The “Slow Mobility” of Nature, between Conservation and adaptation: The Moving Sand Dune Råbjerg Mile in the Jutland Peninsula

Alice Torrero; Benedetta Castiglioni

doi:10.36253/bsgi-7585

Authors

Alice Torrero Department of Historical and Geographic Sciences and the Ancient World, University of Padua, Italy
Benedetta Castiglioni Department of Historical and Geographic Sciences and the Ancient World, University of Padua, Italy

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.36253/bsgi-7585

Keywords:

slow mobility, sand dune, Jutland peninsula, conservation, adaptation

Abstract

The paper presents the particular “slow mobility” of the moving sand dune Råbjerg Mile situated in the Jutland peninsula. The dune nowadays is moving towards the northeast due to natural wind processes at a rate of 15 metres per year and it is supposed to submerge part of the territory that has in front, including a road and a railroad, in the next 100 years. Surprisingly, the Danish government has decided not to stop the course of the dune with the use of vegetation, but to let it continue its slow path, eventually relocating the infrastructures in danger. The will to show the “true nature” of the landscape to the next generation has brought the government to protect the area. Addressing the question of the heritage-mobility nexus of this “moving heritage landscape” in the framework of social-nature theories, we discuss this case study considering, on the one side, the interaction between “natural” mobility and human mobility on and in front of the dunes and, on the other side, the relationship between conservation and adaptation approaches.

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