Icons as a Tool to Connect Water Practices, Functions and Values across Space and Time: A Second Attempt

Abstract

Humans have shaped water systems for millennia, creating complex networks of physical structures, institutions and cultural practices. These systems reflect locally embedded yet globally influenced values that evolve over time. From infrastructure and landscapes to rituals and laws, human engagement with water is both tangible and intangible, deeply influenced by societal preferences, climate conditions and historical choices. To better understand this diversity, we developed a set of icons to represent various water spaces, functions, practices and values. Rather than offering a fixed taxonomy, these icons are intended as tools for discussion – making visible the multiple dimensions of water and the meanings knowledge holders assign to it.   Originally introduced in 2022 (Hein et al. 2022), the icons were used by authors in our journal to highlight key themes in their work. While we envisioned them as a way to map specific water-related elements across time and geography, they also served as visual keywords, helping to reveal prominent aspects of water heritage and practice. This goal has guided our ongoing efforts to enhance the icons’ interpretive and comparative value, stimulating deeper cross-contextual reflection (Hein et al. 2025). In our second attempt to build a taxonomy of water practices, functions and values, we have introduced new icons and revised others, notably by adding representations of aesthetic and economic aspects and refining examples.   Ultimately, these categories are suggestions – not exhaustive or mutually exclusive – designed to illuminate how water has been managed, valued and lived with across different times and places, and how the past continues to influence the present and shape our future.   As we make the water icons open source (CC-BY) available for download on the Blue Papers website, we invite readers to build on the current set and expand it to fit their own context. The goal is to foster a dialogue around water values, invite collaborative engagement and spur new insights.   To represent situations where multiple water functions, values, and practices are considered together, we use a circle to group the corresponding icons.