Abstract Body

Research of traditional water systems offer insights on comprehensive, diverse and circular water management models.[1] Since ancient times, people worldwide have transformed natural surface water into ingenious and controlled water systems, making it possible to settle and cultivate all kinds of topographies according to the water sources' possibilities, knowledge, and climate conditions. These transformations asked for precise reading of the landscape and the necessity to balance water and land, permeable and impermeable surfaces. "The primitive logic of cut-and-fill and differences in micro-topography was a powerful tool. Levels of inundation determined distinct land uses, and therefore the definition of wet/dry, productive/inhabited, and safe/ unsafe parts of the land mosaic was considered essential."[2]

As a reaction to changes, as population growth, land use, and climate variations, innovative measures to retain, infiltrate, drain, flood, and reuse water was taken by those living in and knowing the territory. These so-called "traditional water systems" have been crucial in developing thriving and prosperous societies. Some of the water systems are still in use, indicating the inevitable involvement (care) of people. These systems offer vivid insights for more communal, people-oriented, resilient, ecologically rich and multifunctional approaches towards the landscape. Therefore, researching and learning from traditional water systems deliver lessons for redesigning today's anonymous, technical-driven water management systems into more circular landscapes.

[1] The research is conducted by graduate students of the Circular Water Stories (CWS) lab, studio Flowscapes in the master track of Landscape Architecture at the Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment TU Delft, the Netherlands.

[2] K. Shannon (2019).