preface
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In East Libya in September 2023, two dams burst and flooded low-lying areas in Derna, killing thousands of people. The tragedy has given a painful twist to the idea of living with water and to the preface I was planning to write for this volume. Yes, water is the elixir of life, but water can also bring death and destruction, and the rapid pace of urbanization coupled with the growing uncertainty of climate change means that we must be sensitive to how we live with water. All our actions, whether remodelling riverfronts in the name of modernization, covering ancient water tanks or...
editorial
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In March 2023, thousands of people from various disciplines came together in New York for the United Nations 2023 Water Conference. The attendees included policymakers, activists, professionals and academics, all with an interest in the water sector. The conference provided a platform to share knowledge and exchange ideas about water-related challenges. Through a combination of in-house and side events, participants were provided with the opportunity to voice their concerns, engage in crucial discussions and exchange novel insights, despite the predominantly scripted nature of the event...
challenges, concepts and new approaches
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This article focuses on the integration of different values of water, ranging from intrinsic to emotional, in international treaties and transboundary organizations. After introducing the “four worlds of water” (Wolf 2017), we discuss the increased recognition of locally based cultural and spiritual values of water in global conventions, international freshwater treaties and regional river basin organizations. Global conventions generally use more technical and broad formulations and international treaties tend to focus on small geographic areas and the need to protect water, and...
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Water has a central position in the cosmovision of Native peoples in Brazilian culture. In the Andes, water is sacred and revered. However, in South America, colonial practices and the advance of agriculture and farming following industrialization has had devastating effects on cultures and ecologies. Only in recent decades has awareness started growing that there might be lessons for a sustainable future to be found in Indigenous peoples’ ways of living with water. This article conceptualizes the importance of “nature-based solutions” and illustrates this with examples from Brazil...
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Zones of fluvial influence, which were the cradles of many human societies both past and present, are key in today’s discourse on how to manage water, culture and heritage in ways that are compatible with sustainable development. Water/river customs have served environmental/cultural practices. This article discusses the interdependence or dissociation between “nature/water” and “culture,” which has forged a more or less strict dualism depending on specific religious frameworks. This dualism can be critically analyzed by sociology, phenomenology and political ecology. The relationship...
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Can intangible cultural heritage (ICH) help to reduce biodiversity loss and and water shortages related to climate change? Can it contribute to managing water shortages and surpluses on a local level? This article argues that some useful forms of intangible, “living” heritage offer valuable knowledge and practices that can serve as adaptive strategies in a changing environment. Binding practitioners to a specific place and to each other and connecting past and future generations, ICH can bring local knowledge and experience into the work field. The examples introduced here include...
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Because of the urgency of the current water challenges, we need to decide on a water-heritage agenda. In order to do so, we should first disentangle the sometimes confusing relationship between water management and heritage management. Where do water and heritage management meet and how can they serve each other? It is argued that fruitful synergy between the two disciplines can be reached in three dimensions: the historic dimension, the conservation dimension and the planning dimension. The subject of interaction between the two disciplines differs per dimension and relates to the...
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Efforts to shape more sustainable and just land and water management practices are increasingly turning to the past for inspiration. However, what the past looked like exactly and what can be learned from it and applied to present-day challenges is not straightforward. Peru is one of those places where reviving ancestral land and water management practices and knowledge has become popular. This article starts with a project that aimed to recuperate ancestral water infiltration structures in the Peruvian highlands. Drawing on interviews conducted shortly after the project’s...
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Underwater cultural heritage is heritage that is surrounded by water. It can be found in rivers, lakes, oceans and reservoirs, and comprises tangible heritage – wrecks, fishing tools, sunken cities and aircraft – as well as the intangible heritage of many civilizations. However, this heritage is not only part of the past; it can also provide answers to the many challenges that international agendas face today. With its connection to cultural aspects of communities around the world, it offers knowledge that can be helpfully applied to the pursuit of the Sustainable Development Goals of...
methodologies and case studies
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In the times of climate crisis, cities face acute challenges. Over 80 per cent of all climate change emergencies and disasters are water-related: floods and drought, pollution, water conflicts, rapid urbanization, a growing demand for food and energy, and migration. Many of these have historic roots in our lifestyle choices, our preference for specific kinds of technology, and energy usage. The omnipresence of water challenges and the way in which we have addressed them in the past give us the opportunity to treat water as leverage for comprehensive changes.The WaterSchool M4H+ in...
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Historical information is an important resource for designing and sustainably developing contemporary cities, notably ones such as Amsterdam that have long histories. The historical information is embedded in physical places and structures as well as practices; it is also found in plans and texts that are held in multiple archives. It can be difficult to connect information about the past -- e.g., building materials, construction technologies, plans and proposals -- to contemporary needs and themes. Access to archives is not standardized, the material is not always digitized and it is...
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Dutch engineers are well-known for their skillful water management, best exemplified in the meticulously designed canals, irrigation and drainage systems, reservoirs, wells and moats that characterize both the Netherlands and places abroad where they have been active. Many of these structures that exist outside the Netherlands and were created by the Dutch East India Company (Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie, VOC, between 1602-1795) in Asia remain understudied. This article identifies and revisits these forgotten and often vanishing water structures through both archival and field...
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Preserving cultural heritage and achieving the Sustainable Development Goal of protecting life below water do not always go hand in hand. The case of the Serpis River sheds light on the political, cultural and legal tensions that may arise when pursuing these two policy goals. To better understand these tensions, we propose acknowledging that rivers are complex natural-cultural systems imagined and shaped through various actors’ values, interests, practices and infrastructures (Boelens et al. 2016). River restoration initiatives generate divisions between actors and institutions with...
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Certain cultures portray the sacredness of water in rituals performed daily and to mark different stages of life. Water has been revered the home of protective spirits, according to myths and legends, such as those of the Serer people in Senegal. This spiritual connection between water and people, which has favored its preservation, has been undermined with the emergence of industrialization and urbanization. This shift in perception has led to water being viewed primarily as a commodity. The Island of Saint-Louis is faced with a paradox of benefits and challenges due to its colonial...
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Beginning in the fourteenth century, along the northeastern Italian coastline, Venetians began to create a series of hydraulic structures called “fishing valleys,” which combined aquaculture production with lagoon and seawater management. According to the current scenarios provided by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the coastal areas, where many historic fish farms still stand, will inevitably be affected by the rise in sea level. To be preserved, coastlines will require some sort of water defense or possibly a managed retreat. Can we redesign traditional fish-farm systems...
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While the world struggles with limited water resources, interflow water is a hidden gem of a solution. Interflow is an important water source contributing to river flow. It is the movable water in the unsaturated zone, or vadose zone, which may return to the stream or go into the riverbed. The collection of interflow water was included in the design of the Erfeng Irrigation Canal System (EICS) during the Japanese period in Taiwan (1895–1945), and it is still used in the EICS in Pingtung in southern Taiwan. Today, urbanization and changes in land usage have reduced the EICS’s irrigation...
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Nzulezo, a tentative World Heritage Site listed in 2000 by UNESCO, is a community built on Lake Tadane in the Western Region of Ghana. Since its nomination, Nzulezo has become an attraction to both Ghanaians and foreigners alike. Over the years, the population has built dwellings and other structures to form the village over the lake, a way of adapting to an environment made up of about 70 per cent freshwater, about 20 per cent wetland, and 10 per cent land. Nzulezo stands out among heritage sites in Ghana due to its traditional architectural style. The village structures are made of...
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The water-harvesting system of the ancient Sassi di Matera, in the Basilicata region of southern Italy, represents a clever way of living with water in an arid climate. The terrain, with its soft rocks (Calcarenite di Gravina), provided the foundation for the water-harvesting system that shaped the cave dwellings of Sassi physically, socially and culturally. People caught, guided and stored water in private and public spaces, mostly underground, ensuring its availability for all. In 1993 UNESCO declared the cave village a World Heritage Site. Unfortunately, the water-harvesting system of...
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This article examines civic commitments and legal frameworks that have defended public access to water by recognizing its cultural value. In Caxambu, Brazil, the local population has collected mineral water from natural springs for centuries. The water’s use is embedded in local social and cultural practices. However, over the last thirty years the water sources have become increasingly threatened by commercial and industrial interests. The local government and civic society have responded to the threat by creating protected areas and their efforts have culminated in the legal...
