Author: Federica Sulas Publisher: Routledge ISBN: 1317197372 Category : Social Science Languages : en Pages : 374
Book Description
As water availability, management and conservation become global challenges, there is now wide consensus that historical knowledge can provide crucial information to address present crises, offering unique opportunities to appreciate the solutions and mechanisms societies have developed over time to deal with water in all its forms, from rainfall to groundwater. This unique collection explores how ancient water systems relate to present ideas of resilience and sustainability and can inform future strategy. Through an investigation of historic water management systems, along with the responses to, and impact of, various water-driven catastrophes, contributors to this volume present tenable solutions for the long-term use of water resources in different parts of the world. The discussion is not limited to issues of the past, seeking instead to address the resonance and legacy of water histories in the present and future. Water and Society from Ancient Times to the Present speaks to an archaeological and non-archaeological scholarly audience and will be a useful primary reference text for researchers and graduate students from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds including archaeology, anthropology, history, ecology, geography, geology, architecture and development studies.
Author: Mark Altaweel Publisher: UCL Press ISBN: 1911576704 Category : Social Science Languages : en Pages : 334
Book Description
Today our societies face great challenges with water, in terms of both quantity and quality, but many of these challenges have already existed in the past. Focusing on Asia, Water Societies and Technologies from the Past and Present seeks to highlight the issues that emerge or re-emerge across different societies and periods, and asks what they can tell us about water sustainability. Incorporating cutting-edge research and pioneering field surveys on past and present water management practices, the interdisciplinary contributors together identify how societies managed water resource challenges and utilised water in ways that allowed them to evolve, persist, or drastically alter their environment. The case studies, from different periods, ancient and modern, and from different regions, including Egypt, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Southwest United States, the Indus Basin, the Yangtze River, the Mesopotamian floodplain, the early Islamic city of Sultan Kala in Turkmenistan, and ancient Korea, offer crucial empirical data to readers interested in comparing the dynamics of water management practices across time and space, and to those who wish to understand water-related issues through conceptual and quantitative models of water use. The case studies also challenge classical theories on water management and social evolution, examine and establish the deep historical roots and ecological foundations of water sustainability issues, and contribute new grounds for innovations in sustainable urban planning and ecological resilience.
Author: Dylan Kelby Rogers Publisher: BRILL ISBN: 9004368973 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 130
Book Description
This article seeks to define ‘water culture’ in Roman society by examining literary, epigraphic, and archaeological evidence, while understanding modern trends in scholarship related to the study of Roman water.
Author: Pierre-Louis Viollet Publisher: CRC Press ISBN: 0203375319 Category : Technology & Engineering Languages : en Pages : 334
Book Description
This new book offers an engineer's perspective on the history of water technology and its impact on the development of civilisation. A Second Edition and translation into English of the French book "L'Hydraulique dans les Civilisations Anciennes".Water professionals, engineers, scientists, and students will find this book fascinating and invaluable
Author: Terje Tvedt Publisher: I.B. Tauris ISBN: 9781845119805 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 496
Book Description
How has water been perceived in different societies and across different eras of world history? How have these changing conceptions informed and influenced our ideas about society and ourselves? In "The Idea of Water" leading international scholars explore the rich record of our ideas, from the beliefs of early societies to the latest scientific views on the nature of this unique substance. Ranging across all aspects - scientific, cultural and religious - this important work both challenges conventional interpretations and understanding of water in nature and represents one of the first attempts to provide a history of our changing conceptions of the role and significance of water in human society.
Author: Terje Tvedt Publisher: ISBN: 9780755694570 Category : Rivers Languages : en Pages : 1608
Book Description
"All societies must manage their water resources. How a society manages and controls its water resources - whether for food and farming, drinking, sanitation, power or transport - plays a formative role in its development. And today, with the global population exceeding seven billion people and the continuing threat of climate change, the challenge remains key to the future of the planet. The pioneering History of Water Series brings a much needed historical perspective to water issues, and reveals how water issues can only be fully understood when all aspects are properly integrated. Covering all aspects of water and society, the series is unprecedented in its geographical coverage and unrivalled in its multidisciplinary span. The volumes in Series II address the importance of our changing perceptions and understandings of water down the ages; the role of human/river relations in historical transformation processes; and the vital geopolitical aspects of water as our demands upon this finite source increase and are exacerbated by climate change. Volume 1: Ideas of Water from Ancient Societies to the Modern World Edited by Terje Tvedt and Terje Oestigard How has water been perceived in different societies and across different eras of history? How have these changing perceptions influenced society? In Ideas of Water, leading international scholars explore the rich record of our ideas, covering all aspects of water, from our changing scientific understandings to the diverse cultural and religious dimensions. The volume challenges conventional understandings and interpretations of water in nature and is one of the first attempts to provide a history of our changing ideas of the role of water in human society.Volume 2: Rivers & Society: From Early Civilizations to Modern Times Edited by Terje Tvedt and Richard CoopeyRivers and Society explores the ways in which human/river relations have shaped important historical transformation processes. Examples range from classical agrarian civilizations, such as the Indus, Angkor and Maya, to analyses of the role of water in the modernization process of countries such as Britain, Japan and Spain. The contributors provide new insights into the ways in which the key relationship between humans and water has given rise to new forms of social organization, new technologies and new economic activity.Volume 3: Water, Geopolitics and the New World OrderEdited by Terje Tvedt, Graham Chapman & Roar HagenAs current global trends lead to more people wanting more water, so access to water becomes ever more critical. Those favored by geography have the potential to control access to our planet's most precious - yet finite - resource. As the impact of climate change is felt, so added tensions will complicate already complex and delicate issues. This timely volume shows how water has become an issue of growing geopolitical importance - locally, regionally and globally. Drawing on a wealth of contrasting examples, the contributors offer a deeper understanding of the issues, of the close association between water and power, and of the potential for cooperative solutions."--Bloomsbury Publishing.
Author: Steven Mithen Publisher: Harvard University Press ISBN: 0674072197 Category : Social Science Languages : en Pages : 382
Book Description
Water is an endangered resource, imperiled by population growth, mega-urbanization, and climate change. Scientists project that by 2050, freshwater shortages will affect 75 percent of the global population. Steven Mithen puts our current crisis in historical context by exploring 10,000 years of humankind’s management of water. Thirst offers cautionary tales of civilizations defeated by the challenges of water control, as well as inspirational stories about how technological ingenuity has sustained communities in hostile environments. As in his acclaimed, genre-defying After the Ice and The Singing Neanderthals, Mithen blends archaeology, current science, and ancient literature to give us a rich new picture of how our ancestors lived. Since the Neolithic Revolution, people have recognized water as a commodity and source of economic power and have manipulated its flow. History abounds with examples of ambitious water management projects and hydraulic engineering—from the Sumerians, whose mastery of canal building and irrigation led to their status as the first civilization, to the Nabataeans, who created a watery paradise in the desert city of Petra, to the Khmer, who built a massive inland sea at Angkor, visible from space. As we search for modern solutions to today’s water crises, from the American Southwest to China, Mithen also looks for lessons in the past. He suggests that we follow one of the most unheeded pieces of advice to come down from ancient times. In the words of Li Bing, whose waterworks have irrigated the Sichuan Basin since 256 BC, “Work with nature, not against it.”
Author: Willem Willems Publisher: ISBN: 9789088903861 Category : Business & Economics Languages : en Pages : 434
Book Description
Water is vital for life, and its availability has been a concern for mankind throughout the ages. Its presence has always been ascertained in a variety of ways and the development of human society everywhere is connected with various forms of water management. Man also needed to manage water to find protection from its dangers and the need for that is increasing. In the coming decades, the impact of climate change is expected to intensify floods and droughts, affect groundwater resources, raise sea levels, increase pollution and enhance the frequency and magnitude of disasters. Societies around the world are challenged to adapt to these threats to ensure water security, economic prosperity and environmental and cultural sustainability. This book deals with the heritage of water management and the use that was made of water, as well as the impact of water management on heritage. An example of the former may be an ancient irrigation system in the Filipines or in the Middle East that still functions today, while the latter may reflect the importance of maintaining groundwater levels for the preservation of organic remains on archaeological sites or of wooden piles underneath standing buildings. In either case the papers in this book reflect the dynamic nature of water, and hence the equally dynamic relation between water management and heritage. This publication follows up on a Heritage and Water conference in Amsterdam, the first of its kind. Its main purpose is to credibly present the importance and value of heritage and historical experience for water and sustainable development, and vice versa, present the importance of water management for the protection of heritage. It presents evolving insights and concepts about Water and about Heritage from a variety of disciplines, policy and public perspectives illustrated with cases studies and aims to connect decision makers with experts such as engineers, archaeologists, historians, geographers, ecologist and landscape architects
Author: Xiao Yun Zheng Publisher: IWA Publishing ISBN: 9781789062038 Category : Science Languages : en Pages : 280
Book Description
The Cultural Dynamics in Water Management from Ancient History to the Present Age focuses on exploring the idea of water culture and how water culture has been generated from water management and social life. It discusses the structure, attribute, type, and the dynamic mechanism of water culture theoretically. It also deals with its diversity and practice in water management with cases from twelve countries, geographically covering most continents of the world. This book is divided into five main sections which include the theoretical discussion of water culture, the historical water culture, the water culture and water management in indigenous societies, the cultural role in local water management, the water cultural practice in the present age using the case of water museum, etc. It is based on a historical and geographical approach to exploring the cultural dynamics in water management. It shows how people abide by their culture to manage water in ancient society and in indigenous, local, social, and urban society. This helps to provide an in-depth understanding of the cultural dynamics in water management to bridge the cultural idea of water management from history to the present and to the future. This book highlights that technical and engineered ways are not enough to solve water problems and achieve water sustainable management if we neglect the cultural dynamic role. Successful water management is always based on the culture from history and this is likely to continue so as to achieve better water management.
Author: Federica Sulas
Author: Mark Altaweel
Author: Terje Tvedt
Author: Dylan Kelby Rogers
Author: Pierre-Louis Viollet
Author: Terje Tvedt
Author: Terje Tvedt
Author: Steven Mithen
Author: Willem Willems
Author: Xiao Yun Zheng