The Sustainability of Settlement and Exploitation of Liminal Coastal Environments in the North Sea Region, c. 1150-1400

英国低洼的沿海湿地面临着气候变化导致海平面上升的相关威胁。这些问题在罗姆尼沼泽地区尤为严重，该地区由盐和淡水沼泽混合覆盖。260 km 2在西南肯特。在C之前。1150年，罗姆尼沼泽的定居点主要限于零星的季节性占领。在这一点之后，有一个转向全年沼泽地开发，这可能部分导致或加剧了一系列毁灭性的洪水事件在1250年和1287-88年。我的论文将探索过去的洪水和随后的社会反应的经验，使人为的作用，在不稳定的沼泽地植被的评估。此外，我将调查机构在于改变中世纪景观，其资源的使用，以及这种转变的原因，对沼泽地的新的剥削关系。跨学科方法将利用一系列来源，包括狭隘的建筑环境、法律文件和土壤学调查，以收集关于土地使用、所有权和定居模式的定量数据。这将使中世纪的人类与环境的关系重新概念化。这种研究是迫切需要提供对当前生态危机的看法，因为沼泽地是一种重要的自然资源。然而，它所依赖的部分证据--罗姆尼沼泽地的中世纪农田系统--正在迅速被20世纪60年代后地区农业政策从畜牧向耕作方式的转变所侵蚀。因此，当前的农业实践和沼泽地不稳定的生态环境使得这项研究特别及时。

Britain's low-lying coastal wetlands face the related threats of climatic change andrising sea levels. These problems are particularly acute in Romney Marsh, aregion of combined salt and freshwater marsh covering c. 260 km2 in southwesternKent. Before c. 1150, settlement of Romney Marsh had largely beenlimited to sporadic seasonal occupation. After this point, there was a shift towardsyear-round marshland exploitation which may have partly caused or exacerbateda series of devastating flooding episodes in 1250 and 1287-88. My thesis willexplore this past experience of flooding and the subsequent societal response,enabling an assessment of the anthropogenic role in destabilising marshlandenvironments. Additionally, I will investigate where agency lies in transforming themedieval landscape, use of its resources, and the cause of this shift towards anew exploitative relationship with marshland. An inter-disciplinary approach willutilise a range of sources, including the parochial built environment, legaldocuments, and pedological surveys, to gather quantitative data on land use,ownership and settlement patterns. This will enable a reconceptualisation ofhuman relationships with the environment during the Middle Ages. Such researchis urgently needed to provide perspective on the current ecological crisis becausemarshlands are a critical natural resource. However, part of the evidence uponwhich it relies, Romney Marsh's medieval field system, is fast being eroded by apost-1960s shift in regional farming policy from pastoral to arable methods.Consequently, current agricultural practices and the marshland's unstable ecologymake this research particularly timely.