| 1. |
- Blöschl, Günter, et al.
(författare)
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Current European flood-rich period exceptional compared with past 500 years
- 2020
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Ingår i: Nature. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0028-0836 .- 1476-4687. ; 583:7817, s. 560-566
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- There are concerns that recent climate change is altering the frequency and magnitude of river floods in an unprecedented way(1). Historical studies have identified flood-rich periods in the past half millennium in various regions of Europe(2). However, because of the low temporal resolution of existing datasets and the relatively low number of series, it has remained unclear whether Europe is currently in a flood-rich period from a long-term perspective. Here we analyse how recent decades compare with the flood history of Europe, using a new database composed of more than 100 high-resolution (sub-annual) historical flood series based on documentary evidence covering all major regions of Europe. We show that the past three decades were among the most flood-rich periods in Europe in the past 500 years, and that this period differs from other flood-rich periods in terms of its extent, air temperatures and flood seasonality. We identified nine flood-rich periods and associated regions. Among the periods richest in floods are 1560-1580 (western and central Europe), 1760-1800 (most of Europe), 1840-1870 (western and southern Europe) and 1990-2016 (western and central Europe). In most parts of Europe, previous flood-rich periods occurred during cooler-than-usual phases, but the current flood-rich period has been much warmer. Flood seasonality is also more pronounced in the recent period. For example, during previous flood and interflood periods, 41 per cent and 42 per cent of central European floods occurred in summer, respectively, compared with 55 per cent of floods in the recent period. The exceptional nature of the present-day flood-rich period calls for process-based tools for flood-risk assessment that capture the physical mechanisms involved, and management strategies that can incorporate the recent changes in risk. Analysis of thousands of historical documents recording floods in Europe shows that flooding characteristics in recent decades are unlike those of previous centuries.
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| 2. |
- Camenisch, Chantal, et al.
(författare)
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Extreme heat and drought in 1473 and their impacts in Europe in the context of the early 1470s
- 2020
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Ingår i: Regional Environmental Change. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1436-3798 .- 1436-378X. ; 20:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Droughts and heatwaves are both dangerous natural hazards with a potential significant impact on human societies. In order to understand these hazards, it is important to examine such extreme events in the past. During the years 1471 to 1474, warm and dry weather conditions are described in most parts of Europe. Until now, these extraordinary years have not been examined in depth. Moreover, in spring 1473, a great drought and heat occurred in Europe. This heatwave facilitated a fast phenological development. During the summer and the autumn, temperatures were unusually high, and extremely dry weather conditions continued. In many places, the harvest began remarkably early, and there was abundant wine of a good quality. Fruit trees even bloomed for the second time in autumn. The heat and drought had a considerable impact on the environment and also caused damage to agriculture and society, including water shortages, harvest failures and rising food prices. The weather conditions of the years from 1471 to 1474 were outstanding during the fifteenth century and the heatwave and drought, as well as impacts on environment, economy, and society in the year 1473, were comparable to-if not more severe-than those in the year 1540. Learning from past climate anomalies like the 1473 drought in Europe is important for evaluating more recent and future climate extremes under increasing anthropogenic pressure.
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| 3. |
- Johansson, Dan, 1953-
(författare)
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Makt och Motstånd : Bönderna, örlogsflottan och den svenska staten 1522-1640
- 2023
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The development of the Swedish state is studied through the central and local organizations that built, repaired, maintained and provisioned the Royal Swedish Navy. The state is viewed as an organization which bargained for resources with powerful social groups. Inspiration comes from theories of modern firm growth, powerholder-subordinate relations, and Charles Tilly´s theory of state formation. The statebuilding process has mainly been understood as a top-down process determined by negotiations between rulers and elites. In this dissertation, I argue for the relevance of another perspective, “statebuilding from below”. In 16th and early 17th century Sweden around 60 % of the land was owned by freeholders; freeholders who, with property rights and access to central and local representative assemblies, had influence over local political and economic issues. In the absence of a strong nobility and wealthy cities Swedish rulers, and the Swedish statebuilding process were dependent on freeholding farmers; both for their political support and the resources they represented in the form of taxes and labor. The main issue of the dissertation is to explain the different paths the organization supporting the Royal Swedish Navy took over a period of 120 years. From centralization, to decentralization, from state-organized to privately organized, and back.In order to demonstrate this “statebuilding from below” I investigate the organization’s provision of timber, labor and revenue, setting this in a context of power mobilization, conflicts and negotiations. Between 1523 and the mid-1540s the farmer’s met the states demand for resources to the navy with resistance, both open and violent. The state answered with coersion and repression. From the mid-1540s the state was forced to adapt to the reality of power relations between itself, the nobility and the tax-paying farmers. The result was a new way to interact and respond to farmers grievances. The system “the negotiating state” gave protection to ordinary people, against nobles, the authorities and famine, and stopped the open and violent protests. Negotiations and agreements between the king’s bailiffs and the freeholders were central for the state, and for the organizations ability to reach its goals.But as the navy and state power grew the system could not prevent an increased exploitation. To finance the production, shipbuilding was organized with local resources and decentralized to a vast number of local plants. In response the farmers combined the institutionally-sanctioned methods of protest with passive or hidden resistance; a resistance that grow with the states demands for revenue, ship carpenters and labor. In the first decade of the 17th century the king used the central parliament to mobilize greater resources for the armed forces and the navy. In 1611 the decentralized organization imploded. Instead of more coercion the state was again forced to adapt to the resistance from farmers and nobles. From 1615 the organization was centralized into three large production units. The earlier system with forced labor was abandoned. Centralization and an alliance between the king and the nobles changed power relations and created stability. However, despite the stronger position of the state, the freeholders’ actions compelled the development of a system with central and local representative arenas, where negotiations could take place and complaints heard. These steps were necessary for the creation of legitimacy and the necessary compliance with continued resource extraction. The freeholders’ influence on the early modern Swedish state building process was extensive and must be described as “state building from below”.
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| 4. |
- Leijonhufvud, Lotta, 1965, et al.
(författare)
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Documentary evidence of droughts in Sweden between the Middle Ages and ca. 1800 CE
- 2021
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Ingår i: Climate of the Past. - : Copernicus GmbH. - 1814-9324 .- 1814-9332. ; 17:5, s. 2015-2029
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This article explores documentary evidence of droughts in Sweden in the pre-instrumental period (1400-1800 CE). A database has been developed using contemporary sources, such as private and official correspondence letters, diaries, almanac notes, manorial accounts, and weather data compilations. The primary purpose is to utilize hitherto unused documentary data as an input for an index that can be useful for comparisons on a larger European scale. The survey shows that eight subperiods can be considered as having been particularly struck by summer droughts, causing concomitant harvest failures and having great social impacts in Sweden. This is the case with 1634-1639, 1652-1657, 1665-1670, 1677-1684, 1746-1750, 1757-1767, 1771-1776, and 1780-1783 CE. Within these subperiods, 1652 and 1657 stand out as particularly troublesome years. A number of data for dry summers are also found for the middle decades of the 15th century, the first decade of the 1500s, and the 1550s.
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| 5. |
- Leijonhufvud, Lotta, et al.
(författare)
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Five centuries of Stockholm winter/spring temperatures reconstructed from documentary evidenceand instrumental observations
- 2010
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Ingår i: Climatic Change. - Netherlands : Springer. - 0165-0009 .- 1573-1480. ; 101:1-2, s. 109-141
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Historical documentary sources, reflecting different port activities in Stockholm, are utilised to derive a 500-year winter/spring temperature reconstruction for the region. These documentary sources reflect sea ice conditions in the harbour inlet and those series that overlap with the instrumental data correlate well with winter/spring temperatures. By refining dendroclimatological methods,the time-series were composited to a mean series and calibrated (1756–1841;r2 = 66%) against Stockholm January–April temperatures. Strong verification was confirmed (1842–1892; r2 = 60%; RE/CE = 0.55). By including the instrumental data, the quantified (QUAN) reconstruction indicates that recent two decades have been the warmest period for the last 500 years. Coldest conditions occurred during the 16th/17th and early 19th centuries. An independent qualitative (QUAL)historical index was also derived for the Stockholm region. Comparison between QUAN and QUAL shows good coherence at inter-annual time-scales, but QUAL distinctly appears to lack low frequency information. Comparison is also made to other winter temperature based annually resolved records for the Baltic region.Between proxy coherence is generally good although it decreases going back in time with the 1500–1550 period being the weakest period—possibly reflecting data quality issues in the different reconstructions.
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| 6. |
- Lund, Olov, 1982-
(författare)
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Nätverksstaten : Statsbildningsprocesser och rumsliga praktiker i senmedeltidens Sverige ca 1440–1520
- 2022
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Previous research has examined the late medieval Swedish state from a constitutional and ideological perspective and in terms of the juridical, fiscal, and military organizations. This thesis focuses on the much less known informal and practical-spatial side of the political system. The main questions of this dissertation are: How did the Swedish late medieval state function? How integrated was the state into the local community? Who and how many took part in the activities of the state, and why? The departure for any inquiry into these questions is the Council of the Realm, who reigned during the 15th Century. This thesis study two of its members as case studies: The lawmen Arvid Trolle (c. 1440–1505) and Svarte Åke Jönsson (c. 1420–1494), who both were involved in the state's activities and the local community for as long as 40 years. I use the concept of anthrospace, which denotes the necessity and interplay between social networks, material resources, and movement in space, as the driving force of history. The purpose of this thesis is mapping out the social networks of these two figures and their material resources in form of estates, land, and fiefs. It also means studying how these two lawmen moved through space in relation to their human and material resources.The results show that Svarte Åke Jönsson and Arvid Trolle had extensive networks both among the aristocratic elite in the Council of the Realm at the national level and in the local community. Their respective households and networks amounted to 100–120 families. Svarte Åke Jönsson´s and Arvid Trolle´s respective family businesses managed between 2 and 9 percent of the state's total revenues from ordinary taxes. Most of the revenues from the castle districts went to maintenance as well as food and salaries for castle crews and other staff. Finally, the results point to a geographical correlation between Arvid Trolle´s and Svarte Åke Jönsson's land, estates, fiefs, official jurisdictions, residences, the extent of their networks, and how they moved through space.Taken together, the results lead to several important conclusions regarding both the aristocratic household and how the state functioned. Their rather distinctly demarcated geographical life indicates that the state and the execution of state functions were formed as a patchwork of aristocratic family businesses, local bailiffs, county judges, and others who exercised, negotiated, contested, and took advantage of state resources. The results also conclude that the number of people who directly participated in the activities of the state and in the exercise of state functions was a minimum of 7,500–8,000 individuals. This overlapping system of aristocratic households, family businesses, and networks that exercised state functions meant both continuity and stability. The many thousands of people involved in state activities should be considered as a central force in the state-building process.
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| 7. |
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| 8. |
- Moberg, Anders, et al.
(författare)
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500 års väder i Stockholm
- 2008
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Ingår i: Forskning och framsteg. - 0015-7937. ; 43:5, s. 12-17
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Tidskriftsartikel (populärvet., debatt m.m.)abstract
- En helt ny klimatkurva har forskare tagit fram ur gamla sjöfartsdokument. Kurvan sträcker sig flera hundra år längre tillbaka än temperaturmätningarna från och med mitten av 1700-talet. Den visar att de senaste två årtiondenas varmare klimat avviker från de senaste fwem seklernas.
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| 9. |
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| 10. |
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