preface
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Rivers are often neglected. They are forgotten in international negotiations, even when they are at the heart of geopolitics. Rivers bear the brunt of climate change – droughts, floods, rising sea levels, cyclones, storms and the disappearance of wetlands. They are often little known by populations that live next to them, who don’t understand the services that rivers render to them every day. In general, people are unaware of their responsibility for preserving these common resources of humanity.
editorial
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Taking an integrated approach to problems involving water, culture, heritage, and sustainable development can be especially complicated depending on the water body at stake. Oceans, lakes, rivers and canals all require specific approaches. This issue of Blue Papers takes particular interest in rivers as agents of interaction between water and land, culture and nature, and as carriers and connectors of multiple, often very different challenges.
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Blue Papers was set up to connect academic and practical analysis of water, culture, heritage and sustainable development and provide concepts, methodologies and case studies to guide policymakers in developing value-based decisions and strategies. The first five issues of the journal brought together over 130 authors from academia, practice, private sector, major public institutions and NGOs. Their insights from multiple sectors and scientific fields – including policymaking, governance, water management, biology, urban planning, heritage and history – shed light on global and local...
challenges, concepts and new approaches
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In Australia, First Peoples have practiced sustainable forms of water management for millennia. They have done so by respectfully caring for Country through their use of engineering and maintenance processes, including sophisticated fish and eel trapping structures and weir systems. Some of the largest continuing sites of water engineering and aquaculture in the world are still visible and used by local Aboriginal groups – the Budj Bim in Victoria and Baiame’s Ngunnhu (Brewarrina Aboriginal fish traps) in New South Wales (NSW). Recent scholarship and successful heritage listings,...
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Water plays a dual role in the context of cultural heritage: it can be of great importance, but it can also threaten the existence of built heritage. This article explores the intricate relationship between water and built heritage, focusing on the risks posed by climate change-induced events such as heavy rainfall, which can lead to flooding and surface water run-off. The research project “Resilience and Built Heritage” focused on how built heritage contributes to urban resilience and emphasizes the imperative of integrated risk management, which requires collaboration between heritage...
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This article explores the value of a mobilities lens in studying the nexus of water and heritage, specifically within the context of post-industrial rivers and the many regenerative and degenerative processes shaping them today. The River Lea (East London) showcases the complex, often conflicting, water-heritage dynamics that manifest across post-industrial riverscapes: efforts to (re)connect communities to rivers and their heritage become entangled with the (pollutive) imprints of industry. Using examples from the River Lea, the article highlights how a mobilities lens, currently...
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Water has always played an important part in societies. It has created and damaged, also threatened and saved societies throughout their existence. Its absence has done the same. Our rivers and seas contain evidence of this history and contain important parts of our cultural heritage, including underwater cultural heritage. Changing water levels – whether they lead to flooding or drought – challenge people’s livelihoods and threaten our heritage in (former) riverbeds, lakes and seas. Hunger stones, drowned villages, waterworks and shipwrecks all provide insight into the long history of...
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Urbanization has altered natural waterways, leading to a growing disconnection between humans and rivers and the loss of river culture – the co-evolution of biocultural diversities in riverscapes. To combat this trend, efforts to restore rivers are reintegrating them into urban environments as green-blue infrastructure. Recognizing evolving human-river relationships, this article introduces a GIS-based survey aimed at exploring societal perspectives on the roles of urban rivers, particularly to counter the “extinction of experience” with nature. Drawing on previous studies of public...
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The concept of values has become increasingly important in many fields, including water management, heritage preservation and design. Politicians, economists, water managers, heritage specialists and designers often consider values as guiding principles for their interventions. While water management has traditionally focused on technological and economic values, in recent decades there has been growing recognition of the significance of socio-cultural aspects. This shift is evident in initiatives like the United Nation’s Valuing Water Initiative, which recognized five “Valuing Water...
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Engineers, long accustomed to finding technological solutions for any vulnerable location regardless of water and soil conditions, fear that a new Dutch spatial planning policy that takes the impacts of climate change into account will place limits on the scope of their activity. The concept of Water en Bodem Sturend (WBS), approximately translated in English as “water and soil as governing principles,” is considered a continuation of earlier proposals such as Meebewegen. This ecological and climate-informed policy transition has in fact been in development for at least three decades....
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Changing sea conditions due to climate change will have an enormous effect on all sorts of processes in seas, oceans and coastal areas. Current patterns will change, as will sedimentation-erosion processes, acidity and salinity. Invasive species will be able to settle in places they could not before. Each of these changes will trigger other processes that can have a negative effect on underwater cultural heritage. Our need to try to mitigate climate change has us looking for green energy, which has led us to build large wind farms in the North Sea. We want to continue living in areas...
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This article discusses the importance of increasing the percentage of protected areas and improving the efficiency of law enforcement in the Amazon rainforest. The Amazon’s waters and forests are essential to the global ecosystem, and both global and local climate changes are already having a significant impact on the region, as exemplified in 2023 by reduced precipitation in the region and extremely low levels of rivers like the Rio Negro. Yet, deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon is increasing, especially in those areas not protected by legal environmental legislation. Therefore,...
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Problems caused by land-use change and climate change transcend territorial boundaries, but often management of natural heritage sites can only influence what happens within the local area. Therefore, we need innovative conservation strategies that also transcend territorial boundaries. Hence, the approach to managing our natural heritage sites may need innovative strategies to ensure their effective conservation. This study examines the conservation approach in the Pantanal biome, which houses multiple centers of decision-making across Brazil, Bolivia, and Paraguay. Despite the region’s...
methodologies and case studies
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The Dutch Water Defense Line (Hollandse Waterlinie) is a historic defense system in the Netherlands that integrates innovative flood defense mechanisms with the country’s lowland topography across a 200 km span. Despite its effectiveness during periods of conflict, technological advancements rendered the defense system obsolete, letting it fall into a state of neglect. The Waterline laid dormant for a few decades until revitalization effort began in 2001 - a multi-stakeholder endeavor encompassing heritage preservation, nature conservation and spatial development (UNESCO n.d.). In a...
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This contribution explores the case of Ourinhos, Brazil, through a value case approach. The findings are based on the author’s work in the professional education 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. Following the methodology of the course, the author identified water towers as key elements of transformation and developed the concept of watermarks. Following a brief investigation of history, heritage and context, the article examines the potential of water...
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Rotterdam has a close and essential connection with water, both as a port city and a delta city. As a low-lying city situated in the estuary of the Rhine and Meuse rivers, most of the city (85 per cent) lies below sea level, and some areas are as low as 7 m beneath sea level. Except for the main port area, the remaining 15 per cent of the city lies in outer dike zones. Since evacuation is nearly impossible, adapting to climate change presents a significant challenge. This vulnerable delta city is continually revisiting its approach to water threats and climate change is demanding a new...
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Historic water systems have become iconic features of cities like Venice and Amsterdam. The Navigli of Milan were constructed to channel groundwater for various purposes and a consequence was the desiccation of the surrounding marshy land. As the city faced new water challenges amid imminent water needs, its water identity was affected by the covering up of the historic water system. Climate change poses new challenges to preservation and planning in this historical water city. This article highlights the importance of history and water heritage for future interventions, by evoking the...
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Changes in coastal and maritime environments, increasingly caused by the climate crisis and large infrastructural projects such as global port construction, significantly impact community identity. When a community’s terraqueous space – a space that transcends the land-sea binary distinction – suffers a shock, long-term sociability within the community and relationships with nature are altered. This article connects the challenges of coastal community spaces and the community’s cultural heritage by articulating a critical ontology of the shore. The connection is illustrated using the...
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Water often needs protection, but heritage can also require protection from water. The remains of a military fortification complex in the Latvian city of Liepāja are slowly being swallowed by the sea, a case where military heritage meets water heritage. To what extent should these ruins be protected from water and is preservation still possible? Both the coastal defense structures and the sea have been considered symbols of the city, attracting locals and visitors. Yet, over time, the monumental structures have been threatened by environmental challenges triggered by rising sea levels...
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Morocco is considered a water-independent country by the World Bank, yet due to its topographical diversity, considerable land surface, and challenges posed by climate change, it ranks among the most water-stressed countries on the globe. Marrakech, an oasis city in Morocco, thrived for centuries through the ingenious use of khettarat, a traditional system of underground wells and channels that tapped into local aquifers and made use of topography and gravity to sustainably deliver water to the city. Until the early 1990s, Marrakech could still meet all its drinking water demand with the...
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The island of Djerba is a tourist destination in the southeastern semi-arid region of Tunisia. Especially during peak tourism seasons, it experiences severe pressure on its water supply. Given the island’s historical water scarcity, locals have developed solutions to address the shortage, with one of the most notable being the rainwater harvesting and storage system. This system has evolved intricately over time, with meticulous attention to construction details, material selection, maintenance, and management strategies. This article posits that embracing and disseminating traditional...
