Water history for our times

A history of water management is also a history of humankind. From the inception of our species, coping with the availability – or unavailability – of water resources has been an essential element of human beings’ strategies for survival and well-being. Throughout history human ingenuity was manifest in the means by which water was procured, transported and allocated to various uses. The quality, distribution, seasonality and amount of water have been key determinants of subsistence, health and settlement potentials. Water has always played an essential role in the history of humankind, but we did not always deal with it in the same way, in various places, cultures and times. Today’s views and actions, the scientific hydrological approach and technological sophistication, and the traditional knowledge systems and practices, illustrate the tremendous human experience in dealing with water for over ten thousand years. This essay delivers a first attempt by one of the most accomplished scholars in water history to systematize how this wealth of knowledge and practices developed across the globe, and why certain strands of it spread over time, geographical and cultural space and our minds. [authors abstract]