New publication: "Adapative Strategies for Water Heritage"

- Created: 14 November 2019

Adaptative strategies for water heritage ICOMOS Netherlands publishes, in collaboration with scholars from the LeidenDelftErasmus Centre for Global Heritage and Development (CHGD), a new and important work presenting multidisciplinary research that connects water to heritage.

Exploring the 1000 facets of water uses

Through twentyone chapters it explores landscapes, cities, engineering structures and buildings from around the world. It describes how people have actively shaped the course, form and function of water for human settlement and the development of civilizations, establishing socioeconomic structures, policies and cultures; a rich world of narratives, laws and practices; and an extensive network of infrastructure, buildings and urban form. The book is organized in five thematic sections that link practices of the past to the design of the present and visions of the future: part I discusses drinking water management; part II addresses water use in agriculture; part III explores water management for land reclamation and defense; part IV examines river and coastal planning; and part V focuses on port cities and waterfront regeneration.

Water and sustainable development - a necessary reflection

Today, the many complex systems of the past are necessarily the basis for new systems that both preserve the past and manage water today: policy makers and designers can work together to recognize and build on the traditional knowledge and skills that old structure embody.
This book argues that there is a need for a common agenda and an integrated policy that addresses the preservation, transformation and adaptive reuse of historic waterrelated structures. Throughout, it imagines how such efforts will help us develop sustainable futures for cities, landscapes and bodies of water.

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