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Aguadas, either natural or human-made ponds, were significant sources of water for the ancient Maya. Aguadas are common features in the Maya Lowlands and make valuable locations for collecting archaeological and paleoenvironmental data. This article discusses research conducted at four aguadas around two adjacent Maya sites, San Bartolo and Xultun in Peten, Guatemala. Both San Bartolo and Xultun were established during the Preclassic period. However, the fates of the two sites differed, as Xultun continued to prosper while the city of San Bartolo was abandoned near the close of the Late Preclassic period. We argue that aguadas provide important clues for understanding the fate of these two ancient communities and many others in the Maya Lowlands.

Human societies are known for their resilience and ability to adapt to short-and long-term environmental change. Despite their pragmatism and adaptability, humans could be forced to move and/or seek better conditions for survival, especially when climate change and water availability are at issue. This chapter provides case studies on easy-to-adopt rainwater harvesting applications as effective climate change adaptation strategies in rural and urban settings to increase human resiliency.

This paper provides a survey of ancient and traditional rainwater harvesting applications as effective climate adaptation strategies. Rainwater harvesting has a more significant past than a present. The fifteen identified ancient and traditional rainwater harvesting practices and the societies that practiced them may provide a key water conservation strategy for the future in vulnerable regions found in the dry‐wet, semi‐arid, and arid climatic regions. In the past several decades, there has been a call from scientific and non‐governmental organization communities to combine modern water systems and old rainwater harvesting methods or to modernize the existing rainwater harvesting knowledge to benefit human settlements facing water scarcity.

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