Land & Sea

Fluvial systems provide a basin from which to study the impact of human alterations of Earth. In a special session of the Anthropocene Working Group, geologist and oceanographer James Syvitski maps how the human modification of the world’s hydrological system continues to accelerate, how deltas are starved of sediment due to dam building, and how wetlands are lost and coasts retreat

Beyond the contentious geopolitical edifice of the South China Sea lies a mosaic of technological and ecological manipulations of land and sea interfaces that define how the area’s many contests are negotiated. Political scientist Andrew Chubb maps this complex space, tying together security, land rights, information technology, historical geopolitics, and the creation of artificial islands that construct it.

In this brief statement excerpted from a conversation about Southeast Asian urbanism and geology, philosopher Etienne Turpin sketches the root problematics faced by the city of Jakarta as exemplified by its land and sea interfaces.

The Iranian island of Kish, due to its particular geographic location in the Persian Gulf, exemplifies how territorial separation can lead to political and economic hubris in the form of a globalized free-trade zone. Narrating its storied history, artists Nasrin Tabatabai and Barak Afrassiabi explore the strange role of this island as a designated place of exception in reality and imagination.

The Sámi, having lived in the Arctic regions of Scandinavia for millennia, have cultivated ritualized fishing and lake-caring techniques that maintain a reciprocal relationship with their aqueous environment. But over the years, these practices of relation have been threatened by the encroachment of industry, climate change, and even environmental restrictions. The social scientists Liv Østmo and John Law explain how this complicates the ontology of an entire region.

Mapping the interplay between oil corporations, coastal regions, and colonial politics, architecture historian Carola Hein investigates the establishment, transformation, and possible future of the global petroleumscape. The result is a portolan chart of the networked infrastructure of extraction, refining, transport, and storage by which the open sea faces the continental hinterlands.

Levees and dams form the fluvial geography of the technosphere. Landscape architect Richard Hindle shows how patents have historically catalyzed the establishment of these formations. His essay maps the Mississippi, Sacramento and San Joaquin River Deltas through the patent system, tracing how it helped transform what is and could have been possible along riverine and coastal systems.

Through examining the way hydraulic engineers employ and tinker with computational models for managing water-related risks, science and technology scholar Matthijs Kouw argues for a more reflected stand against such modeling practice. These models are indispensable as critical tools, and understanding simulation practices as a hybrid and situated form of making-do can lead to better reflection on their epistemic potential.

Artist and photographer Axel Braun collects case studies on contentious infrastructure projects in order to trace humanity’s development as a geological force. His studies focus on human-altered landscapes as byproducts of discourses and processes that describe the technosphere as it brings forth the Anthropocene. Braun’s growing anthology of examples invites readers to complement the artist’s selection with their own observations and experiences.

What happens to the baselines under the international law of the sea when coastlines are no longer stable? In this interview, legal scholar Davor Vidas presents a wide horizon of connections between the exploitation of submarine resources and the zoning of maritime and territorial space and discusses how rising sea levels and offshore artificial structures are creating a host of challenges for the future of the Law of the Sea.