An Outlook Of Historical And Cultural Dimensions Of Water

AN OUTLOOK OF HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL DIMENSIONS OF WATER TECHNOLOGY® A. Hafied A. Gany©

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ABSTRACT

ince earlier at the the beginning of Industrial Revolution in Europe, at the time of the invention of technique for transformation of energy into mechanical force, the advancement of technology has been accelerating remarkably. The latter technology has even trigged the era of new revolution in the field of technology toward the 20 th Century till up today’s modern era. Approaching the 21st century, the exceptionally rapid electronic revolution has even brought about amazing transformations in the entire development segments, including communication, computer, and not excepting the technology on development and management of water resources. Referring to a number of archeological studies, the human civilization could presently be traced back as far as seven millenniums. Nevertheless, in the field of applied technology, such as in the development and management of water resources, a number of archeological discoveries in the Middle East has unveiled that the human civilization had been acquainted with water resources technology since the Fift Millennium. Under such a long span of time, the human civilization has been quite familiar with the basic application principles of water resources technology for irrigation practices. The remaining constraint that continuously hampers the water resources development today, has been adhered to the capability of the people to regulate the available water to meet the demands, including the capacity to mitigate the water related disasters, which by nature are associated with probabilistic events rather than deterministic, that could be controlled by technological application. In other words, it is plausible that the measures for mitigating the water resources related disasters in the one hand, and provision of water security on the other has yet been able to fully control by human technology, except in the limited scope of spatial and volume of water. In attempting to find resolutions on the demands for water resources development technology – that has yet fully controllable in the so called “modern-world” today – toward sustainable future, it is always ®

This paper is prepared by A. Hafied A. Gany, Ph.D, P.Eng. (Senior Expert on Water Resources, Ministry of Public Works) for presentation at Thematic Week of the Water Expo ZARAGOZA, 2008. ©

Dr. (Eng) A. Hafied A. Gany, M.Sc., P.Eng., is a senior expert on Water Resources, Ministry of Public Works, Republic of Indonesia, and currently the Vice President of International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage (ICID) 2007-2010; and the member of Working Group on Irrigation and Drainage History of the World, ICID.

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very important prerequisite to pause a while, looking back to the past as long as possible for obtaining remarkable empirical-lessons from ancient culture and technology, and subsequently to take into consideration of the positive lessons, as well as develop or avoid of the negative experiences. This paper is intending to explore the hisorical and cultural dimensions of human technology in water resources development and management, scrutinize them from the modern empirical perspectives – taking into consideration of the unearthed archeological evidences in some parts of the globe, with some details on historical evidences of Ancient Indonesian’s water culture and technology.

Key

Words: History and Culture Dymensions; Water Technology.

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of

Water;

Historical