By building a digital dataset that will include information from three different fields and scientific perspectives, namely eco-hydrology, medicine and history, LuxTIME will be using a local case (the industrialization of Belval / Minette region) as a testbed for methodological and epistemological reflections on how to study the impact of environmental changes on the health of the local population in a long term perspective. In combining past evidence deriving from hydrological studies (containing information about water pollution, climate change, and topographic / geological transformations), medical records (describing desease patterns, mortality rates, social/psychological well-being), and history (archival sources documenting economic, social, political and cultural changes), LuxTIME will enable to study the past in completely new ways. By mixing ‘contextual information’ based on archival evidence with ‘scientific evidence’ deriving from chemical, biological, or medical investigations, the project explores new ground in interpreting “big data of the past” in a truly interdisciplinary setting. The Belval-case is meant to critically test the analytical potential of a multi-layered research design which – this is the mid-term ambition – be expanded into a national case study; that is the building of a real “Luxembourg Time Machine” including many different kind of data from many different kind of institutions.
- Luxembourg Insitute of Science and Technology (LIST)