Floods and Culture

Abstract

This chapter aims at exploring the substantial impacts that floods could have on the society in different regions around the world from a cultural perspective. By looking at the historical and ongoing flood control efforts of human society, interesting findings could be obtained on the positive contributions to the formation of cultural prosperities in the selected countries in their fight against the floods.

The case studies chosen in these countries all have high frequency of floods occurrences either in the past or in present times. And the studies show that the cultural benefits may not manifest in a short time span, but in the long run in most of the cases, cultural values and assets in many dimensions have been gained through experiences of control and co-existing with floods, such as the creation of the distinctive social sprit and commercial prosperity in the regions in China, the considerable contributions to the ancient civilization in Egypt, the influences on the rethinking of the Buddhism doctrines towards nature and the promotion of eco-concept in the regions in Thailand, however, our modern world is still facing some kind of failures of preserving cultures related to floods like in the case of Italy.

This chapter points out the importance to carry out more researches and studies on the interactions between floods and culture, so as to help to find more insightful and sound solutions for floods management in the future.