Blue Papers: a Journal for Empowering Water and Heritage for Sustainable Development edited by Carola Hein with changing special editors (see editorial history).
Remembering Life Along the River: Alternative Histories along the Grensmaas
This article explores the banks of the Grensmaas, a stretch of the Maas River in the province of Limburg, in search of alternative narratives that contrast with traditional Dutch water management’s deeply engrained tradition of “fighting against the water”, where keeping the water out is the primary concern. With interviews and a workshop, focusing on historical narratives and cultural stories that have shaped the community’s relationship with the river, as well as the river imaginaries people carry, alternative narratives emerged of a past life along the river that emphasized on connection with the Maas. In recollections of living along the river, locals expressed a desire to reconnect with their river where they collectively imagine a future in which their river is not something to fear, but a dynamic entity to be enjoyed and respected.
Copyright (c) 2025 Aukje Verbaan https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Restoring Heritage Waterworks for Climate Adaptation on Curaçao: A Case Study at Hòfi Rooi Catootje
Historic water systems should be recognized not only as cultural heritage but as active assets for climate adaptation. The case of Hòfi Rooi Catootje in Curaçao illustrates how the restoration of earthen dams and spillways can contribute to contemporary water management by reducing flash flood risk, supporting groundwater recharge and creating cooler green spaces in urbanized areas. This integrated approach connects directly to the UN 2030 Agenda, advancing sustainable water management (SDG 6), resilient cities and heritage protection (SDG 11) and climate action (SDG 13). By combining historical cartography, hydrological modeling and community engagement, the project demonstrates how heritage landscapes can be mobilized as nature-based solutions. The lessons extend beyond Curaçao, offering a transferable model for other heritage sites where neglected water systems hold potential for sustainable development and climate resilience in the decades ahead.
Copyright (c) 2025 Kasper Lendering, Dimitri Schreuder https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Adapting the Polder-Boezem System to Climate Change: Designing Inner-boezem Landscapes and Revitalizing the Polder-boezem System in the Dutch Lowlands
This paper proposes a systemic re-evaluation of the Dutch polder-boezem system through the introduction of inner-boezem landscapes: newly designed, large-scale green-blue infrastructural areas enclosed by dikes that provide additional water storage capacity and enhance ecology as part of the existing polder-boezem system. Just as important, beyond their hydrological and ecological functions, inner-boezem landscapes are conceived as multifunctional cultural spaces that reconnect communities with the dynamics of water management. By integrating utility, ecology and experience, these landscapes aim to revitalize the cultural heritage of the polder landscape, transforming it from a symbol of control and defense into one of coexistence, adaptability and shared stewardship.
Copyright (c) 2025 Inge Bobbink https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Views of Nature of a Delta City: Seeking a New Balance Between Nature and Technology in the Rotterdam Region
The contemporary Dutch delta landscape is shaped by both natural processes and engineered infrastructure. For centuries, sedimentation, erosion, dikes, dams and drainage systems worked together in the reclamation and urbanization of this swampy landscape. From the late nineteenth century onward, however, the idea of technical “mastery over nature” increasingly displaced this balance. While it enabled major economic growth, it also damaged delta ecosystems and weakened the role of natural processes in flood protection and freshwater management. This shift is especially visible in the Rotterdam region, transformed from a dynamic estuary into an industrial port landscape organized around a rigid shipping channel. Facing two meters of sea level rise, energy and economic transitions and urban development, the region must rethink its water system. This article compares two approaches: a polder strategy based on large-scale technical infrastructure, and an estuary strategy combining natural processes with technical interventions.
Copyright (c) 2025 Han Meyer https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
AltaSea at the Port of Los Angeles: A Business Model to Sustain the Operations of a Blue Economy Nonprofit
The concept of leveraging underutilized port assets to drive innovation and sustainability is gaining traction globally. This paper examines AltaSea at the Port of Los Angeles, a nonprofit organization operating a 35 acre (14 ha) ocean innovation campus located on a historic pier in the Los Angeles Outer Harbor. A modified leasing and valuation framework that formally recognizes non-compensatory public benefits, such as heritage conservation, public engagement, job creation, education and workforce development, enabled this public-private partnership (PPP) to revitalize an underutilized historic site. A 50-year agreement between the Port of Los Angeles and AltaSea was structured to allow the nonprofit to generate revenue for its longterm viability, ensuring its own mission and the rehabilitation of historic structures. The model suggests a replicable approach for ports seeking to activate historic maritime sites while supporting nonprofit led blue economy ecosystems.
Copyright (c) 2025 Geraldine Knatz https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Volumes of Water, Inequalities and Heritage Loss at Zimbabwe’s Tugwi-Mukosi Dam
This study examines the socio-ecological impacts of the Tugwi-Mukosi Dam on rural communities in Masvingo South, Zimbabwe, focusing on how dam construction has disrupted and “silenced” traditional water resource values, undermining socio-ecological well-being. Taking a critical community psychology approach, it highlights how ignoring rivers’ roles as heritage sites hampers collaborative water management and sustainable development. Using qualitative data from interviews with locals and stakeholders, the study shows how the dam exacerbates social inequalities and heritage decay. It calls for integrating local values into dam planning to honor rivers’ cultural significance. By addressing opposition to the dam and prioritizing community engagement, the research advocates for transformative water management that respects heritage and fosters socio-ecological well-being.
Copyright (c) 2025 Nkosinathi Muyambo, Leonard Chitongo, Philani Mlilo, Francis Muromo https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Editorial Issue 1/2026 Water and Heritage: From Centralized Legacies to Integrated Futures
Blue Papers aims to inspire new approaches to water, culture, heritage and sustainable development. We believe historical and historiographical analysis can help shift the discourse from strategies focused on short-term gains to long-term approaches that consider both historical dynamics and the potential consequences of future developments. An analytical focus on water – its materiality and flows – can help shift the discourse from disconnected, monodisciplinary approaches to spatial, social and cultural analysis, connecting multiple scales, diverse stakeholders and local characteristics over time.
Copyright (c) 2026 Carola Hein, Michele Tenzon, Matteo D’Agostino https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Water as a Continuum: Bridging Freshwater, Ocean and Heritage
Water (in both its ‘fresh’ and ‘salty’ forms) shapes landscapes, societies, and cultures across time, linking ocean, rivers, coasts, and inland waters into a continuous and dynamic system. Managing water is therefore an inherently complex task, one that draws on long-standing practices while requiring new forms of knowledge and governance in response to climate change, environmental degradation, and growing social inequality. Whether as natural systems, engineered infrastructures, or cultural spaces, water environments embody collective memory and inherited relationships between people and their ‘liquid’ surroundings. For much of history, communities have developed adaptive ways of living with water, informed by deep environmental knowledge and cultural practices tailored to local conditions. Over time, however, large-scale and centralized water management approaches, often driven by economic, political, or technological priorities, have reshaped these relationships. While such systems enabled development and security, they also over-simplified ecological processes and marginalized local knowledge, leaving enduring legacies that continue to influence vulnerability and resilience today. International frameworks and global climate and disaster risk reduction agreements increasingly recognize the need for integrated approaches that connect freshwater and marine systems, science and society, and past experience and heritage with future action. These agendas call for governance models that are inclusive, adaptive, and grounded in place-based understanding, acknowledging that ocean sustainability depends on what happens upstream, and that heritage plays a key role in shaping how societies respond to change. In this context, heritage is not only something to be preserved, but also a living resource for learning, adaptation, and transformation. Climate change challenges conventional approaches to conservation by introducing uncertainty, loss, and the need for continual adjustment. Responding to these pressures requires balancing continuity with change, technical expertise with cultural values, and centralized planning with community participation.
Copyright (c) 2026 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Icons as a Tool to Connect Water Practices, Functions and Values across Space and Time: A Second Attempt
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.
From Paris Plages to a Sustainable River
Two decades ago, Paris shifted from a functional municipal policy for the Seine to one that approached the river as an extension of the city. Until the 1990s, the Seine was a service area that fulfilled very specific transport functions. The same period saw growing concern about heritage and a need to preserve the river landscape and its architecture. In the 2000s, the Paris-Plage program marked a transition to a policy focused on the variety of ways the river is used. It also led to the establishment of new urban lifestyles along the river and, as a result, to imagining new ways of using the water. Today, three new trends are emerging: the need to broaden our perspective and consider the Seine on the scale of the entire valley; the return of the “river system” with all its hydrological and natural characteristics; and finally, the slow emergence of “rights of nature” in political debates.
Copyright (c) 2025 Bruno Gouyette https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
The Place of Nature in Preserving Cultural Heritage and Reconnecting Citizens with their Environment: A Microscopic Approach
Because of their historical and architectural richness, since 1991 the banks of the Seine in Paris have been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. According to UNESCO, the definition of the historic urban landscape (HUL) emphasizes the interdependence between cultural heritage, the natural environment, and the evolution of urban life. However, underwater, the Seine River abounds of microscopic life constituted by phytoplankton organisms that are essential to aquatic ecosystems. Revealing this invisible life can help raise public awareness of the importance of the living as a natural heritage – similar to cultural heritage. The HUL approach should recognize the value of these autotrophic (self-feeding) microorganisms and the ecosystem services they provide. Several activities within a citizen science project offer the possibility to raise public awareness through plankton observation workshops. This approach also engages citizens in the protection of natural heritage for future generations.
Copyright (c) 2025 Sahima Hamlaoui, Maria Cellamare https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Swimmable Futures: Reimagining Water Stewardship through Youth and Community
Wavemakers United (WU) is a global initiative reimagining water stewardship by linking sport, youth leadership and community action. Responding to the limits of technocratic governance, WU frames water as a civic commons: shared, cultural and co-governed. By amplifying existing initiatives like Swimmable Cities and Drinkable Rivers, it mobilizes youth as ambassadors, educators and policy contributors who cocreate more inclusive and resilient water systems. From riverbank restoration to Olympic activism, WU combines hands-on learning with public imagination, shifting focus from regulatory compliance to justice-centered restoration. With more than 50,000 students and young professionals engaged across more than 60 countries, WU shows how water literacy, civic participation and intergenerational care can reshape access, equity and meaning in urban waterscapes. This article examines WU’s model as a pathway toward systemic change – one that empowers communities not only to care for water, but also to co-author its future.
Copyright (c) 2025 Elizabeth Hameeteman, Tilly Stroo https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
The Morphological Resilience of the Seine in Paris: From Ancient Meander to the Contemporary Street Network
This article considers the heritage of river form in the current urban fabric, specifically in relation to an ancient meander of the Seine located on the right bank of Paris. The resilience of the river’s shape appears by crossing texts, maps and archaeological data in historical geospatial mapping (GIS). In the ninth century, the Church of Sainte-Opportune in Paris received from the king the wetland left behind by the ancient channel of the Seine and used it as common pasture until 1150. Then, the canons drained the marsh which was converted for vegetable farming and, since the fourteenth century, for a sewer system. Since the nineteenth century, it has influenced the orientation of urban plots and streets. Finally, during the big flood of 1910, the Seine returned to its ancient bed. This is an example of how forms are passed on over time: because functions change.
Copyright (c) 2025 Hélène Noizet https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Heritage Spaces and River Imageries: The Case of the Guinguette
This article explores the “guinguette”, a river heritage that is both rich and discreet. The guinguette has a long history of cultural practices associated with its peculiar location. In collective memory, the guinguette is a lively place of leisure, entertainment and popular conviviality. The history of the guinguette is tied to the varied trajectories shaping the cultural and economic development of urban river spaces. Numerous stakeholders in riverine culture have exploited this cultural imagery of an art de vivre by the water and have contributed in re-enchanting it in order to create new brands and new sites.
Copyright (c) 2025 Olivier Aïm https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Reviving Urban Swimming in Europe: Navigating Complexity Between Natural and Cultural Heritage
This article examines the revival of urban swimming in Europe, framing it as a site of negotiation between natural and cultural heritage. A comparative analysis of Paris and Berlin reveals two complementary models of urban swimming: an institutional, infrastructure-led approach in Paris, centered on the highly symbolic Seine River, and a grassroots, nature-based initiative in Berlin’s disused Spree Canal. Paris offers comprehensive implementation, but faces questions of equity and resilience. Berlin’s project emphasizes sustainable design and civic engagement yet remains constrained by historical and economic factors. The study concludes that achieving a balance between nature and culture in urban swimming requires addressing infrastructural, transdisciplinary, social and symbolic dimensions, as well as emphasizing the importance of clear communication, holistic strategies and ongoing research.
Copyright (c) 2025 Alba Balmaseda Domínguez, Yixin Cao https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
The Paris Sewer Renaissance: Data, Health and Participatory Science
Aging urban wastewater infrastructure, often overlooked, can become a powerful lever for environmental and public health policy. Through the lens of the Parisian sewer system, this article highlights the growing pressures on sanitation networks – from combined sewer overflows to emerging chemical contaminants – and the limits of current treatment technologies. Yet, it also illustrates how wastewater can serve as a valuable resource. Initiatives like OBÉPINE have demonstrated the feasibility of wastewater-based epidemiology at scale, while participatory initiatives such as those performed in EGOUT show that citizen engagement and scientific monitoring can go hand in hand. Together, these efforts redefine wastewater as more than waste: It is a mirror of collective behavior, a platform for community science and a tool for decision-making. As cities face urgent climate and health challenges, this work calls for policies that reconnect people with infrastructure and invest in data-driven, inclusive approaches to urban sustainability.
Copyright (c) 2025 Thomas Thiebault, Catherine Carré, Jérémy Jacob https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Paris Sewers: A 19th Century Heritage to Be Adapted to the Challenges of the 21st Century
The Parisian sewer system was designed and built primarily in the nineteenth and early-twentieth century. Today, the responsibility of the City of Paris is to maintain these 150-year-old structures, which are still in operation, and at the same time adapt this system to today’s environmental challenges. When the sewer system was first established, the improvements it made to Parisians’ comfort, health and quality of life were readily apparent: The sewers were part of the Hausmann plan, which modernized and beautified Paris, both above and below ground, bringing drinking water to homes and removing wastewater from the streets. At the time, Parisians were very aware of this new public service because it changed their lives, and they had the chance to visit the sewer as early as 1867. Today the situation is quite different: It is now a hidden, little-known part of the city, transformed to meet the challenges of preserving rivers and turning wastewater into a resource. However, the goal of making it possible to swim in the Seine has shed new light on the Paris sewer system and its catchment area.
Copyright (c) 2025 Anita Ravlic https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
The Port–City–River Relationship in Paris: The Challenge of Mixed-Use Development
The relationship between Paris and the Seine has been undergoing a process of reconnection. Since the first decade of the twenty-first century, the development of new public spaces along the river has been a central focus of municipal policy. This shift marks a recreational and ecological turning point in the city–river dynamic, characteristic of the postindustrial river city. Nevertheless, a few urban ports remain in operation, managed by a port authority that negotiates with the municipality and industrial stakeholders to better integrate these sites into the urban fabric. Based on selected examples, this article considers the challenges of integrating these ports within the city and the coexistence of economic and urban functions in light of sustainability objectives.
Copyright (c) 2025 Jean Debrie https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
The Seine and Energy Transition: Historical Lessons for a Sustainable Future
The history of navigation on the Seine offers a unique laboratory for examining how energy transitions transform the systems that support river transport. This case study explores how the historical management of energy on the Seine – particularly as documented in Bernard Le Sueur’s work on the history of French river navigation – can inform contemporary energy transition strategies for river transport. The Seine illustrates a fundamental principle: service always precedes integration. From the organisation of hauliers in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine in the 19th century to the current challenges of ensuring low-carbon energy in the Seine Valley, the sector’s organisational evolution shows that new energy technologies first appear as external services before being integrated into transport units. This historical analysis contributes directly to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 7: Clean Energy, SDG 9: Innovation and Infrastructure, and SDG 13: Climate Action) by proposing innovative organisational models to accelerate the energy transition in European river transport.
Copyright (c) 2025 Olivier Burel https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Making the Seine Swimmable: From Regulatory Challenges to a Metropolitan Vision
This article examines the reintroduction of swimming in the Seine from a dual perspective: first, the technical and regulatory constraints specific to Paris; second, the need to broaden the scope toward long-term territorial planning. In the first part, the authors show how floating bathing facilities must contend with regulations designed for river navigation rather than swimming. This framework imposes sometimes unsuitable standards (freeboard, ERP classification, navigation police regulations) leading to a highly controlled and formalized design of sites, though one deemed necessary to ensure the coexistence of multiple uses of the river. In its second part, the authors warn against the limitations of a single model – the enclosed pool – which fails to reflect the diversity of urban swimming practices and may in fact encourage informal, unsupervised swimming. Drawing on the example of Copenhagen, the authors argue for an integrated metropolitan strategy that embraces diverse forms of access to the water, making swimming a durable component of Paris’s territorial development.
Copyright (c) 2025 Clément Brun, Léonard Bertrand, Annabelle Nantier https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Colonial Disaster, the “Capitalocene” and Contemporary Lessons: The Great Flood of 1924 in Southern India
Floods impact many Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and aspects of sanitation and water supply. They are especially detrimental to those in lower socio-economic strata. The 2018 Kerala floods disrupted the lives of 5.4 million people, resulting in funds and attention being diverted from SDGs priorities and toward rebuilding and rehabilitation efforts. Such ravages of nature often result from the over-exploitation of local natural resources and the mismanagement of infrastructure. Colonialism was a watershed in such ecological destruction. The Great Flood of 1924, which devastated parts of present-day Kerala, is an example of a colonial-era-induced natural disaster. A century later, revisiting this disaster in the light of Kerala’s 2018 floods offers instructive pointers for achieving disaster resilience today – in a region known for its rich biodiversity and population density. This study also highlights how historical forces like colonialism contributed to transforming this once peripheral region into a “risk society.”
Copyright (c) 2025 Mahendranath Sudhindranath, John Bosco Lourdusamy https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Drowning Heritage: The Impact of Climate Change and Erosion on Azizakpe’s Water Culture
Islands have built their culture and heritage around bodies of water. However, due to climate change, the coastal islands are steadily disappearing because of severe flooding and erosion, as in the case of Azizakpe, a fishing community whose history and culture are strongly connected to water. Human activities, including the dredging of the estuary, along with sea level rise exacerbated by global climate change are the primary drivers for this loss. Although various coastal management and adaptation measures have been introduced, their outcomes remain uncertain. This study examines the Azizakpe community and the rapidly deteriorating state of the island. It highlights the effect on local livelihoods and how the community is attempting to cope with the situation and safeguard their water-based heritage, which will be at risk if islanders are displaced.
Copyright (c) 2025 Rhoda Osei-Nkwantabisa, Martin Larbi https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Adaptive Reuse of Maritime Infrastructure: Case Study of Colonial Harbormaster Towers in Java’s Port Cities
The north coast of Java has been well known to overseas traders as a hub for commodities, as well as spices brought from the Spice Islands (now Maluku Islands or the Moluccas). By the early nineteenth century, the Dutch government took control of the maritime trade in the region through the Dutch East India Company and developed the major port cities of Jakarta (formerly Batavia), Surabaya and Semarang, where the remnants of the colonial past continue to exist. After Indonesia’s independence, several colonial port structures, such as the harbormaster tower and its riverside facilities, were neglected until recently, when cities began programs to restore them. This article examines the preservation and adaptive reuse of historic towers in Java’s three major port cities and attempts to revive them amid the climate crisis challenges.
Copyright (c) 2025 Ricky Purbaya, Rizki Dwika Aprilian, Miktha Farid Alkadri https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Mapping and Reviving Ancestral Communal Pools (Birket) in Southern Lebanon: Survey Methods, Findings and Policy Pathways
This article presents a mixed-methods survey of 101 birket across 86 villages in southern Lebanon, combining historical cartography, satellite imagery and ground-truthing with oral histories. It details site typologies, spatial patterns, present condition (functioning/abandoned/destroyed) and contemporary uses, and it demonstrates how dispersed small reservoirs can complement centralized systems. A focused case study of the village of Marwaheen traces the pool’s rehabilitation and associated gains in irrigated land and community engagement. Building on a resilience-based assessment (access/equity, adaptability, participation, ecological value, cultural relevance), the article identifies priority pools for restoration and translates results into practical policy pathways for municipal–NGO partnerships. The article offers openly reproducible mapping conventions and field templates to support future documentation without reliance on proprietary basemaps.
Copyright (c) 2025 Georges Gharios https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Playing with Water: A Value Case for Gamified Water Resilience in Alfândega da Fé, Portugal
This contribution explores the case of Alfândega da Fé, Portugal, using a value case approach. It is based on a project completed in the course Water System Design: Learning from the Past for Resilient Water Futures, offered by the UNESCO Chair Water, Ports and Historic Cities team based at TU Delft. The article argues that by adopting an innovative water management strategy and engaging the community through gamification, Alfândega da Fé can become a sustainable city adapted to future environmental needs, with reduced and more responsible water consumption, aligned with current legislation and SDGs. Based on the value case approach, the article shows how we can learn from the past, make connections between water systems and connect to the local environment to achieve a more resilient, sustainable and inclusive water system. The plan is based on the creation of an interactive water services platform for local people designed to increase general knowledge about water and enable the local population to play an important role in water consumption and enhancing water reuse.
Copyright (c) 2025 Joao Camelo https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
The Second Terrace: Reconnecting with Water and the Vernacular in the Ifugao Rice Terraces
The traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) that is deeply embedded in the Ifugao Rice Terraces offers crucial insights for socio-ecological adaptation and resilience in times of climate change. It helps sustain local biodiversity and supports ecosystem processes while inspiring new design ideas that encourage an epistemological shift that involves integrating traditional knowledge with incremental innovations from the past into future solutions. The Second Terrace Lodge research-by-design project highlights the importance of the Ifugao community’s local landscape and cultural heritage, illustrating how traditional water and land management can be integrated into contemporary architecture and landscape design.
Copyright (c) 2025 Leonardo Zuccaro Marchi, Shubham Majumder, Sara Sabry https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Constructing the Karakum Canal: The Urbanization of Soviet Turkmenistan and the Aral Sea Crisis
The collapse of the Aral Sea ecosystem is regarded as one of the most devastating environmental tragedies in history. Primarily driven by Soviet-era irrigation practices aimed at expanding agriculture in Central Asia’s arid regions, the catastrophe has had lasting ecological and socioeconomic consequences. To address the repercussions of past actions, it is essential to move beyond perceiving water as a “national” resource: It cannot be fully comprehended or effectively managed within national borders. An ecosystem-based approach can help divert from a technologically and economically based mono-functional value system, promoting possibilities for sustainable development in the region.
Copyright (c) 2025 Estere Cvilikovska https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Rituals and Residues: Mapping Mining Landscapes and Spatial Practices Along South Africa’s Klip River
Gold mining along South Africa’s Witwatersrand mining belt began in the late nineteenth century, significantly impacting water ecosystems, especially the Klip River, the largest tributary of the Vaal River. Despite challenges of acid mine drainage and compromised water quality, century-old religious practices like river baptisms persist, demonstrating cultural resilience as communities maintain their traditions amidst environmental adversity. This case study aims to illustrate how cultural resilience manifests through ritual practices and to propose a framework for addressing the socio-environmental complexities of post-mining landscapes.
Copyright (c) 2025 Shreya Sen https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Reconsidering “Water” as an Initiator and Transformer of River Landscape Heritage: The Case of the Menderes (Maeander) Delta, Türkiye
Historically, the Menderes (Maeander) River has played a crucial role in the development of settlements and cultures, shaping the natural, social, cultural, economic, and governmental dynamics of western Anatolia. Known as the “Valley of Civilizations,” its delta contains water-related heritage, knowledge, and traditions, encompassing agricultural and urban development as well as industrial and technological innovation. Today, the river’s layered landscape reflects a centuries-long history of water management and infrastructure. While the river remains critical to the continuity of life in the region, communities along its course have lost many sociocultural connections and meaningful relationships with water and the river. This article reports on research that aims to restore those connections by using water as a unifying element and catalyst, applying a “landscape biography” approach to promote the holistic and sustainable heritage conservation and management of the Menderes River landscape and its communities.
Copyright (c) 2025 Gökhan Okumuş, A. Güliz Bilgin Altınöz, Gerdy A. Verschuure-Stuip https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Historical Water Governance in Turkmenistan and the Challenges of Soviet Interventions
This article investigates historical water management practices in Turkmenistan and the development of canal construction technology, comparing the operation of traditional irrigation canals with Soviet water management policies. It explores how Soviet officials regarded water and used water management to consolidate state power and advance the region economically, arguing that centralized Soviet water management policies, which largely disregarded local expertise and participation, ultimately proved unsustainable and environmentally destructive. The article underscores the need to include diverse stakeholders in decision-making processes to avoid perpetuating outdated practices, further exacerbating the deterioration of the environment and societal customs.