Learning from past droughts in Staffordshire: modification of behaviour and landscape practice

我的研究将集中在斯塔福德郡干旱的人类经验，结合在斯塔福德郡记录办公室，口述历史和实地考察如何景观变化的资源。我将使用地理信息系统作为研究工具，整理和检查从档案和访谈中收集的证据，可视化景观管理和使用的变化。利用地图回归，可以得出景观变化和报告的干旱事件之间的相关性，显示干旱条件如何改变景观管理做法，以及管理做法如何影响干旱。ArcGIS等GIS软件包是这方面的理想选择，因为可以导入各种不同的数据类型，并且可以为图层和要素分配“时间”，因此可以制作显示时间变化的地图。许多干旱是环境干旱，对农业和野生动物的影响远远超过家庭供水。这将使我的研究重点转向农村的干旱经验。该项目的一个关键部分将是检查斯塔福德郡记录办公室的现有材料，并调查它们如何用于探索人与水的相互作用;人类对干旱的经历以及应对措施，态度和管理如何随着时间的推移而变化。这将有助于制定一个协议，如何档案资源可以更好地利用在环境研究。我将让公众参与数据收集，无论是在档案馆还是在现场，确保他们可以直接与他们的工作对整个项目的影响有关。至关重要的是，社区的参与能够带来真实的结果和有益的研究。研究的方向将部分取决于社区参与的范围和热情，但仍将重点放在与干旱有关的行为和景观做法上。在斯塔福德郡有30多个地方历史团体，我的目标是在可行的情况下参与我的研究，因为显然对当地的历史有着积极的兴趣。当地人是理解景观的关键;没有什么可以取代一生与景观的互动，每个人对周围环境的感知都略有不同。如果不与当地居民交谈，一个新来的研究人员永远不可能希望获得景观的多维图像，以及它的用途是如何变化的。我将从研究档案材料开始，并在已经与斯塔福德郡记录和档案馆合作的志愿者团体的帮助下，设计一个临时框架，以便从中挖掘信息。此外，我还将研究当地社区如何帮助确定实地景观的变化;例如，遛狗者在确定景观中水的季节性和长期变化方面可能很有价值。作为一名前商业考古学家，我带来了地质学和排水系统的工作知识;在开发现场工作，我的大部分工作都包括记录不同类型的历史排水系统。人类与景观和环境之间的历史互动是理解现在的关键;在考虑如何最好地管理景观时，过去是一种未充分利用的资源，未来可能对我们如何就重要的环境和人类问题做出管理决策产生关键影响。

My research will focus on the human experience of drought in Staffordshire, combining the resources at the Staffordshire Record Office, oral history and field-work looking at how the landscape has changed. I will use GIS as a research tool to collate and examine the evidence gathered from the archives and interviews, visualising changes to landscape management and use. Using map regression, correlations could be drawn between landscape change and reported drought events, showing how drought conditions might have changed landscape management practices and how management practices might have effected drought. A GIS package such as ArcGIS is ideal for this since a wide range of different data types can be imported and there is a facility to assign 'Time' to layers and features, therefore allowing the production of maps showing change through time.Many droughts are environmental and will affect agriculture and wildlife much more than domestic water supplies. This will direct the focus of my research towards rural experience of drought. A key part of the project will be to examine the current materials in the Staffordshire Record Office and investigate how they could be used to explore how people and water have interacted; the human experience of drought and how responses, attitude and management have changed over time. This will hopefully help to develop a protocol for how archive resources could be better exploited in environmental research. I will involve the public in data collection, both in the archives and in the field, ensuring that they can directly relate to the impact their work on the project overall. It is of critical importance that community involvement leads to real results and useful research. The direction of research would be steered, in part, by the scope for community involvement and enthusiasm, although maintaining a focus on behaviour and landscape practice relating to drought. There are over 30 local history groups in Staffordshire who I would aim to involve where practicable with my research, since there is clearly an active interest in the history of the local area. Local people are key to understanding the landscape; nothing can replace a lifetime of interaction with the landscape, and everyone perceives their environs slightly differently. An incoming researcher can never hope to gain a multidimensional picture of the landscape and how its use has changed without talking to people who live there.I would start by examining the archive material and devising a provisional framework for what information could be mined from it with the help of volunteers groups already working with Staffordshire Records and Archives. Additionally, I would look at how local communities could help to identify changes in the landscape in the field; dog walkers, for example can be valuable in determining seasonal and long term variation of water in the landscape. As a former commercial archaeologist I bring a working knowledge of geology and drainage systems through time; working on development sites much of my work has consisted of recording historic drainage systems of varying types. The historic interaction between human beings with the landscape and environment is key to understanding the present; the past is an underused resource in the consideration of how best to manage the landscape and in the future could have a key impact on how we make management decisions regarding important environmental and human issues.