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Home Courses Water Works: Activating Heritage for Sustainable Development Course materials Lectures 2.4.3. The role of heritage in sustainable water development

2.4.3. The role of heritage in sustainable water development

Course subject(s) 2. Water under the bridge: What is water culture?

The global examples of Jerusalem, Fındıklı and the Hani Rice terraces show that specific waterworks were closely related to social and cultural practices in the past. Socio-cultural systems change over time and the related waterworks may become obsolete or disconnected. That means that these tangible and intangible systems change and are sometimes even lost.

In the next clip experts from around the world tie the knowledge of historical water infrastructures to the people who used them, and also to contemporary heritage thinking.

Experts on the role of heritage

The heritage of water systems consists of historical layers that cannot be ignored if we want to understand how communities live and manage these water spaces today. Cultural and natural values attached to them deserve recognition as heritage. Safeguarding waterworks with their heritage components helps to acquire a more dynamic and adaptive approach in the sustainable development of areas.

In the next section you will further refine your understanding of the importance of exploring water as a spatial system with multiple components and dynamic forms. Such an understanding can be the starting point for new approaches to the preservation of historic structures, in cities as well as in small settlements and rural areas. For instance: knowledge about past water management practices can inform water management practice today, and benefit heritage preservation at the same time.

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Water Works: Activating Heritage for Sustainable Development by TU Delft OpenCourseWare is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
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