preface
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This year’s 10th World Water Forum (10WWF), with the theme “Water for Shared Prosperity,” highlighted the need to identify and promote the collective values of water, along with heritage structures and practices. I was invited to give an opening speech at the official side event (SE37) of the UNESCO Chair Water, Ports and Historic Cities titled “Promoting the Values of the Subak System for Sustainable Water and Heritage Management.”
editorial
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In recent years, community engagement has become a cornerstone in peace-building, decision-making and sustainable development. It also plays an increasingly significant role in heritage management and the processes involved in heritage listing. The 1972 World Heritage Convention, Article 5, proposed adopting a policy of integrating cultural and natural heritage in the life of communities. In 2007, “Communities” was added as the “Fifth C” to the Strategic Objectives to “enhance the role of communities in the implementation of the World Heritage Convention” (UNESCO 2007). The 2011 UNESCO...
challenges, concepts and new approaches
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As climate change and water-related threats like floods and droughts intensify, water management must become a key component of World Heritage management plans. Currently, these plans are not required to address water management even though an increasing number of sites are encountering water-related challenges. A lack of comprehensive data and knowledge sharing hampers efforts to collectively address these issues, posing a risk to the preservation of their Outstanding Universal Value. This article examines the significance of water management for World Heritage Sites, including sites...
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Maritime heritage – an ensemble of ships, ports, waterways, buildings and maritime skills – is one of the oldest and most vital forms of heritage. It has been key to the growth of port cities around the world. Maritime skills, which include the techniques and materials used to build and use watercraft, from dugout canoes to container vessels, have made it possible to transport goods, animals and people, bringing wealth to deltas and coastal areas. This article argues that maritime heritage holds cultural, historical and environmental value and can drive sustainable spatial and economic...
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Water plays a fundamental role in human survival and well-being. Despite extensive research highlighting the importance of water-human relationships, how to cultivate intimacy between them at the architectural scale remains largely underexplored. This article explores this dynamic through a case study of the Master of the Nets Garden in China. Using spatial, empirical and experiential analyses, it introduces a three-stage framework that integrates both quantitative and qualitative methods and examines various conditions within the garden that foster intimacy between visitors and water....
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The Mozambique Channel separates the island of Madagascar from Mozambique on the African continent, creating a total of 6200 km of coastline. Yet, in inscriptions of national heritage, water is not a focus of discussion nor is it considered. This lack of attention to water-related heritage is surprising given that the cities and heritage sites along the Mozambique Channel emerged from a maritime trade network that existed until the nineteenth century and formed the foundation for the evolution of the two countries. A water-based approach to heritage can help address contemporary...
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The Venetian Arsenal, one of Europe’s oldest shipyards, played a crucial role in the development of Venice. Although it now hosts events for the renowned Biennale, since the partial departure of the military, the site has offered little value to the communities in its vicinity in part because citizens have not been included in heritage management decisions. A recent draft agreement signed in 2022 to expand La Biennale’s activities threatens to further exacerbate livability problems faced by local communities. However, the agreement’s early stage presents an opportunity to repurpose the...
methodologies and case studies
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The territory of Madagascar emerged from the unification of formerly independent kingdoms. These kingdoms were geographically distinct, with one main inland kingdom and several coastal ones. The “Kingdom of Madagascar” emerged in the nineteenth century from political conquests made possible by the trade effervescence taking place along the nearby Mozambique Channel, creating an islandbased unity. The Antalaotra people, or “People from the Sea,” who lived in the Comoros archipelago and the northwest coast of Madagascar, acted as a bridge between the different territories. Over a period of...
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Addressing Dhaka’s severe lack of public space in a deltaic landscape, this article considers fluctuating pocket spaces overlooked in planning and policy. It focuses on ghats, liminal zones between land and water, and a common Asian cultural landscape element. It explores their role as vital yet undefined and informal hubs of community life. The article documents social practices in these small, flexible areas carved out within a larger context. Examining specific pockets along the Turag-Buriganga and Balu Rivers, and the Banani-Gulshan-Hatirjheel Lake area in Bangladesh, it reveals how...
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For decades, the floating villages of Tonlé Sap, a lake in Cambodia, have demonstrated ingenuity by necessity and adaptability to the seasonal rhythms of nature. The villages are examples of ephemeral, floating urbanism, a response to discriminatory land tenure practices that is able to adjust to ever-increasing fluctuations in water levels exacerbated by global warming. The villages’ Indigenous knowledge systems and practices (IKSP) display a distinct intelligence, in which water-based modes of living and livelihoods are connected with a resourceful understanding and use of locational...
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Chars are shifting riverine islands. This article focuses on Birsing Char, part of Birsing Jarua Village Panchayat, in the Brahmaputra River near the Indo-Bangladesh border. Generations of families have migrated across this porous border, settling in the Lower Brahmaputra Valley. This migration has intensified the sociocultural othering of Bengali Muslims amid Assam’s identity politics and India’s rising authoritarianism. Through fieldwork and interpretative mapping, the article uncovers forms of alternative knowledge, including local spatial practices and intangible heritage like songs...
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In recent decades in Southeast Asia, dramatic social, economic and political changes have profoundly impacted the lives of Indigenous populations. In Malaysia, the Sama Dilaut, known as the “sea nomads,” are under pressure to abandon their traditional way of living at a time of rapid modernization. Over centuries, the Sama Dilaut have developed a harmonious relationship with their environment, practicing sustainable small-scale fishing methods that have minimal impact on marine ecosystems. In their worldview, humans are not considered exceptional but interconnected with the ocean and...
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The khadeen system of the Thar Desert, in Rajasthan, is an ancient technology that takes advantage of peculiar geohydrologic formations to create temporary lakes. A careful water management practice, the khadeen are an example of age-old methods of capturing and using seasonal runoff for agriculture, ensuring water access in arid regions. Khadeen have played a crucial role in supporting agricultural activities since the sixteenth century, offering impressive yields in a water-scarce environment. However, the enduring efficacy of khadeen faces contemporary threats, including mining...
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Phnom K’to (Cô Tô Mountain) is the easternmost peak of a small chain of granite outcrops of Vietnam’s Mekong Delta. It reveals a long and rich tradition of water management that is often overlooked in present-day development. Although the region is under Vietnamese control, it had centuries of Khmer rule and inhabitation. Today, the marginalized Khmer settlements around Phnom K’to are spread across varied terrain, from rugged mountains to muddy floodplains, with monsoon-fed and flood-cycle cultivation. The Khmer’s traditional water practices were carefully adapted to topography and water...
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The ancient weitian (polder) system in the Yangtze River Delta represents a particular form of water urbanism, integrating productive polders, villages and prosperous water towns (shui-xiang). Over millennia, the hudangweitian (shallow lake polders) transformed the muddy plains around Taihu Lake into a highly productive area. Zhenze, founded in the twelfth century, is an important water town that initially operated within a network of garrisons and trading ports. This case study illustrates the resilience of weitian landscapes and how twentieth-century water management reshaped the small...
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In the face of water scarcity and climate change, the Figuig Oasis exemplifies resilience through the integration of culture, heritage and sustainable development. This arid region has preserved ancient water management practices that have sustained life for millennia, offering a model for achieving the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Figuig’s significance lies in the potential to harmonize traditional and modern water governance systems, optimizing its hydraulic organization as a living cultural heritage to ensure the sustainability of ecosystems in desert...
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China’s Grand Canal was the world’s most extensive civil engineering project before the Industrial Revolution. This interview explores how the process of applying for and achieving World Heritage status has led to the improvement of the environment surrounding the Grand Canal and encouraged collaboration among canal cities spanning eight provincial administrations. It highlights the role of water heritage as a catalyst for improving the protection of historic landscapes and waterscapes as well as the Grand Canal’s cultural heritage. It also addresses how these efforts have supported the...
