Perceiving and Exploring Multi-dimensional Roles of “Qanats” in Urban Sustainable Environments of Iran (The Case of Kashan-Yazd and Tehran)

Abstract

Abstract-Qanat / Karez is one the most important and profound inventions of the Iran's Hydraulic engineering. Use of this technique to utilize the underground water (and sometimes groundwater) resources can be aged to more than 3000 years. Today, qanats are being used in 35 other countries, except Iran, in four different continents, and they are still used as irrigation mean.As most publications have focused the technical side of the qanats, this article is trying to study the role of the qanats in the everyday life of the residents in cities like Kashan, Tehran and Yazd with emphasis on urban landscapes. And as such, with the structure interview and case study techniques, we will explore the realities and perceptions of people regarding the functional roles and aspects of qanats in different levels of each city. This article's results will show that roles of qanats in the different aspects lives of the Iran's central cities residents which can be categorized into: Functional, Socio-cultural, Ecological, Economical, and Visual, Cooling, Psychological and tourismheritage. Therefore, different features relating to each of these roles are also provided.Index Terms-Qanat, sustainable water resources, environment, infrastructure, urban form.