Community Waterscapes

Supporting community heritage to explore and shape Hull’s relationship with water

Project summary

The Challenge

Water in the environment is both a benefit and a threat in Hull, engaging communities and their heritage is key to future resilience

The Approach

Creating a digital, community-created heritage record of people’s connection to water to aid dialogue among Hull communities and cultural gatekeepers

The Outcome

Deepening our understanding of how people interpret their relationship with water to influence dialogues about sustainable cities and communities

Lead academics

Funded by

Project partners

Hull Maritime

Living With Water

Add to our Story Map of watery heritage

Calling Hull residents! Let us know about the objects, landmarks, landscapes, city locations, buildings, family histories, experiences, stories, memories that demonstrate your relationship with water in the city of Hull by 30 April 2025.

Contribute to our Story Map

The Challenge

Hull’s history and future are shaped by water. The city is built on low-lying land below sea level and faces flood risk from high spring tides in the Humber Estuary and fluctuating tides in the River Hull, as well as surface water flooding. The city is ranked second only to London in terms of flood risk. That risk is set to worsen as the effects of climate change take hold – predictions are for more frequent and more intense storms and that sea levels around the UK coast will increase.

Hull Maritime is delivering on the refurbishment and preservation of six historic maritime sites and two historic ships to establish Hull as Yorkshire’s maritime city. They are seeking to grow the sense of ownership and civic pride in Hull's heritage and make the city a more interesting, attractive and invigorating place for residents and visitors alike.

There is an urgent need for more integrated cultural and environmental awareness within communities living by watery environments and for those communities to engage with and input into future plans.

The UN’s Sustainable Development Agenda advocates for sustainable cities and communities to ‘safeguard the world’s cultural and natural heritage’

The Approach

Community Waterscapes seeks to unravel Hull’s rich cultural history and heritage of living with water. Working in partnership with Hull Maritime. and Living With Water, the project will address the urgent need for more integrated cultural and environmental awareness within communities living by watery environments, generating a dialogue around the intricate relationship between water, community, and culture within the city. To achieve this, the project will develop a Story Map which provides a digital, community-created heritage record of people’s connection to water – including personal stories, objects, buildings and memories.

Over a 12 month period, Community Waterscapes will deliver a range of knowledge exchange activities – including workshops, public events, and academic outputs, that will extend and build upon previous University engagement with communities surrounding Hull's history and heritage of living with water (such as Risky Cities and Rising Tide of the Humber).

The project’s approach harnesses participatory forms of history and heritage in combination with creative and digital mapping to document Hulls history and heritage of living with water. The team hosted three heritage workshops in July 2024 to creatively explore communities’ connection to water through historic documents and their own ‘material culture’ – including memories, stories and physical objects.

Stories and objects collected at these workshops informed the creation of a digital 'Story Map' which publicly records and shares insights from the project.

We continue to work with the community, through events like the Water and Coasts Network. We have also launched an online form, so that people can make Story Map submissions remotely (closing date, 30 April 2025).

Mapping watery heritage

This digital 'Storymap' presents heritage from Hull Community Waterscapes participants. The stories, photographs, landmarks, experiences and memories on the map represent their relationships with water in the city of Hull and beyond.

Explore the Storymap

The Impact

We anticipate that Community Waterscapes will help to facilitate and sustain a dialogue between cultural heritage stakeholders, environmental agencies and communities. This will deepen our understanding of how people interpret their relationship with water – including water challenges, maritime identities and at-risk heritage. Community Waterscapes will also contribute to broader discussions around how such dialogues can produce more sustainable cities and communities.

The project’s Story Map will not only provide a valuable digital public resource that will record and share local history and heritage beyond the scope of the project but will provide a platform through which to position Hull’s watery heritage as an important part of the city’s future sustainability.

Next Steps

The research team intend for Community Waterscapes to provide a step through which to scale up the University’s history and heritage engagement and will use the project’s success to apply for additional funding to support more collaborative and participatory water research with communities in the city.

Case studies

View all

Project summary

The Challenge

The Approach

The Outcome

Lead academics

Funded by

Project partners

Add to our Story Map of watery heritage

The Challenge

The Approach

Mapping watery heritage

The Impact

Next Steps

Case studies

Risky Cities

Pursuing a Climate Resilient and Net Zero Hull:

Arts, Heritage and Liveability