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Water structures in the Nahr-i Bihisht (River of Paradise) in the Red Fort, 2013. (James L. Wescoat Jr.)
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Urban conservation faces challenges in cities that have multiple spatial centers over time, such as Delhi, India, which had seven to seventeen capitals depending on how one counts them. These multicentered cities were partially networked through their waterworks, roads, and related infrastructure in ways that can offer insights into urban history a...
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This study treats the social and specifically urban context of late humanism in eighteenth-century Mexico City and New Spain. Through the careful reconstruction of the lives of particular scholars, it argues that the specific configuration of urban space (including colleges, libraries, print shops and personal dwellings) should be taken into accoun...
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... Researchers such as [21][22][31][32][33][34] have tried to strengthen the link between social and ecological systems as well as emphasize the regeneration of ecological wisdom to reduce the negative impact of the development of social systems on ecological systems. Thus, ecological wisdom is widely restored and recommended for the planning and management of socio-ecological systems in modern times [23,36]. ...
Ancient civilizations long practiced sustainable and integrated water resource management. To implement groundwater sustainability policies and strategies, this study introduces ecological wisdom as a transdisciplinary integrated approach. The present study aims to present strategies for the development and evolution of ecological wisdom governing Qanat hydraulic structure (QHS) with the groundwater sustainability approach in an Iranian desert region. Thus, the constraints of the development and evolution of ecological wisdom governing QHS were extracted using the structural-interpretive model, and the strategies for their development and evolution were presented with an operational-prescriptive approach. The results indicate that 14 variables can be identified as strategic constraints for the development and evolution of QHS. Also, based on eleven extracted scenarios with strong consistency, only two highly adaptable scenarios would design strategies for developing and evolving ecological wisdom governing QHS. Therefore, Rethinking the ancient heritage and developing ecological wisdom which governs it not only manifests the ecological considerations and cultural-social values of local communities but also considers a comprehensive and transdisciplinary approach to addressing materialism and reductionism challenges as well as providing a pattern for making visible the invisible treasure and groundwater sustainability in dry regions
... Though water scarcity was a prominent issue for the historical cities, the strategic high elevation (for defensive purposes) and availability of stone attracted rulers. Later, for the Muslim rulers, the banks of the Yamuna River were the preferred sites for city building, and the status of the hills was diminished-they became a hinterland [29] . In 1803, under British rule, the Delhi Division (including the Gurgaon District) was annexed to the northwest province [30] . ...
HIGHLIGHTS · The case study of Aravalli Hills reveals how layered histories continually transform nature/culture relations · "Wastelands," a (post)colonial/economic land use category, undermines all meanings of forests · Indigenous terms and local knowledge reveal the heterogeneous, adaptable, and fluid natures of landscape · Community forests "enclosure" transforms inhabited and active into observed and passive landscapes RECEIVED DATE
... To some extent, Babur and his descendants introduced a 'scopic regime', a dominant mode of seeing (prevalent in Islamic cultures elsewhere) that emphasized the separation of the viewer and viewed (Sinha and Ruggles 2004). In 1527, the first Mughal emperor Babur established a new urban landscape of gardens on both sides of the river known as "Kabul", after the Central Asian pattern of waterfront garden settlement of their Timurid forbearers (Wescoat 2014). The waterfront gardens came to be a sign of Mughal urbanism. ...
This book gives positive examples how humans and rivers have been, and are still in some places, living in harmony. It analyses how this knowledge can be transferred into modern river management schemes and thereby it attempts to mitigate the deplorable trend of the decline of biological and cultural heritages and diversities in and along rivers. A harmonious way to live with the river includes i.a. respecting its natural features and ecosystem services. This means that human land use forms and cultures, including fishing, agriculture, navigation and river works respect the natural hydrological patterns (Flood Pulse, Environmental Flows). It also includes the physical-psychological-spiritual linkage of the people to the river (e.g. worshipping, well-being, detention, and in-spiration), and how these linkages serve as a motivation to take action in favor of the river’s nature. Twenty-nine case studies from Africa, Asia, the Americas and Europe, and 7 papers on overarching themes of sustainable river management are presented. Without claiming its completeness, we understand this book as a first attempt to highlight the interactions between the biological-evolutive populations of non-human biota and the biological-evolutive-cultural populations of human beings, using the dynamic riverscape as the physical background. The target audience of this book includes interdisciplinary scientists from the fields of ecology, geosciences, social and political sciences, as well as urban planners and managers of river ecosystems and riverine heritage sites worldwide.
... Unfortunately, there is currently no systematic master conservation plan, as no database exists. Recent studies proposed that stepwells in historic cities should be conserved in an integrated manner with other historic water management structures (Morrison, 2015;Sinha, 2019;Wescoat, 2014). However, this might exclude those that remain unidentified, which represents an overwhelming majority. ...
Traditional domestic rainwater harvesting systems (RWHSs) are often at risk of being destroyed. The wide variety of traditional domestic RWHSs across the globe makes defining the sustainability challenges difficult. We conducted a literature review and created a classification system for traditional domestic RWHSs, and selected three representative RWHS types: water cellars, stepwells, and qanats. We then determined the sustainability challenges faced by each of the three RWHS types. In total, 20 challenges were identified and subsequently analyzed to establish: 1) the similarities and differences among the challenges faced by each RWHS type, 2) the most pressing challenges that need to be addressed, and 3) the research disciplines required to address each challenge. Most of the challenges require interdisciplinary cooperation and sociological investigation. Finally, two priorities for future research were identified. First, sustainability in terms of traditional domestic RWHSs must be defined and conceptual frameworks must be developed to help to integrate research from multiple disciplines. Second, preservation of the architecture or structural body of traditional domestic RWHSs should be prioritized.
... Moreover, this decentralized system was not supported by the kings and could be disrupted by them. For example, Sultan Alauddin Khilji forbade devotees to dig a baoli at Sufi saint Nizamuddin Auliya's shrine (Wescoat, 2014). In this way, the Mughal and the British colonial legacies laid the foundations of inequitable water supply systems in the city over several centuries. ...
Inequity is deeply embedded in the supply of drinking water in Delhi, India. Using the concept of infrastructural violence, this paper exposes how past and present governance of water has resulted in unequal distribution of supply across the city to exclude vulnerable communities from accessing drinking water. This perspective broadens the gaze away from a narrow gaze on the technical and structural aspects of infrastructure to encompass the socio-political dimensions. This paper starts by outlining the history of the water supply in Delhi. We then outline five axes of exclusion which can be read as infrastructural violence and explores how aspects of water policy, legislation, and planning uphold these injustices. Our discussion centers on how economics, political ideology, and power infiltrate governing mechanisms to influence water infrastructure to entrench poverty and marginalization. Attempts to improve water security for Delhi's residents face minimal impact without addressing these embedded inequities. Therefore, our analysis offers a framework to systematically create awareness of the factors to be addressed to enable a more equitable governance of water supply.
... This practice builds upon a time-honoured approach that has allowed rural areas to thrive for centuries (Mishra 2001). Rainwater harvesting, in fact, is an engineering feature that enabled the fl ourishing of early sultanate sett lements in Delhi dating from the 13th century and continued in the reign of several Mughal rulers (CSE 1997(CSE , 2001Lort 1995;Welch 2008;Westcoat 2014). It has, however, been neglected in politically powerful cities such as New Delhi, which rely on diverted river waters to survive. ...
In 2003, the Centre for Science and Environment—one of India’s most prominent environmental organizations—published a text urging city dwellers to take up the socially responsible act of catching rain where it falls, which is otherwise known as rainwater harvesting. The text argued that unless people are involved in urban rainwater harvesting at the household level, it would be “very difficult to meet the looming water crisis” that India confronts. Just how viable however are individual and household efforts for addressing the water crises on the horizon? This chapter takes up that question by looking at the progression in debates over urban rainwater harvesting, as well as the uptake in rainwater harvesting practices, that have taken place since the publication of the aforementioned manual. Drawing from a selection of documents and interviews, this chapter argues that several disincentives persist that either deter people from taking up the clarion call of household-level rainwater harvesting, or that prevent them from doing it altogether. This content shifts the onus of responsibility onto the centralized water system, and onto the municipal agencies charged with water management. Using a political ecology analysis that focuses on the scalar disparities of the water-power nexus, this chapter ultimately argues that urban rainwater harvesting requires enhanced centralized cooperation and capacitation to foster a viable integrated water resource management approach. At stake in this discussion is the fate of water self-sufficient Indian cities, and the viability of sustainable urban water management.
... The dependency of the inhabitants of these five cities was majorly on the shallow & ground water (wells & baolis) for their everyday purpose. However the rulers of these five cities also developed lot of mechanisms to tap the surface runoff and designed the infrastructure to harvest and store the rainwater (Wescoat, 2014), which could be used in the dry seasons. Two of the most notable mentions of this kind are the water-storage reservoirs located in Mehrauli and Siri respectively, the Hauz-i-Shamsi (built by Illtutmish) and the Hauz-i-Sultani or Hauz-i-Alai or Hauz-e-Khas (built by Alauddin Khilji and later developed by Firoz Shah Tughlaq). ...
The evolution of human settlements over the past century and a half has led to a transformation of the contemporary urban environment, with critical changes made to the urban biosphere and its local ecology. The environmental impact of urbanization is reflected in the physiological environment, highlighting the interdependent relationship between nature and society. It has long been established that the relationship between water and society is of great significance, and numerous studies have emphasized the importance of the socio-ecological intertwined relationship with water, resulting in the concept of socionatures. This cyborgial relationship between nature and society cannot be confined within the settlement boundaries, but rather extends beyond them. Urbanization, driven by economic considerations, has resulted in the sporadic growth of settlements, affecting the balance of socionatures. In order to define an ecological approach to urbanization for Delhi, a city that has grown unchecked since independence, a thorough understanding of societal and natural interpretations, as well as the capacity for one to carry the other, must be considered. The paper concentrates on the historical significance of the landscape that supported the machinery, water tanks, and other related components. The improvement of water infrastructure over time was analyzed. The recent studies conducted by social geographers, anthropologists, ecologists, environmental historians and other scholars on this subject are vital and were considered when examining the relationship between society and water infrastructure. The deteriorating condition of historic waterscapes in Delhi requires immediate attention as they hold significant value to the communities they serve. Efforts to arrest the decline and regenerate the ecological system of these historic water bodies are necessary to alleviate the pressure on the current water supply system.
... Despite the promise of past infrastructures to offset urban resource uncertainty, the effort to study their significance is primarily centred in architecture and environmental studies (Kumar 2014;Said 2014;Wescoat 2014). This means that there is significant scope to look at them anew with an anthropological lens attuned to how urban catchments can fit within the complex hydraulic landscapes of contemporary cities. ...
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This paper examines the long history of planned water and landscape management in China, focusing on the Tai Lake Basin located in the southern part of the Yangtze River Delta. To position this polder landscape within the broad spectrum of water heritage in China, the paper examines the historical perceptions and symbolism of water and its decisive role in shaping Chinese outlooks on empire, urban settlements and landscapes. It then delineates the evolution of polder landscapes in the Tai Lake Basin, which has been recurrently transformed since the fifth century BCE through to their contemporary condition. Despite changing material forms, the polder landscapes in the region evidence continuous endeavour to manage water for both productive (food) and preventive (flood) purposes. The latter part of the paper considers to what extent these polder landscapes might now be considered as a ‘continuing landscape’ – an organically evolved cultural landscape reflecting the changing needs of society, economy, government as well as flood prevention. Today, with few features that are materially historical, their continued existence has been threatened by urbanization, land consolidation and agricultural modernization. The paper advocates historically informed landscape planning to safeguard these dynamic and adaptive agricultural landscapes.
This article examines the Medieval (Islamic) cities in India from an environmental and technological perspective. The main objectives of this article are (1) to identify and evaluate characteristic features of the cities that were closely linked with the natural environment, (2) to examine the environmental conservation measures, sustainable practices and eco-friendly technologies adopted in these cities, (3) to assess the environmental impact of these cities, (4) to explore those eco-friendly measures and technologies that are relevant even at present. This is a first of its kind review of the Islamic cities in India that flourished during thirteenth to eighteenth century. Some of the important findings are: (1) water had a dominant role in establishment of these cities, (2) gardens, canals, water harvesting structures and sanitation were important characteristics of these cities that were profoundly integrated with the natural environment, (3) despite numerous environmental conservation measures adopted, several of these cities declined or were abandoned ironically due to environmental factors, and (4) in response to natural environment, some exemplary eco-friendly technologies were introduced, particularly the karez technology for water-supply, that are worth considering to make contemporary Indian cities ecologically sustainable.