HEAT

Historical Energy Transitions and AI Technology

The world is facing enormous challenges. We are in the midst of an energy transition, necessary to counteract further climate change. Are historical sources in fact relevant to studying the current energy transition? How did people in the past respond to extreme weather events and to climate disasters? This project uses the latest AI-technologies to answer these questions.

Digital Source Collections

The Huygens Institute manages an enormous amount of digitized source material and digital collections. Within the HEAT project, we are searching for data related to energy and climate in our historical datasets. This includes mentions of historical energy sources, for example peat, and descriptions of the weather such as storms and rain. Data about climate-related phenomena, such as prolonged droughts or extreme weather events, are also of interest. After mapping out what relevant material we have, we aim to make these sources as accessible as possible for further research.

Knowledge Building

With this project, we gain more knowledge about data extraction and AI methods, particularly Natural Language Processing (NLP).We also work on several case studies to develop articles that provide insights into human and societal responses to new methods of energy generation and responses to changing climates. In this way, we can offer broader perspectives on how societies might respond to climate change in the present, rediscover lost knowledge from the past, and show how energy transitions and changing climate have always been part of history.

From Correspondences to Resolutions

The material we work with consists of a wide variety of digital sources. This includes serial sources like the resolutions of the States General (made accessible by the Republic project) and the Surviving letters and Papers from Asia in the VOC archives (made accessible by the GLOBALISE project). From there, we proceed with other historical sources from our Resources, including correspondences and chronicles. Each type of source offers a new perspective on energy and climate.

Green Web

We explore new techniques, promote them to make them applicable to historical material, and connect this knowledge with the historical community within the Green Web of the Humanities Cluster, as part of the Climate Research Initiative Netherlands (KIN). We make data more accessible by offering models to make them thematically searchable. Furthermore, we test the solutions together with young researchers to develop talent in an emerging field.