Cross-disciplinary working in the sciences and humanities: historical data rescue activities in Southeast Asia and beyond

Abstract

This paper argues that more work is needed to facilitate cross-disciplinary collaborations by scholars across the physical sciences and humanities to improve Data Rescue Activities (DARE). Debate over the scale and potential impact of anthropogenic global warming is one of the dominant narratives of the twenty-first century. Predicting future climates and determining how environment and society might be affected by climate change are global issues of social, economic and political importance. They require responses from different research communities and necessitate closer inter-disciplinary working relationships for an integrated approach. Improving the datasets required for long-term climate models is an important part of this process. Establishing a multi-disciplinary dialogue and approach to DARE activities is increasingly being recognised as the best way to achieve this. This paper focuses on the recovery of the long-term instrumental weather observations used for models and reconstructions of the climate over the past two-hundred years. Written from the perspective of an historian working in the field, it does not seek to explore the reconstructions themselves but the process of data gathering, advocating a closer working relationship between the arts, social sciences, and sciences to extend the geographic and temporal coverage of extant datasets. This is especially important for regions where data gaps exist currently. First, it will offer a justification for extending data recovery activities for Southeast Asia and the China Seas region. Second, it will offer a brief overview of the data recovery projects currently operating in that area and the typesof historic source material that are used. Third, it will explore the work currently being undertaken for Southeast Asia and China under the Atmospheric Circulation Reconstructions over the Earth initiative as an example of a successful cross-disciplinary program. Finally, it will argue the importance of advertising DARE activities across different fields and the benefits of a more joined-up discussion on potential data sources by exploring the use of the resource by the wider academic community. @ 2016, The Author(s).