as well as the co-design and installation of the Dhukuti museum display with additional financial support from UNESCO (Kathmandu), the Alliance de Protection du Patrimoine Culturel Asiatique, the Pashupati Area Development Trust and Durham University{\textquoteright}s Institute of Medieval and Early Modern Studies (IMEMS), now hosted by the Hanuman Dhoka Museum Development Committee (Department of Archaeology, Government of Nepal). We are very grateful to the Austrian Academy of Sciences for their partnership and Vienna-based symposium, and to the National Museum in Kathmandu for hosting our final dissemination workshop. Finally, we would like to acknowledge the support and passion shown by Mr Rajesh Shakya and the other members of the Kasthamandap Reconstruction Committee, the master craftsmen and the ward members who are rebuilding the Kasathamandap. We also acknowledge the contributions of the following colleagues to our broader discussions: Roland Fletcher, Kosh Prasad Acharya, Ian Simpson, Kai Weise, Prishanta Gunawardhana, Shahnaj Husne Jahan, K. Krishnan, Mark Manuel, Christopher Davis and Keir Strickland. Our post-disaster research and fieldwork across the Kathmandu Valley would not have been possible without the hard work and dedication of team members from the Department of Archaeology (Government of Nepal), ICOMOS (Nepal), Tribhuvan University, Durham University, Newcastle University, the University of Stirling and University of Bradford, and other partners. The British Academy{\textquoteright}s Global Challenges Research Fund{\textquoteright}s Project {\textquoteleft}Reducing Disaster Risk to Life and Livelihoods by Evaluating the Seismic Safety of Kathmandu{\textquoteright}s Historic Urban Infrastructure{\textquoteright} (CI170241) sponsored the fieldwork, as well as the co-design and installation of the Dhukuti museum display with additional financial support from UNESCO (Kathmandu), the Alliance de Protection du Patrimoine Culturel Asiatique, the Pashupati Area Development Trust and Durham University{\textquoteright}s Institute of Medieval and Early Modern Studies (IMEMS), now hosted by the Hanuman Dhoka Museum Development Committee (Department of Archaeology, Government of Nepal). We are very grateful to the Austrian Academy of Sciences for their partnership and Vienna-based symposium, and to the National Museum in Kathmandu for hosting our final dissemination workshop. Finally, we would like to acknowledge the support and passion shown by Mr Rajesh Shakya and the other members of the Kasthamandap Reconstruction Committee, the master craftsmen and the ward members who are rebuilding the Kasathamandap. We also acknowledge the contributions of the following colleagues to our broader discussions: Roland Fletcher, Kosh Prasad Acharya, Ian Simpson, Kai Weise, Prishanta Gunawardhana, Shahnaj Husne Jahan, K. Krishnan, Mark Manuel, Christopher Davis and Keir Strickland. Lucero{\textquoteright}s projects in central Belize have been funded over the years by the National Science Foundation, most recently (BCS 2020465) to fund a rescue archaeology programme, which is gratefully acknowledged. Other funding was provided by the University of Illinois Research Board and landowners Forestland Group, which is also much appreciated. Research in Belize would not have been possible without permission and support from the Belize Institute of Archaeology of the National Institute of Culture and History—many thanks go to the Director, Dr John Morris. In Belize, logistical support and friendship provided by Jeff Roberson of Yalbac Ranch is invaluable. We could not have conducted field work without our top-notch field crew—foremen Cleofo Choc, Stanley Choc and Jos{\'e} Ernesto Vasquez, field assistants, and undergraduate and graduate students. Lucero{\textquoteright}s projects in central Belize have been funded over the years by the National Science Foundation, most recently (BCS 2020465) to fund a rescue archaeology programme, which is gratefully acknowledged. Other funding was provided by the University of Illinois Research Board and landowners Forestland Group, which is also much appreciated. Research in Belize would not have been possible without permission and support from the Belize Institute of Archaeology of the National Institute of Culture and History—many thanks go to the Director, Dr John Morris. In Belize, logistical support and friendship provided by Jeff Roberson of Yalbac Ranch is invaluable. We could not have conducted field work without our top-notch field crew—foremen Cleofo Choc, Stanley Choc and Jos{\'e} Ernesto Vasquez, field assistants, and undergraduate and graduate students.",
year = "2021",
month = oct,
day = "29",
doi = "10.5871/jba/009s8.079",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "9",
pages = "79--114",
journal = "Journal of the British Academy",
issn = "2052-7217",
number = "s8",
}