Qanat Knowledge

Yazdi, Ali Asghar Semsar; Khaneiki, Majid Labbaf

doi:10.1007/978-94-024-0957-4

Cited by 25 publications

(9 citation statements)

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“…This calculation was done through Pythagorean Theorem that was already known to those illiterate falaj workers. We do not know whether their ancestors learned this theorem from other sources and then handed it down to the next generations or whether they independently invented it through their intuitional understanding of nature (Semsar Yazdi & Labbaf Khaneiki, 2017).…”

Section: Indigenous Knowledge In Relation To Falajmentioning

confidence: 99%

Falaj Indigenous knowledge in Oman and Iran

Al-Ghafri

Khaneiki

Saqri

et al. 2023

AlterNative: An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples

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Both Oman and Iran possess a harsh environment where people’s survival and development entail a deep knowledge about their surroundings. A considerable part of this knowledge has crystallized around the falaj, a hydraulic technique that transfers water from a groundwater source or seasonal runoffs to cultivated lands, in Omani and Iranian oases, that has historically served as the only water source in an otherwise barren arid land. This article argues that the spatial extent of the falaj confronts local communities with a variety of questions to be solved. This article also tries to answer how the falaj system contributed to the development of modern sciences in a broader context. The article concludes that a transition from Indigenous knowledge to modern sciences has changed the position of local communities from coexistence to over-exploitation in terms of their water resources, and this transition can explain their current water problems.

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Section: Indigenous Knowledge In Relation To Falajmentioning

confidence: 99%

Falaj Indigenous knowledge in Oman and Iran

Al-Ghafri

Khaneiki

Saqri

et al. 2023

AlterNative: An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…A kind of groundwater extraction, a qanat consists of an underground gallery which conveys water to the surface, and several vertical shaft-wells to bring the water for diverse uses. Soils excavated from the shafts are piled around their collar thus creating a line of short mounds (Abbasnejad, Abbasnejad, Derakhshani, & Hemmati Sarapardeh, 2016;Bensi, 2020;Khaneiki, 2019;Yazdi & Khaneiki, 2017). Unlike an aqueduct, a qanat is a dynamic system which cuts through the soil and advances into the saturated area underground (Yazdi & Khaneiki, 2017).…”

Section: Multi-temporal Remote Sensing Analysis Of the Damagesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Soils excavated from the shafts are piled around their collar thus creating a line of short mounds (Abbasnejad, Abbasnejad, Derakhshani, & Hemmati Sarapardeh, 2016;Bensi, 2020;Khaneiki, 2019;Yazdi & Khaneiki, 2017). Unlike an aqueduct, a qanat is a dynamic system which cuts through the soil and advances into the saturated area underground (Yazdi & Khaneiki, 2017). The critical issue in conducting a risk assessment of qanats is that only the piles around the vertical shafts (showing the direction of the qanat on the ground) are visible from above.…”

Section: Multi-temporal Remote Sensing Analysis Of the Damagesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Qanats have represented a major technological advance and solution for water supply in arid and semi-arid regions for millennia (Goblot, 1979;Yazdi and Khaneiki, 2017;Khaneiki, 2019) and their history is entangled with the emergence of several civilizations over time.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Additionally, human-induced activities such as urban sprawl and growing agricultural fields are threatening these ancient water systems worldwide (Khaneiki, 2019;Saberi, 2016). In this regard, over the last decade, an increasing number of studies underlined how the conservation and use of qanats integrated with modern clean methodologies, can play a key role from an economic, environmental, social and cultural point of view (Jomehpour, 2009;Khaneiki, 2019;Yazdi & Khaneiki, 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Qanats as an Endangered Traditional Hydraulic Heritage. An Integrated Methodology for Documenting, Restoring and Reusing an Ancient Iranian

Branduini

Zaina

Zavvari

et al. 2021

Proceedings ARQUEOLÓGICA 2.0 - 9th International Congress &Amp; 3rd GEORES - GEOmatics and pREServation

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Qanats represented a major technological solution for water supply in arid and semi-arid regions for millennia. Thanks to their multiple social and economic benefits, qanat-like systems spread from Iran through the Middle East in most of the arid and semi-arid regions of the world. In recent years, this valuable traditional hydraulic technology has been neglected in preservation and reuse due to the lack of management as well as the lack of legal support. This precious heritage and sustainable water supply system according to their sustainable structural features has been replaced by modern water collection and management systems such as dams and other hydroelectric infrastructures along with new pumping technologies. However, there is a growing consensus on the number of short, medium and long-term issues emerging from these systems including pollution and other environmental damages, regional conflicts, political pressures as well as their limited lifetime and structural instability. The purpose of this paper is to show qanats as an example of endangered heritage which could also represent a sustainable and clean technology. To do so, we apply a multi-disciplinary perspective integrating archaeological, architectural, sociological and conservation methodologies on a specific case study from the Tabriz region in Northern Iran: the “No-Ras” qanat.

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Domestication of water: Management of water resources in the dry zone of Sri Lanka as living cultural heritage

et al. 2023

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In the dry zone of Sri Lanka, human-made reservoirs (locally called tanks or wewas) have served for the collection, storage and distribution of rainfall and runoff and provided irrigation water for the cultivation of paddy for 2400 years. This water management system is deeply inscribed in the rural communities utilizing and maintaining it. Local knowledge connected to the utilization of this system is regarded as a substantial part of the intangible cultural heritage of this unique cultural landscape. In the dry zone of Sri Lanka this system had spread from the fifth century BCE onwards from the hinterland of the ancient capital Anuradhapura throughout the entire dry zone and provides a prerequisite for paddy cultivation. From approximately the 13th century onwards, written sources give evidence, that a weakening of state bureaucracy led to a decline of the water management system. In the Colonial period, numerous reservoirs were restored and the implementation of new governance structures lead to a diminishing of water supplies and conflicts at a local level. In post-Colonial times, since the 1950s, the system had undergone rapid changes triggered by governmental and economic developments (e.g., land use change, migration). The rich local knowledge, serves in line with a high degree of adaptation to local conditions, as a corner stone for its resilience. A future sustainable management requires the integration of local knowledge in combination with modern techniques in education, planning, and application.

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Qanat Knowledge

Cited by 25 publications

References 0 publications

Falaj Indigenous knowledge in Oman and Iran

Falaj Indigenous knowledge in Oman and Iran

Qanats as an Endangered Traditional Hydraulic Heritage. An Integrated Methodology for Documenting, Restoring and Reusing an Ancient Iranian

Domestication of water: Management of water resources in the dry zone of Sri Lanka as living cultural heritage

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