Abstract
This chapter considers the underwater and intertidal nature-based technologies of indigenous cultures and explores their innovations as solutions for the impacts of climate change to low-lying coastal areas. Indigenous people have been living with and developing water-responsive infrastructures for generations that engage and support the complex ecosystems they inhabit. Rooted in traditional ecological knowledge, or TEK, these technologies work symbiotically with, rather than against nature, ushering in a more comprehensive approach to underwater and intertidal design. Indigenous peoples’ responses to sea level rise and storm events improve coastal resiliency, yet remain undocumented and unexplored in the evolution of contemporary solutions. This chapter places these technologies in the modern scientific framework, cross-referencing indigenous people’s local nature-based technologies using the five sea level rise response strategies outlined in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s 2019 Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate: protect, accommodate, retreat, advance, and ecosystem-based adaptation. Reframed through an architectural and scientific rather than anthropological lens, the challenges cultures were facing and the resources that were available to them are explored to inform us in designing for global climate resiliency today.
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Notes
- 1.
Nunn (2007).
- 2.
Oppenheimer et al. (2019).
- 3.
Nunn et al. (2017).
- 4.
See Footnote 2.
- 5.
Ibid.
- 6.
Hoad (2003).
- 7.
Garroutte and Defining (2020).
- 8.
Church et al. (2013).
- 9.
Oreskes and Conway (2013).
- 10.
Haasnoot et al. (2013).
- 11.
See Footnote 2.
- 12.
Ellen et al. (2000).
- 13.
Borger et al. (1998).
- 14.
See Footnote 2.
- 15.
Schuttenhelm (2019).
- 16.
Kikuchi (1976).
- 17.
Levy and Chernisky (2005).
- 18.
Joana (2005).
- 19.
See Footnote 16.
- 20.
Ibid.
- 21.
Costa-Pierce (1987).
- 22.
Ibid.
- 23.
Ibid.
- 24.
Ibid.
- 25.
Ibid.
- 26.
Bond and Gmirkin (2003).
- 27.
See Footnote 21.
- 28.
Ibid.
- 29.
See Footnote 16.
- 30.
Joana (2005).
- 31.
Memmott et al. (2008).
- 32.
Memmott and Trigger (1998).
- 33.
See Footnote 33.
- 34.
Ibid.
- 35.
Ibid.
- 36.
Ibid.
- 37.
Kreij et al. (2018).
- 38.
See Footnote 33.
- 39.
Rowland and Ulm (2011).
- 40.
UNESCO (2016).
- 41.
Rai and Singh (2014).
- 42.
Singh and Khundrakpam (2011).
- 43.
Bhardwaj (2017).
- 44.
Heggen (2018).
- 45.
See Footnote 45.
- 46.
Takhelmayum and Gupta (2011).
- 47.
Singsit (2003).
- 48.
See Footnote 45.
- 49.
Tuboi et al. (2012).
- 50.
See Footnote 47.
- 51.
Ranganathan (2017).
- 52.
Manner (1980).
- 53.
Ibid.
- 54.
Ibid.
- 55.
Nakashima et al. (2018).
- 56.
Moore and Lawrence (2003).
- 57.
See Footnote 3.
- 58.
Falanruw, M. C. Taro Growing on Yap. Yap Institute of Natural Science.
- 59.
Lopez (2019).
- 60.
See Footnote 59.
- 61.
See Footnote 63.
- 62.
See Footnote 56.
- 63.
Morrison et al. (1994).
- 64.
The Environmental Literacy Council (2015).
- 65.
Falanruw and Ruegorong (2015).
- 66.
Falanruw et al. (1987).
- 67.
Conrad and Newell (1992).
- 68.
See Footnote 3.
- 69.
See Footnote 2.
- 70.
Ibid.
- 71.
Ibid.
- 72.
The People’s Government of Nanxun District (2017).
- 73.
Gongfu (1982).
- 74.
Ibid.
- 75.
Ibid.
- 76.
Zhuang (2018).
- 77.
Ibid.
- 78.
Marks (2011).
- 79.
See Footnote 77.
- 80.
Nunn (2009).
- 81.
Glemarec (2010).
- 82.
Tuwere (2010).
- 83.
Guo (2001).
- 84.
Walter (1930a).
- 85.
Walter (1930b).
- 86.
Guo (2015).
- 87.
Ibid.
- 88.
Bryant-Tokalau (2011).
- 89.
See Footnote 86.
- 90.
Nonko (2020).
- 91.
See Footnote 2.
- 92.
Tribal Government (2019).
- 93.
Jackson (2018).
- 94.
See Footnote 100.
- 95.
Cottage Films (2014).
- 96.
Ibid.
- 97.
See Footnote 2.
- 98.
Watson (2019).
- 99.
Mueller-Dombois (2007).
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Watson, J., Linaraki, D., Robertson, A. (2021). Lo-TEK: Underwater and Intertidal Nature-Based Technologies. In: Baumeister, J., Bertone, E., Burton, P. (eds) SeaCities. Cities Research Series. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8748-1_4
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