ABOUT THE WATERMARKS PROJECT
Sea levels are rising due to climate change… but how much could they rise and how quickly? And how could this affect the world’s coastal cities.
Watermarks is an ongoing public art project that explores these questions. Between 6th and 12th February 2009 a series of large-scale projections were displayed at sites across the centre of Bristol (UK).
In Bristol, flood level marks were projected on to the sides of buildings, showing how high water levels could potentially rise as the sea inundates the central, low lying areas of the city. By displaying these levels in real space, the project aimed to help the audience imagine the depth and extent of this potential future flooding - allowing us to measure the possible future water levels against ourselves in familiar environments.
The Bristol projections were the first phase of Watermarks - further phases will extend the project to other cities in the UK and globally.
The complexity and inherent uncertainty involved in predicting sea level rise means there is little consensus across the global scientific community as to how much sea levels could rise in the coming decades. The Watermarks project (Bristol) used current UK government predictions for the next century to set the key flood mark levels. The project, however, also acknowledged uncertainty by exploring other, more extreme scenarios. Future phases of the project will use the latest sea level prediction data as it emerges - displaying a wide range of potential scenarios from across the scientific community.
This project contends that the future of our cities and landscapes and our responses to rising sea levels are not just left to scientists, politicians, engineers and the built environment professions but emerge from as wide a base as possible with participation and involvement from all sections of the wider community. Ultimately the mitigation and adaptation measures will be social and cultural as much as scientific and technical.
Workshops were also run in conjunction with the Bristol projections to encourage debate and creative participation of the audience.