Built heritage and flash floods: hiking trails and tourism on Madeira Island

Abstract

High-magnitude, low-frequency rain events (heavy rains) have increased on the island of Madeira in recent years. The levadas, a built heritage of water canals, and one of the biggest tourist attractions on the island due to their role as hiking trails, have been repeatedly damaged as a result of heavy rains causing problems that affect stakeholders, regional governments and local communities. Using ethnographic methods this study analyses the relations between tourism, actors and climate change and especially the vulnerability of tourism spaces (hiking trails) as a result of increased risk and (in)security.

Keywords:

• heritage
• tourism
• flash floods
• Madeira Island

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Nuno Santos for reviewing the first draft of this article and the informants for their contribution to her research. The author is also grateful to Professor C. Michael Hall and the anonymous reviewers for their work.

Notes on the contributor

Filipa Fernandes is an assistant professor at School of Political and Social Sciences, University of Lisbon, Portugal. She holds a PhD in Tourism and an MA in Anthropology. She is a researcher at Centre of Administration and Public Policies (CAPP), University of Lisbon. She is also a collaborator at Research Center on local and regional studies (CIERL), University of Madeira, Portugal. She was a Visiting Academic at Multidimensional Tourism Institute, Lapland University Consortium. Her research interests are heritage, memory, water conflicts, nature-based tourism, tourism imaginaries, tourism studies, climate change and tourism.

Additional information

Funding

Part of this work was supported by Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology [grant number SFRH/BD/46730/2008].