Blog
ResourceS for Adaptation to rising sea levels and sinking cities.
This is a blog containing images, stories, songs, rituals and traditions related to flooding and flood protection from the cultural heritage of coasts worldwide. It is continuously expanded and meant as a free repository to be used by anyone working to increase resilience and well-being for front line communitiies.
Please browse through the posts or search for themes, places or centuries using the Categories. Any email comments, hints or repostings are very much appreciated by the author.
Looking back through a treehouse window
https://youtu.be/zwUGf6oYgGs Japanese artist Michiari Saito builds treehouses with the citizens of Kesenuma, one of the towns that were severly...
Yonaguni Monument – The sunken city that is not a city
Off the coast of the small japanese island Yonaguni lies a rock formation that has striking ressemblances to remains of submerged cities elsewhere....
Human Sacrifice in flood protection
Famous german novel "The Rider on a white Horse (Schimmelreiter)" by Theodor Storm draws on a superstition and theme that appears in numerous folk...
All Saints Flood
The All Saints' Flood (Dutch: Allerheiligenvloed) of 1570 was a disaster which happened on November 1, on the Dutch and German coast. Affected...
The cities in the River Tigris
The Mosul Dam is used to regulate the water supply in the draught prone regions of Irak. If there is a shortage of water, the water line in the dam...
Disaster Movies: Metropolis
Probably not the first motion picture about a flooded city, but certainly the most influential one. In the 1927 movie the city is a completely...
Disaster Movies and Art History
In this image from the disaster movie "2012" (200) the visual style is clearly remeniscent of Rennaissance and medieval paintings. This shot in...
The White House
In the movie "2012" - for reasons unclear to me - the White House is hit not only by a gigantic ocean wave but by a gigantic ocean wave carying a...
The floating Church
This swimming building in an artificial lake in Saxonia, combines the commemoration of two sunken citites: The shape of the dome resembles the...
Matsya / मत्स्य
Vishnu, disguised as the fish Matsya, saves Manu from the flood. When the flood begins, Manu boards the boat and then prays to the fish Matsya for...
Animals leave first
Stories often mention that the behaviour of animals announces approaching floods. This is an exceprt from a text by the Roman writer and natural...
Vineta on a map from 1693
A map of the Swedish state survey of Pomerania, the first comprehensive cadastre of a German territory, shows how much the sunken city in the sea...
Morana (Morena)
This is an idol of the Slav goddess Morana. In the folktale as penned by Stepan Gedeonow, the godess takes revenge on the people of Rethra by...
Anton Heimreich: Ernewerte Nordfresische Chronick
A. C. 1300 am Tage Marcelli Pontificis (ist der 16. Jan.) hat sich die Westsee durch Sturmwinde erhoben, und das Wasser vier Ellen über die höchsten...
The New Ark
Since 2017 there is a "life size" Ark in Kentucky, USA: https://arkencounter.com/ USA; 21. Century; Christian; Sculpture, Theme Park
The Lord Krishna in the Golden City
The painting (circa 1585) depicts the blue-skinned Krishna, an incarnation of the Hindu God Vishnu, enthroned on a golden palace and surrounded by...
Evariste Vital Luminais: Flight of King Gradlon
Painting from 1884 depicting the flight of the king from the sinking city of Ys. France; 19. Century; Chistian; Painting; City: Ys
Claude Debussy: La Cathédrale Engloutie
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVMGwPDP-Yk Prelude for solo piano written by the French composer Claude Debussy, published in 1910. To quote...
Saint Guénolé, abbé de Landévennec, sauvant le roi Gradlon lors de la submersion de la ville d’Ys
Stained glass window from 1917 representing "Saint Guénolé, abbé de Landévennec, sauvant le roi Gradlon lors de la submersion de la ville d'Ys" in...
Ar Roue Gralon ha kear Is
A bretonic folksong about the sinking of the City Ys on the Atlantic Coast of Brittany. Original LyricsFrench Translation
द्वारका – Dwarka, the Gated City
The sea, which had been beating against the shores, suddenly broke the boundary that was imposed on it by nature. The sea rushed into the city. It...