INTERWEAVING INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE & WESTERN SCIENCE: “In British Columbia, hydrometric records are fairly limited in time and geographic coverage. From a hydrology perspective, then, interweaving science and a rich oral history would turn a comparatively short period of data collection into thousands of years of knowledge. This might profoundly change how we view extreme changes in the water cycle and the consequences in BC,” stated Kim Stephens, Partnership for Water Sustainability (February 2022)
“If Thomas Bayes (1702-1761) was alive today, I have no doubt that he would say, oral history extends the period of period and our understanding of what the data mean. Bayesian statistics offers a framework for combining different kinds of information and making best use of what is available. Four decades ago, a municipality brought public works staff back from retirement so that I could interview them and compile the oral history of strategic culvert installations. These ‘data inputs’ made it possible to generate flood frequency curves,” stated Kim Stephens.