Orieschnig C. A., Venot Jean-Philippe. (2024). The history of hydrological studies on the Mekong floodplains - from colonial experiments to computational models. Hydrological Sciences Journal, 69 (16), 2391-2404. ISSN 0262-6667.
Titre du document
The history of hydrological studies on the Mekong floodplains - from colonial experiments to computational models
This paper investigates the interwoven history of hydrological studies and water infrastructure development on the Mekong floodplains. On the basis of an extensive literature review, archival work, and key informant interviews, we unravel the making of an expert-led understanding of the Mekong floodplains - from the detailed reports written by colonial engineers during the French protectorate in the late 19th century to the development of the first computational models, developed in the 1960s on punch-cards and in Fortran. We show how these studies not only reflect the objectives of successive powers and their relationships to local communities but also shaped the landscape and hydrology of the Mekong floodplains and continue to do so through a variety of water infrastructure development projects. This serves as a call to conceive of hydrological knowledge as contingent rather than as a neutral depiction of physical processes that exists independently from the conditions of its production.
Plan de classement
Sciences fondamentales / Techniques d'analyse et de recherche [020]
;
Hydrologie [062]
