The Qanat System: A Reflection on the Heritage of the Extraction of Hidden Waters

Bensi, Negar Sanaan

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-00268-8_3

Cited by 12 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…The Achaemenids were aware of this and made efforts to protect, clean up, and rehabilitate qanats through peaceful collaboration. The Achaemenids, also, possessed extensive knowledge of geodesy, hydrometry, and hydraulic engineering, which enabled them to address problems related to the ownership and allocation of qanats (Bensi, 2020). It is also important to note that due to the people's dependence on qanats, the Achaemenid government also implemented several remuneration and incentive policies for renovating abandoned qanats.…”

Section: Study Area Descriptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The technology, management, and culture of water in ancient Iran from prehistoric times to the Islamic Golden Age

Saatsaz

Rezaei

2023

Humanit Soc Sci Commun

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Despite Iran’s longstanding reputation for sustainable water management, the country currently faces mounting water-related challenges caused by population growth, industrial development, urban sprawl, lifestyle changes, climate change, territorial conflicts, poor management, and insufficient public participation. Since past and present water-related challenges share similar origins and patterns, addressing the past is imperative. After gathering, contextualizing, verifying, clustering, coding, and corroborating sources, we conducted a historical study to examine the relationship between water and Iranians from prehistoric times to the Islamic Golden Age (1219 AD). According to the findings, in prehistoric Iran, drought, flooding, river course changes, and the absence of a central government severely impacted water development. Despite doubts about the qanat’s origin, archaeological investigations indicate in the proto-historical period, qanat systems existed in Iran and the Arabian Peninsula. In 550 BC, the Achaemenids initiated a fundamental transformation in Iran’s water history by building dams, qanats, and water canals under a centralized administration. After a slump during the Seleucids (312–63 BC) and the Parthians (247 BC–224 AD), Iranians practiced water governance reborn under the Sassanids (224–651 AD). The Sassanids, like the Achaemenids, formed a powerful statement of unity, cooperation, and support among people for implementing their major water-related plans after enhancing institutions, laws, and communications. Chaotic Iran, however, endured severe water-related weaknesses in the Late Sassanids. Throughout the Islamic Golden Age, Iranians successfully traded water knowledge with other nations. As seen today in Iran, the Iranians have been unable to thrive on their resources since the Mongol invasion due to weak water governance, political tensions, and poor public support. The water sectors face more severe challenges when ancient water systems are ignored, applied without enhancement, or blindly adopted from other nations. Therefore, before current problems worsen, it is essential to integrate traditional and modern water cultures, technology, and management techniques.

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Section: Study Area Descriptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The technology, management, and culture of water in ancient Iran from prehistoric times to the Islamic Golden Age

Saatsaz

Rezaei

2023

Humanit Soc Sci Commun

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“…The city's original inhabitants and outsiders considered effective water management a critical success factor for local leaders, i.e., an ancient form of strategic management. The protection of water resources was grounded in its psychological conception, as an asset of status and power [10].…”

Section: Humaymamentioning

confidence: 99%

Effective Management of Scarce Water Resources: From Antiquity to Today and into the Future

Šulyová

Vodák

Kubina

2021

Water

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Water is a critically important element of human life. The best practice of effective water management comes from ancient civilizations that, despite their technologies and practices, were unable to prevent collapse from water scarcity. In the 21st century, in an era of climate change, pollution or population explosion, cities are looking for innovative ways to effectively manage scarce resources for future generations. Which elements should cities of the future follow to avoid water collapse? The following article aims to identify the key elements of effective management and to represent them graphically in the form of a recommended model, which will be verified in the future in Slovakia. The article uses case analysis of best past and current practices, comparison and summarization to identify the elements, creativity, and logic in the development of the model, including induction and deduction. The article serves as a basis for fellow researchers (analyses carried out) and strategic urban management (effective urban water management). The main finding of the article is that ecological change puts pressure on social elements and therefore it is necessary to focus on the area of strategic management. Cities should not only know how to manage resource abundance or short-term scarcity, but also long-term scarcity. They should use elements of trust, awareness and continuous improvement through modern monitoring technologies (UAVs, sensors) and prediction (machine learning). This is the only way to generate water sustainability in the urban concept of the future.

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“…Social, hydrogeological and geotechnical aspects make the operation of underground aqueducts throughout the centuries possible, up until the present [87]. An important number of underground aqueducts are still in operation, particularly in Iran, where 37,000 active qanats have been registered [88]. The lessons that can be learned from older aqueducts should be employed to improve the efficiency of present and future structures.…”

Section: Emerging Trends and Future Issues And Challenges On Sustainamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Notably, the change from qanats to deep wells represented a complete shift in the management of the territory. It was a shift from a collective legal act in qanat's cooperative managerial system, to exploitation according to individual interest [88].…”

Section: Emerging Trends and Future Issues And Challenges On Sustainamentioning

confidence: 99%

Sustainability of Underground Hydro-Technologies: From Ancient to Modern Times and toward the Future

et al. 2020

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An underground aqueduct is usually a canal built in the subsurface to transfer water from a starting point to a distant location. Systems of underground aqueducts have been applied by ancient civilizations to manage different aspects of water supply. This research reviews underground aqueducts from the prehistoric period to modern times to assess the potential of achieving sustainable development of water distribution in the sectors of agriculture and urban management, and provides valuable insights into various types of ancient underground systems and tunnels. The review illustrates how these old structures are a testament of ancient people’s ability to manage water resources using sustainable tools such as aqueducts, where the functionality works by using, besides gravity, only “natural” engineering tools like inverted siphons. The study sheds new light on human’s capability to collect and use water in the past. In addition, it critically analyzes numerous examples of ancient/historic/pre-industrial underground water supply systems that appear to have remained sustainable up until recent times. The sustainability of several underground structures is examined, correlated to their sound construction and regular maintenance. Moreover, several lessons can be learned from the analysis of ancient hydraulic works, particularly now, as many periodically hydrologic crises have occurred recently, overwhelmingly impacted by climate change and/or over-exploitation and degradation of available water resources.

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The Qanat System: A Reflection on the Heritage of the Extraction of Hidden Waters

Cited by 12 publications

References 11 publications

The technology, management, and culture of water in ancient Iran from prehistoric times to the Islamic Golden Age

The technology, management, and culture of water in ancient Iran from prehistoric times to the Islamic Golden Age

Effective Management of Scarce Water Resources: From Antiquity to Today and into the Future

Sustainability of Underground Hydro-Technologies: From Ancient to Modern Times and toward the Future

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