A hydrosocial history of drought and societal resilience in the cities of Deventer and Zutphen, 1500-1900

Drought constitutes a major threat to society, which is expected to worsen due to the effects of climate change and human intervention in the hydrological sphere. In recent years, the reconstruction and study of past droughts on the basis of historical records has led to increased insights regarding the widespread effects of droughts on premodern societies. This dissertation aims to contribute to this growing body of work by presenting the outcomes of a study that focused two cities in the eastern Netherlands: Deventer and Zutphen, between 1500 and 1900. The main aim of this study was to find out to what extent premodern urban societies in the eastern Netherlands developed risk-mitigating strategies to alleviate the possible damaging effects of drought-induced water shortages, and whether this displays a certain level of resilience. Considering the similarities in socio-economic and geohydrological circumstances that constitute the hydrosocial system of each city, as well as the presence of long-running historical records, it was possible to conduct a long-term comparative analysis for both cities regarding the impact of droughts on water provisioning. This provided valuable insights into the specific effects of drought on the micro-infrastructures of urban water provisioning and the development of risk-mitigating strategies, which serve as an indicator of resilience to drought over time.