Calm and wild river; An etnography study around the Otava river

In this diploma thesis I wanted to find out how people who live in a close relationship with the river deal with the extremes like are floods and drought. I wondered if local settlers and the city administration identified the threat of flood differently from people who did not live in contact with the river, and if their relationship with the river could be useful for others. I tried to find out if and how the locals reflect climate change through their lived experiences with floods and droughts. During my six-month research, based on ethnographic methods I spent time with gardeners who have been critically affected by drought in recent years, with settlers who regularly experience floods and with representatives of the city administration. Thanks to ethnography, I was able to understand the context of the relationships I studied. I found out that living in contact with floods is not as dramatic as it may seem to an observer. Thanks to many years od experience with floods and the river have the locals developed local knowledge, that can be very useful for whole city; If the city administration can combine expert and local knowledge, solving potential problems with high water can become much more effective and proportionate to reality. People living under the threat of floods do not need to be seen..