The STORIES team is always interested in the long-term dynamics of flood resilience, exploring not only contemporary developments but also historical dynamics, especially in China and Vietnam. In July 2025, several team members participated in two international conferences on historical geography and disaster history, where they presented their latest research and engaged with the broader academic community.

From 13 to 18 July, five members of STORIES took part in the 18th International Conference of Historical Geographers (ICHG 2025) in Shanghai. They convened a dedicated session entitled “Social Resilience to Climate-Related Hazards in Historical Periods”, where eleven scholars presented their research.



Here, Siying Chen from our team presented her new research on how to assess changes in flood resilience using limited historical documents. Her work traced the process of resilience building and collapse in Sichuan during China’s Qing dynasty (1644–1911 AD). Phuoc Thanh Ho examined the measures adopted to cope with recurrent floods in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta over the past 300 years, highlighting how resilience strategies shifted across different periods. Mei Ai reviewed the millennium-scale history of how human societies along the Tea-Horse Road in Southwest China responded to floods, and proposed a qualitative framework and indicators to assess historical flood resilience.



Wenhan, Siying, and Mei also joined the Young Scholars’ Workshop, exchanging ideas with peers from diverse disciplines and explored opportunities for future collaboration.

From 21 to 24 July, Dr. Liang Emlyn Yang, Siying, and Mei participated in the Academic Forum on “A New Era of Disaster History Studies: China and the World” in Changshu. Emlyn and Mei delivered a talk on social resilience and cultural dynamics in historical flood management along the Tea Horse Road, while also introducing the latest findings from the STORIES project. Siying presented a comparative study of social resilience in southern and northern China during the most severe and prolonged drought of the past five centuries.