Risky Cities: Living with Water in an Uncertain Future Climate

Lead Research Organisation: University of Hull
Department Name: Geography

Abstract

Estuarine and coastal cities are acutely vulnerable in the face of climate uncertainty. 40% of the world's population lives within 100km of the sea and coastal populations are directly at risk from rising sea levels and the combined effects of storm surges, fluvial flood risk and increased rainfall. Society needs greater resilience at the local, national and global scale: estuarine communities and businesses must learn to 'live with water' in an uncertain future. Yet engaging diverse communities with water challenges is a significant problem for agencies and governments, with the most vulnerable in societies often the least well informed about resilience actions. Here we bring innovative arts and heritage solutions to bear on the problem of engaging these communities with flood risk and building resilience in one flood-prone city, Kingston upon Hull, UK.

Hull is recognised globally for its vulnerability to flooding in the face of rising sea levels. It is one of five global cities selected to participate in the Rockefeller Foundation's and Arup's City Water Resilience Framework development programme. Yet international awareness of Hull's future flood risk finds little reflection in local communities. And this despite serious flood events in 2007, 2013 and 2015, as well as an 800-year history of living with water challenges in the city. Hull's excellent archival records and literary and dramatic works - combined with the University's expertise in flood science and modelling, environmental histories and literature, community engagement and cultural sector evaluation - offer unrivalled opportunities to explore histories of risk and resilience in the city and surrounding area.

In this project, we develop research-informed learning histories to build resilience for the future, with the ambition of leveraging a year-on-year improvement in resilience to flood risks and uptake of resilience actions in and around Hull. Working alongside arts partners and practitioners, flood agencies, young people and local communities - who will contribute to the co-production of research agendas as well as academic and policy-relevant outputs - we employ these learning histories in community-based arts and heritage interventions and large scale productions by national arts organisations including Absolutely Cultured and the National Youth Theatre (NYT). Supported by three artists in residence, our research addresses three thematic clusters of questions (specified in the Objectives and CFS), and the research outcomes both inform and are in turn shaped by the engagement activities planned for the project. The substantial collaborations agreed with project partners leverage significant wider reach for our ambitious arts and heritage programme (see PTIs). Using a combination of social science methodologies and participatory tools for arts evaluation co-designed with community and youth groups, we interrogate the effectiveness of arts and heritage interventions to raise climate awareness and deliver an uptake in practical resilience actions, evaluating models for engagement and developing best practice that can be applied nationally and globally. In doing so, we aim to improve climate change awareness and flood resilience in risky cities in the UK and beyond.

Outputs from the project include: a programme of combined arts and heritage engagement in schools, community and youth groups in 'at risk' wards; a flood festival; high profile, city centre artistic productions informed by our learning histories and created by community and youth groups in collaboration with national arts organisations, the NYT and Absolutely Cultured; a sound walk; articles in major international and interdisciplinary journals, some of them co-authored with arts practitioners and community members; a policy report and associated public policy brief launched at Westminster; a short film; a workshop; and a public facing website hosting podcasts, blogs and teaching materials.

Planned Impact

N/A
 
Title City of Water 
Description Drawing on the Ferens' important maritime art collection, this exhibition explores the effects of environmental change over the centuries.This exhibition explores Hull & East Riding's relationship with the sea and highlights 800 years of flooding in a region that exists below sea level at high tide. Themes will explore maritime work and leisure, the move from sailing to steam, exploration and the empire, wrecks and whaling. The Ferens' collection will be reimagined as if under water, raising issues around Hull's risky future and hopes of defence against the rising tides. Partnering with the Risky Cities project team at the University of Hull, the exhibition will also highlight the effects of flooding on Hull's communities. 
Type Of Art Artistic/Creative Exhibition 
Year Produced 2023 
Impact To follow 
URL https://www.hullmuseums.co.uk/homepage/217/art-and-environment-season
 
Title FloodLights 
Description FloodLights was a co-created artistic project consisting of three light and sound installations, a digital programme, community parade, round table discussion and launch event taking place in Hull City Centre in Oct 2021. Absolutely Cultured, the University of Hull, the Living with Water Partnership and Yorkshire Water worked with artists to explore and represent Hull communities' experiences of living with water, past, present and future. 
Type Of Art Artistic/Creative Exhibition 
Year Produced 2021 
Impact See partnership entry for indicative evidence here. 
URL https://riskycities.hull.ac.uk/floodlights/
 
Title Flow of Words sharing events 
Description Artists were commissioned to creatively respond to the writing outputs from workshops held in the city. 
Type Of Art Performance (Music, Dance, Drama, etc) 
Year Produced 2022 
Impact Evaluation for this is ongoing 
 
Title Follow the Thread exhibition 
Description collection of digitised textiles produced for the Follow the Thread exhibition 
Type Of Art Artefact (including digital) 
Year Produced 2022 
Impact Evaluation of the exhibition is ongoing. 
 
Title On the Edge: the NYT & University of Hull at COP26 
Description On the Edge was a co-created theatrical intervention by the National Youth Theatre and University of Hull, performed at COP26 in Glasgow in November 2021. It included a new commission, created by Adeola Yemitan, who graduated from our NYT REP Company in 2020 and a climate cabaret curated by NYT Associate Artist and award-winning writer Tatty Hennessy. It formed part of MELT, a multi year collaboration between National Youth Theatre, academics from the University of Hull and an advisory panel of experts from the sustainable energy industry. 
Type Of Art Performance (Music, Dance, Drama, etc) 
Year Produced 2021 
Impact Live performance at COP, live stream and recorded film (available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5rqFiLAF9s&t=2s) 
URL https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5rqFiLAF9s&t=2s
 
Title Podcast titled 'Cop26: Anxiety, Anger & Care' 
Description Contribution by Dr Kate Smith to the Language and Power Podcast discussing 'On the Edge' and our work with the National Youth Theatre at COP26 
Type Of Art Artefact (including digital) 
Year Produced 2022 
Impact Not yet evident 
URL https://languagepowerpodcast.org/series1/tw6cpd1115y9f18pgkm3xxr4s3rgm2-njtmb-7jtft-xht5h-n9szm-8lp2...
 
Title Risky Cities Digital Twin 
Description Developed with support from a NERC discipline-hopping small grant, this digital twin acts as a repository for creative projects and outputs from Risky Cities' community engagement workshops. 
Type Of Art Artefact (including digital) 
Year Produced 2023 
Impact Impact is yet to be fully realised as development of the project is ongoing. 
 
Title Risky Cities Zine 
Description Created in dialogue with community participants, textile and creative writing workshop outputs, and the two primary research work packages of Risky Cities, this zine brings together our learning histories about Hull's long legacy of living with floods. Using beautiful and eye-catching images to tell the story of Hull's watery past, the zine combines our historical learning with practical steps people can take towards flood resilience and will be circulated to households in the city's wards where flood risk remains high. 
Type Of Art Artwork 
Year Produced 2023 
Impact Impacts still being realised as distributed is in process. 
 
Title Virtual Horizons by Jack Chamberlain Creative 
Description An innovative new theatre show incorporating virtual reality and created in collaboration with Hull communities that are susceptible to flooding. Written by playwright Maureen Lennon and directed by Jack Chamberlain, Virtual Horizons explores what the future may look like if climate change is left unchecked. The show blends cutting-edge virtual reality technology and theatre to create an immersive experience that is equal parts educational, thought-provoking and exciting. Through ideas and stories shared by people living in Hull's HU4, HU7 and HU9 communities, combined with stunning landscapes and engaging storytelling, Virtual Horizons delivers a unique tale of climate hope and resilience. Jack Chamberlain, creator and director, said: "I'd been planning on making a show about climate for a few years but had never quite found the right moment, as it's such a huge topic. Having worked on the University of Hull's Risky Cities project, I felt now was the right time to discuss this crucial subject matter in a fun and eye-opening way." Thirteen performances of Virtual Horizons will take place at Hull Truck Theatre between Wednesday 1 and Saturday 4 November 2023. A fusion of storytelling, technology and community collaboration, the show aims to ignite the imagination and inspire a brighter future by starting fresh conversations about climate change. The show's writer, Maureen Lennon, said: "We've taken ideas, thoughts and experiences from people in our local communities, honouring the opinions and interests of the group. It's hard to really imagine a world that's so different from what we know today, so using VR is an opportunity to take audiences to familiar places that have changed dramatically." Jack said: "We've had the joy of watching our community co-creators use virtual reality for the first time and this immersive tech elicits such a response. We want to create a safe and inviting space where people are transported through VR and theatre and join a conversation. Our aim is for audiences to leave the show feeling positive, build resilience around the climate and their role in it, and gain more of an understanding of what they can do to protect the future." Virtual Horizons has been created with the help of people from HU4 Community Hub, Bransholme Chat and TimeBank on Preston Road. The show is funded by Arts Council England, Hull City Arts and the Sir James Reckitt Charity, and supported by the University of York. 
Type Of Art Performance (Music, Dance, Drama, etc) 
Year Produced 2023 
Impact To follow 
URL https://www.hulltruck.co.uk/news/virtual-horizons/
 
Description In addition to detailed research on how communities responded to and learning to live with water in one flood-prone estuarine city (Kingston Upon Hull, UK) (WP1) and the various narratives and fictions of flooding that have arisen alongside and in response to experiences of living with water in Hull over 800 years (WP2), the place-based elements of our project (and robust evaluation thereof) demonstrated that place-based and historically-informed creative engagement provides a valuable mechanism for building climate awareness, action and resilience amongst both participants and audiences (WP3). To offer three brief examples:

1. Large-scale public art
FloodLights (commissioned by arts and cultural development charity Absolutely Cultured in partnership with the University of Hull, the Living with Water Partnership and Yorkshire Water) consisted of three site-responsive, multimedia light and sound installations shown over four nights in October 2021 in Kingston-Upon-Hull, UK, and attended by an audience of ~11,000. FloodLights project illuminated Hull's experiences of living with water, past, present, and future, utilising local histories, stories and landmarks to drive climate awareness and action. These included flood histories and climate futures, maritime identities, marine pollution, and watery myths and folklore.

As our audience survey (n = 470) demonstrated, FloodLights facilitated audiences to engage in climate and water action, impacting audience thinking on climate change, flood risk and living with water and driving reported behavioural change amongst audience members. Sixty-four per cent of survey respondents reported that the event made them think about climate futures, and nearly a third (29.1%) talked to others at the event about flooding, living with water and climate change. A third reported behavioural changes they planned to make in relation to this, including specific intentions to reduce personal carbon footprints and sign up for flood alerts.

2. Creative community engagement
Similar experiences were reported in our creative community engagement programme (inc. co-created community textile, poetry and zine workshops) which took place in summer and autumn 2022. Similar to FloodLights, the workshops utilised a two-way sharing process whereby the project team shared 'learning histories' through maps, images and archival materials and community members were invited to contribute their own lived experiences, photos and flood memories. Participants were then invited to respond and reflect upon these histories through creative practice.

Evaluations of the programme were undertaken via focus groups with workshop participants, interviews with artists, and feedback surveys. These evidence the significant impacts of the programme, including the value many participants placed on having space to discuss their experiences of and feelings about flooding (especially the 2007 floods) and increased community awareness that the city had always been 'watery'. This knowledge provided a prompt for participants to reflect on and share how future climate change and flooding might affect them. One audience member shared, for example, that attending the creative sharing led them to connect with the climate emergency 'in a way that the TV/News/Social media has not done so previously. The repetition of water as a problem and the urgency was so powerful through music and spoken word'. Another reflected that it had made them 'think more about how we can pull together as communities to help one another'. Many participants connected this awareness with action: for example, choosing to check their own flood risk, cascade conversations by talking to family members about historical and recent examples of flooding, and sign up for national flood alerts.

3. Youth-led theatre and performance
On the Edge was a collaborative and co-creative project between the National Youth Theatre (NYT) and the University of Hull. The co-created and site-responsive theatrical performance platformed young people's (aged 18-26) experiences of living with climate change in UK coastal and estuarine communities on a global policy stage - in the Green Zone at United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, UK, in November 2021. The final 90-minute performance premiered a new play, I Don't Care, written and directed by Adeola Yemitan and devised by the NYT Company in collaboration with members of the Risky Cities team. The play explored young people's agency to manage the competing challenges of flood risk, coastal change, high socio-economic deprivation, and unemployment, and to identify solutions, negotiate barriers to action and build resilience in a changing climate future. I Don't Care was followed by a climate cabaret directed by Tatty Hennessey using spoken word, poetry, music and magic to explore an intergenerational conversation about climate change in coastal areas. The live performance elements were interspersed with a number of short films, and the event concluded with a round table discussion with participants reflecting on the process of working collaboratively on the project.

Reflective journals kept by participants - including the academic researchers - chart the cognitive, bodily, and emotional experiences of those involved which ultimately challenged our collective expectations about young people's experiences of the climate crisis. Participants reported their anxiety about climate change, alongside anger and frustration around a lack of government action in addressing climate impacts. This was coupled with a concern for the intersectional challenges faced by young people who are dealing with not just a climate crisis, but also rising inequality, racism, and long-term economic adversity - all of which can and do act as barriers to climate action and inclusive resilience building. Hope was a repeated theme in the journals, as were reflections on the value of artistic and creative practice in addressing the climate crisis.

A small audience survey (n = 27) was also conducted. Ninety-seven per cent of respondents rated their experience of On the Edge good or very good, with audience members reporting a range of emotional responses to the performance from frustration at a sense of time running out, sadness, resignation and rage through to joy, amusement, hope and a feeling of being motivated to action. More than two-thirds of the audience identified specific ways that their thinking in relation to young people, flooding and climate change had been changed: for example, by underlining our collective vulnerability in the face of climate change, by highlighting the depth and complexity of young people's responses to the climate crisis, and by spotlighting issues of class, race and the difficulties of activism as a priority in everyday life. Several respondents referred to the local as a mechanism for underlining the urgency of the climate crises, noting that the play 'makes [flooding] more local - makes it more real' and 'brought it home even more'. Crucially, 88 per cent of respondents also reported that as a result of watching On the Edge, they planned to change their own advocacy or actions in relation to young people, flooding and climate change.

Summary
Our participatory and creative 'learning histories' approach offers crucial opportunities to make big global narratives about climate change relatable and meaningful at the local level - and so drive anticipatory climate action. Our quantitative and qualitative data strongly bears this out, and provides the first large-scale analyses of how pre-modern histories and geographies can be mobilized to drive climate action and behavioural change across a range of scales from co-created community engagement activities to large-scale public arts. In doing so, the Risky Cities project exceeded against its original aims and objectives. Crucially, our approach provides scalable solutions to building awareness, action and resilience in other UK and global cities in the face of the climate emergency. We hope others will take up the challenge and provocation.

Outputs from the project include: academic journal articles and book chapters (McDonagh et al., 2024; Brookes et al., 2024; McDonagh et al., 2023; Mottram, 2023; Mottram, 2022; Smith et al., in review; McDonagh et al., in review); a community-devised zine about flood and flood resilience (Risky Cities zine); youth-led theatre performance (On the Edge with NYT); virtual reality & live action play (Virtual Horizons); mixed-media performances (Risky Cities sharings); digital artefact (Risky Cities digital twin); material artefacts (textiles; visual arts; soundscape; creative writing etc); large-scale public arts interventions (FloodLights with Absolutely Cultured); gallery exhibition (City of Water); creative community workshops and community engagement programme; policy impacts; and further funding.
Exploitation Route See above
Sectors Communities and Social Services/Policy

Creative Economy

Environment

Culture

Heritage

Museums and Collections
URL https://riskycities.hull.ac.uk/
 
Description Estuarine and coastal communities must learn to 'live with water' in an uncertain future, and new innovative solutions to a range of water stresses and shocks must be developed. Crucially, if we are to build resilience at local, national and global scales, individuals and communities will need to be more aware of water challenges and adaptive to flood risk. But engaging diverse publics with water and climate resilience actions is a significant challenge to agencies and governments, with the most vulnerable in societies often lacking information concerning resilience actions and/or having the least capacity to engage. Arts-led, place-based approaches offer opportunities to centre local needs and work collaboratively with communities to build climate resilience and action. Regional government actors, water sector partners, and water and environmental engineering consultancies (see below for examples) are keen to better understand how arts-led projects can offer opportunities to work with communities in building flood and climate resilience. Arts organisations (see below) are interested in how they can better engage with water and climate issues as part of their commitment to social justice and change. Community organisations and ventures (again, see below) are keen to use these approaches to 'voice' local needs, challenges and opportunities and to platform community knowledge assets within wider conversations about the future of estuarine and coastal communities in a changed climate future. For academic partners, there are important opportunities to better understand how we can work collectively to build meaningful climate action and to further develop the civic universities agenda to support this work. Expanded policy, better toolkits and more case studies are needed in order to share, transfer and scale learning about the opportunities for and effectiveness of using arts-led and place-based interventions to drive climate resilience, awareness and action. Across our 3-year UKRI-funded research project, we have worked with a range of external partners and organisations including arts and creative partners (National Youth Theatre; Absolutely Cultured; Freedom Festival), cultural sector partners (Hull: Yorkshire's Maritime City team, Ferens Art Gallery), water sector partners (Yorkshire Water; Living with Water Partnership; Arup); local government (Hull City Council; East Riding Council; North East Lincolnshire Council); and community organisations (Hull Minster; Timebank; Back to Ours; Hu4 Hub; Freedom Centre). To date, our KE and policy impacts have focused on mobilising arts-led approaches in driving community climate/flood awareness, action and resilience building. This has been extended through additional NERC funded disciplining hopping projects; 'Risky Cities: Digital Twin' which created an online repository and gallery space containing the community artworks created from the project. This is in addition to, 'Arts, Culture, Community and Climate Resilience: A Creative Policy Workshop', which utilised policy learnings from the project to develop a multiagency stakeholder event which explored how the arts and cultural sector could become more climate resilient. We have academic articles disseminating monitoring and evaluation data about how arts-led, place-based approaches drive behavioural change around climate (Brookes et al., 2024; McDonagh et al., 2023). We have platformed our findings on an international policy stage at the United Nations and at COP, as well as impacted regional and national policy e.g. Yorkshire and Humber Climate Commission evidence hearings; climate resilience workshop for local stakeholders; input to flood risk policy (HCC's Local Flood Risk Management Strategy for 2022-2028; POSTNOTE 647 on Coastal Management; and tabled amendments to the Levelling Up Bill); DCMS's culture, place-making and the levelling up agenda inquiry submission. We also have several large datasets tracking our impacts still to analyse and publish. In addition, our 12-month HIKE 'follow on' project exploring how we can amplify and grow these impacts within the cultural policy sector across 2024 and 2025. We are further aware that several of our local artist partners have gone on to develop and extend their engagement with topics related to flooding, community relationships with water, and future flood risk. We aim to track these impacts throughout the coming years. The realist evaluation approach we've used throughout Risky Cities has both underpinned our publications and policy impacts, and also led to further externally funded evaluation work.
First Year Of Impact 2020
Sector Communities and Social Services/Policy,Creative Economy,Education,Environment,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections
Impact Types Cultural

Societal

Policy & public services
 
Description Contribution to PostNote 647 (July 2021), Coastal Management
Geographic Reach Europe 
Policy Influence Type Citation in other policy documents
URL https://post.parliament.uk/research-briefings/post-pn-0647/
 
Description DCMS Inquiry - Cultural Placemaking and the Levelling Up Agenda EEI Report 2022 (Submitted February 18th)
Geographic Reach National 
Policy Influence Type Contribution to a national consultation/review
 
Description Arts, Heritage and Liveability: Assessing the effectiveness of community arts and heritage initiatives in Kingston Upon Hull
Amount £96,611 (GBP)
Funding ID ES/X006840/1 
Organisation Economic and Social Research Council 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 01/2023 
End 12/2023
 
Description COAST-R Network+
Amount £1,999,728 (GBP)
Organisation United Kingdom Research and Innovation 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 03/2024 
End 09/2028
 
Description HIKE Risky Cities Fellowship
Amount £49,540 (GBP)
Organisation Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC) 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 01/2024 
End 05/2026
 
Description Leverhulme Doctoral Scholarships Centres
Amount £1,350,000 (GBP)
Organisation The Leverhulme Trust 
Sector Charity/Non Profit
Country United Kingdom
Start 05/2021 
End 09/2027
 
Description UKCRP impact funding
Amount £10,000 (GBP)
Funding ID On the Edge 
Organisation Natural Environment Research Council 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 06/2021 
End 07/2022
 
Description Absolutely Cultured & UOH 
Organisation Absolutely Cultured
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Charity/Non Profit 
PI Contribution We worked with Absolutely Cultured, the Living with Water Partnership and Yorkshire Water to deliver a co-created, large-scale public arts project called 'FloodLights' in Hull city centre (October 2021). This consisted of three light and sound installations co-created with artists and exploring how Hull communities have and will live with water, past, present and future. The Risky Cities project contributed academic expertise, monitoring and evaluation to the co-created process. FloodLights attracted more than 11,000 visitors over three nights and ~470 responses to our evaluation survey, which demonstrated that arts engagement raised climate awareness and built flood resilience amongst diverse communities. To offer one data finding, more than 56% of visitors reported that attending the light and sound show made them think differently about climate change and its impacts on their communities. We also collected detailed data on the changes visitors reported they would make in relation to their own climate change behaviours.
Collaborator Contribution Creative production; coordination; funding
Impact 3 light and sound installations, a community parade, a digital programme and a round table discussion and launch event. These are archived here: https://www.absolutelycultured.co.uk/whats-on/past-projects/floodlights/
Start Year 2020
 
Description Freedom Festival 
Organisation Freedom Festival Arts Trust
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Charity/Non Profit 
PI Contribution New collaborative partnership working to bring work delivering impacts related to Risky Cities to COP26 and the Freedom Festival.
Collaborator Contribution As above
Impact Funding bid to the British Council
Start Year 2020
 
Description National Youth Theatre/UOH @ COP26 
Organisation National Youth Theatre of Great Britain
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Charity/Non Profit 
PI Contribution In our 2021 Research Fish return, we reported our developing partnership looking to bring a new NYT/University of Hull (Risky Cities) production 'On the Edge' to COP26. Risky Cities will consult on the research and development and NYT lead on the performative and digital elements. In our 2022 Research Fish return, we reported that the partnership with the National Youth Theatre had delivered a major theatrical intervention in the COP26 Green Zone in Glasgow (Nov 2021). 'On the Edge' was a co-created exploration of the experiences and anxieties of young people from estuarine and coastal communities in the face of an uncertain future climate, specifically sea level rise and coastal retreat. The 90-minute performance include a new newly commission play written by Adeola Yemitan and co-created with the NYT cast and the Risky Cities team; a 'climate caberet' including music, spoken word, a magic act, and film; plus a Q&A discussion featuring Paul Roseby (NYT Creative Director), Adeola Yemitan (writer) and Prof. Briony McDonagh. The performance was devised on a 8 week timeline in technically difficult circumstances, but was a huge success. It attracted national media coverage as well as an online audience of more than 2600.
Collaborator Contribution A developing partnership looking to bring a new NYT/University of Hull (Risky Cities) production 'On the Edge' to COP26. Risky Cities will consult on the research and development and NYT lead on the performative and digital elements.
Impact Bid for performance space at COP26 (successful); two funding bids - to British Council (unsuccesful) and UK Climate Resilience Programme (successful); livestream and archived film of the performance (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5rqFiLAF9s&t=2s)
Start Year 2020
 
Description 'Zine making workshops 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Study participants or study members
Results and Impact Participants in previous workshops were invited to respond to the outputs of those workshops to create artwork for a 'zine to be distributed through the city in 2023.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description Creation of digital 'zine 
Form Of Engagement Activity A magazine, newsletter or online publication
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Digitisation of paper 'zine to ensure accessibility in the long term. Zine includes calls to action on flooding and flood resilience, including links to sign up for flood warnings.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023,2024
URL https://user-8riewri.cld.bz/Wet-feet-warm-hearts-strong-places
 
Description Creative Writing workshops 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Creative writing workshops held around the city, responding to the work done on the literatures of flooding from Hull's past. Participants work formed the basis for later performance events.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description Flood Resilience Centre workshops 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Industry/Business
Results and Impact Members of the Risky Cities team (Briony McDonagh, Gill Hughes, Stuart McLelland) have been involved workshops organised by the Flood Resilience Centre which engage regional businesses, industries, community groups and charities in innovation that will drive flood resilience.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2020,2021
 
Description Flood of Words 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact 'A Flood of Words!' Creative writing session for primary school-age children inspired by flood facts from Hull's history. Big Malarkey Children's Festival (East Park, Hull). June 2021.
Approximately 15 primary school-aged children and their families attended this festival event featuring a theatrical performance integrating flood facts from Hull's 800-year long history ('True or Poo!') and a creative writing activity using flood words to inspire acrostic poetry. Audience members contributed their creative writing as outputs and commented that the event had deepened their understanding and awareness of Hull's vulnerability to flooding.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
URL https://thebigmalarkeyfestival.com/whats-on/#1491819281824-148b7437-c700
 
Description Flow of Words sharing events/performances 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Artists from the area were commissioned to respond to the creative writing workshop outputs, presenting their work at two performance/sharing events in the city in November 2022. Evaluation for this is ongoing.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description Follow the Thread exhibition 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Artefacts created during textile workshops were mounted and displayed at at touring exhibition around Hull. Evaluation for this exhibition is ongoing.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description Guest lecture FRM 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact Guest lecture as part of the University of Hull's Msc for Flood Risk Management which discussed the role of the Risky Cities project in building local community flood resilience through historically informed arts engagement.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description Humber Histories and Futures: a blog series 
Form Of Engagement Activity Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact An 11-part blog series launched in July 2021 as part of the University of Hull Alumni Olympic Challenge (#HumberWalk21) and imaginatively set along the Humber Estuary and exploring living with water in a changing climate. Together, we traversed the sticky interface between land and water, those 'unfast' lands which were neither wholly dry nor completely wet, yet we've - thankfully - never quite got stuck in the mud. Along the way, we heard from physical and human geographers, marine biologists and environmental scientists, English scholars and climate experts, social scientists and educators. Together, they took us on a journey along the flood banks and across creeks of the northern Humber shore, through mud and marshes, past the city of Hull and eastwards, ever eastwards towards the North Sea and the slim spit of land that projects out into it - Spurn.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
URL https://riskycities.hull.ac.uk/humber-histories-and-futures-one/
 
Description Presentation at UKCRP final conference 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Presentation covering the projects described in the Insight paper led by the Risky Cities team.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description Presentation at the Humber Maritime Network Conference on the FLoodlights installation 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Presentation at the Humber Maritime Network Conference which discussed the Floodlights installation and the role of arts and heritage in shaping local identity and flood awareness
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description Risky Cities website 
Form Of Engagement Activity Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Public facing website for the Risky Cities project
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2020,2021,2022
URL https://riskycities.hull.ac.uk/
 
Description Textile workshops 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Textile workshops responding to archival discoveries and flood histories uncovered in work package 1 of the Risky Cities project, evaluation ongoing but initial feedback suggests extremely positive engagement with members of the public who reported increased awareness of changing flood risk and more engagement with flood resilient behaviours.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description UK Climate Resilience Programme showcase 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact University of Hull and Risky Cities hosted the UK Climate Resilience Programme showcase in Hull in October 2022. Delegates attended workshops, film showings and panel discussions sharing best practice approaches for working with and engaging publics in climate resilience.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description UPEN blog 
Form Of Engagement Activity Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact Blog by Risky Cities' Kate Smith and Briony McDonagh on the topic of:
The rewards of letting go: putting young people's voices centre-stage at COP26
In a ground-breaking Knowledge Exchange collaboration between academics and young creatives, researchers from the University of Hull have been working with the National Youth Theatre to create a powerful, site-specific response to the climate crisis for COP26. This blog outlines our engagement with the NYT, our learning from the experience and the policy impacts of our work.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
URL https://upen.ac.uk/blogs/?action=story&id=250
 
Description Utrecht Water Cultures Symposium 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact The symposium represents a collaboration between the Utrecht Centre for Environmental Humanities, Critical Pathways at Utrecht University, and the Centre for Water Cultures at the University of Hull
The event attracted 30 attendees and ran for the whole of September 8 2023, at Utrecht University.
The symposium offered a number of academic paper sessions and interactive workshops which explored water as a cultural medium, and how coastal, estuarine and oceanic cultures worldwide mediate the relationship between humanity and bodies of water.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description VR environment community demonstration event 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Demonstration of the virtual reality 'digital twin' of Risky Cities for community participants, PGR students, academics and artists involved in the project. Feedback was sought from attendees about accessibility, user experience and general impressions of the digital twin.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description Water & Coasts Network Event 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact The Water & Coasts Network is a series of multi-partner/community water event which brings together different groups, individuals and organisations that are all working on or exploring issues relating to flooding, erosion and water management across Hull and East Riding. The series is ongoing but we have a mailing list of over 50 participants with events attracting 40+ attendees
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description Yorkshire and Humber Climate Commission evidence hearing 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact Prof Briony McDonagh gave evidence at the Yorkshire and Humber Climate Commission's Delivering Impact evidence hearing. She shared evidence and best practice from the Risky Cities project about using place-based, historically-informed, arts-led community engagement for building climate awareness, action and resilience.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description Youth Club visit 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact Visited youth club as part of their work on flooding and flood risk, demonstrated VR digital twin as part of workshop activities
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023