preface
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Water managers face many urgent challenges. Sea levels are rising, floods and droughts are in- creasing in frequency and intensity, while population growth and socio-economic transitions in- crease water demand.
These challenges cannot be resolved by technological innovation alone. To adapt to the changing requirements of water systems, we need to not only rethink institutions, laws and policies, but also to reflect on past cultures and the often-overlooked relationship between humans, water and eco-systems. We need to include the larger public and elevate their awareness of the...
editorial
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Humans have shaped water in all its forms and functions over time; they have controlled water through infrastructures, institutions and legislations. Many of the decisions made have benefited individuals, communities and nations; but many have also created new forms of injustice, making water the epicenter of societal issues and conflict from time past. Upstream and downstream com- munities have long been in conflict about the amount of water shared, its cleanliness or its use. Providing drinking water to some can mean cutting off others; creating dams to generate energy or store water...
challenges, concepts and new approaches
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There are important legal dimensions to the relationship between water and heritage. This paper reports on the challenges Indonesia is facing concerning water management. Age-old customary water governance systems exist in parts of the country and continue to influence local decisionmaking and water use practices. However, such heritage institutions can no longer safeguard local community water rights nor protect the environment. Since the 1990s, business power has been gradually overstepping customary socio-legal arrangements with negative effects on both the local population and water...
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An appreciation of the diversity of world water cultures – past and present – is essential to recognizing the conflicts and solutions that exist within water management. This article analyzes the intricacies of water governance and politics. It argues for new ways to recognize and negotiate the value of local water cultures, and proposes the term “Riverhood” as a way to understand the political, technological and cultural arenas in which water rights and governance frameworks are being shaped in grassroots movements’ everyday practice, in interaction with rivers’ adjacent social and...
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Floods wreak chaos and destruction in many places, but for people in arid regions using spate irrigation, the floods that emerge from ephemeral rivers symbolize life, livelihood and prosperity. Communities pray for floods as they are the only source of water. Pakistan has the largest amount ofland under spate irrigation in the world. Spate irrigation is a unique 1000-year-old system. Yet despite its many environmental, social, cultural, managerial and economic benefits, it is not widely known among academics, researchers or practitioners. The practice is based on indigenous knowledge...
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Conceptualizing water and heritage together is a key challenge. Only in recent years has heritage management started to embrace sustainable development in the context of heritage preservation. The UNESCO Historic Urban Landscape (HUL) approach and policy recommendations for sustainable development integration exemplify this recent development. This contribution examines World Heritage discourses through the lenses of water and heritage as a system. It specifically explores the relation between World Heritage management and water management of World Heritage sites. In doing so, it aims to...
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OUT OF SIGHT, OUT OF MIND. Tangible and intangible cultural heritage assets located in coastal and near-shore underwater environments are under particular threat due to climate change and its impact on water. These threatened sites and practices have served historically to not only feed and employ large and small coastal communities, but importantly have provided the societal and cultural roots that have helped bond them together. Although it is acknowledged that water environments (in the context of this article ‘‘water’’ is taken to mean oceans, seas and inland waters) function as a...
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Water is central to most religions. However, the treatment of water in those religions is often far from holy. With examples from the Netherlands and Indonesia, this article shares insights concerning the intricate link between water, religion and world views. In recent decades, religious and interreligious institutions and organizations have taken stands against wastage and pollution and for the sustainable uses of water. As it turns out, religion can be an obstacle to, but also a source of, environment-friendly practices.
methodologies and case studies
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How can knowledge of traditional water practices in India help build more sustainable futures? Launched in 2017, the Living Waters Museum addresses the rich and diverse traditions of water heritage and practices in India. It is building a digital repository of visual knowledge that celebrates the past, inspires the present and is a source of learning to prepare for the future. Through the use of storytelling, digital media and the creative arts, the team behind the Living Waters Museum works in collaboration with young water professionals, conservation architects, urban planners and...
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Water and water-linked heritage play a very important role for many cities and regions. They are at the center of many places’ identities and key activities. Consider historic waterfronts and infrastructures such as bridges, port facilities, sluices, dams, water towers, mills and specific water-related landscapes, both in the city and in the countryside. Consider also intangible aspects of water-linked heritage, from traditional water management practices to values and local stories. These all have the potential to galvanize the interests of diverse stakeholders and provide a foundation...
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The Chinampas are a system of floating gardens in the Valley of Mexico, including Mexico City, allowing for effective agriculture and sustainable water management since approximately 200 BC (Rojas-Rabiela 1993). Vernacular water systems like the Chinampas create opportunities for landscape architects to learn from historical approaches to water management to solve today’s challenges (Bobbink and Ryu 2017; Bobbink 2019). Through a layered visual analysis – the illustrative method – vernacular knowledge about the Chinampas was collected and communicated by drawings to gather (new) visions...
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Reflecting on water and heritage as a system linking nature and culture raises challenges and opportunities for both water and heritage management. This case study explores what integrating water and heritage management means for Mantua and Sabbioneta, two cities in Northern Italy listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site because of artistic, architectural and urban values associated with the Renaissance. It considers how World Heritage management recalls water-based visions, interactions between heritage institutions and water institutions and the role of water in innovative heritage...
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Steep slopes, rivers, a rainy climate, and rich vegetation: the region of Fındıklı and the city of Rize (Türkiye) have been shaped by humans living with water. To understand the region’s traditional settlements, vernacular buildings and local culture, it is crucial to analyze its geomorphological setting. Yet, despite the importance of climate and geomorphology for understanding how living with water has shaped everyday artifacts, water-related heritage in this region is not well documented. This article makes a case for seeing cultural and natural heritage as connected and to protect...
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Lake Urmia is one of the largest saltwater lakes on Earth and a highly endangered ecosystem. It is on the brink of a significant environmental disaster, similar to the drying up of the Aral Sea. UNESCO has inscribed Lake Urmia on its list of Iranian biosphere reserves. The existing situation is due to a lack of water heritage management and the absence of an integrated, straightforward method that includes support for the ecological and social aspects of the lake. Recognizing the significant factors behind Lake Urmia’s drying up and the impact on people’s lives can significantly raise...
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Foggaras are traditional Algerian water systems, which historically have made it possible to collect and redistribute water in the Sahara Desert. Although threatened by climate change and unsustainable urbanization, foggaras are still in use today and for hundreds of years have been managed by the same customary laws and groups. They are an example of tangible water heritage and ingenious water works, adapted to the needs of an arduous environment along with local society and culture. Such structures can inspire future ways of engaging with nature.
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Current efforts to integrate heritage practices in the sustainable management of wetlands in postcolonial nation-states assume that these practices have always existed in the forms they are now. The colonial order, whether deliberately or otherwise, suppressed many local traditional practices. The postcolonial authority’s adoption of Western science invariably continued the suppression, albeit in a more liberal form. In the Ramsar Convention, natural scientists were assigned the role of conserving wetlands ‘‘for the benefit of humankind in a way compatible with the maintenance of natural...
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This article examines the ancient irrigation canals in Lima, the capital of Peru, and it reveals the role of indigenous groups who transformed the desert into agricultural valleys over millennia. The current role of the surviving canals is explained, as is their relevance to the city’s environmental sustainability. It discusses aspects related to their management from precolonial times to the present and outlines the key elements of the campaign for their declaration as cultural heritage of Peru, sharing the main results, including the 2019 declaration. It also discusses the work done to...
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Living with water is an essential part of the cultural heritage of the city of Zwolle, NL. The historic development of the city within its water systems has been recognized as an inspiration for climate adaptation. In July 2019, the city of Zwolle presented its Adaptation Strategy. Building on its water heritage, a cohesive blue-green network (city scale) in the city can develop and expand, with room for urban sponges (neighborhood scale) that will combat heat stress. This will create a new natural...
