Landscapes, network of lands and uses of water

Universities Working : Evora / Paris / Padua

I. Project Overview

The project envisages the creation of a platform for reflection, study and research, integrating the concept of citizenship through the management by the companies' current resources. Homère wrote "he who does not know history will never grow, because he will always be a child." It is in History that we must seek answers to our problems in society.
The questioning on the management of land resources should not be limited to an historical observation of european populations. Indeed, every society on every continent at different times, have introduced a variety of experiences and different ways to meet with the same challenge : managing resources and water uses. Also, as part of this project, the comparison between cultures and societies must play a key role, which will catch the eyes of historians and anthropologists.

II. Landscape connectivity and the role of water

Based on the writings of St. Isidore (bishop of Seville in the seventh century), this project stems from the idea that water is life for man and nature. But it goes beyond questioning the relationship between water use and construction of landscapes. It took the companies to learn how to manage excess water in northern and water shortage in southern  There is no organized society without water, since the conditions of survival of the latter dependent on the capabilities and expertise of communities to develop the hydraulics. Water is the basis for the connectivity of the territory.
Reflections on this phenomenon are trans-periods (Antiquity, Middle Ages, Modern Times, Contemporary period) and trans-cultural. One objective of the project is to evaluate the finding of P. Horden and N. Purcell (The Corrupting Sea. A Study of Mediterranean History, Oxford : Blackwell, 2001), that water is the source of connectivity of the territory. It will then examine the standard of this connectivity (P. Horden, "Managing water resources." Past and Present. The Linacre Lectures 2002, Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2002, pp. 35–49). The irrigation and drainage, for example, must be thought of as overall strategies in relation to the environment: water works seeking to improve or stabilize the hydraulic system during the winter months, rather than search of water during the summer periods. We must extend this concept to communication systems.
This project is therefore in the study of landscapes. This notion of landscape has a sense of historical occupation according to the periods to be taken into account. In every age, every company lets its forms and standards listed in occupancy landscapes. This reality is called "law of the persistence of the plans".

III. Research line

Knowing : The built structures and the practical uses of water (Master students)
The objective of this line of research is to comprehend structures related to water uses, identify materials, know the extent possible, and the authors examine the techniques employed. This work takes its full meaning through the comparison of structures and comparing the results.

Think : Know-how, expertise and institutional knowledge acquired (Masters and PhD students)
This line of research aims to seek to understand the preliminary data that preceded the establishment of specific hydraulic systems, and in particular to define the type of knowledge held by the builders (architects, engineers ...). This project involves the return to ancient sources and texts. Entered directly in the field of history of technology, it will question the capacity of societies to solve new problems and innovate to solve them. It will be interesting to follow the discussions in the focus groups, and studies like those of the Valladolid group Trillo del Carmen, University of Granada.

Intervene : Water, social supervision and construction of power
The objective of this part of the project will be considered to appreciate the trajectory of companies based on its resources. The researcher will give an historical sense to the management of water and thus be able to decide the fate of hydraulic structures to a point of view of heritage preservation, conservation and enhancement of structures which are privileged to witness the construction of landscapes.