Underground Aqueducts Handbook

Andreas N. Angelakis, Eustathios Chiotis, Saeid Eslamian, Herbert Weingartner

• Publisher: CRC Press
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781315351544
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Technology & Engineering
• Subtopic: Environmental Management
• Index: Technology & Engineering

This book presents the major engineering achievements in underground aqueducts from around the world and throughout history. It provides valuable insights into water technologies and management with respect to durability, adaptability to the environment, and sustainability. Comparisons of the technological underground aqueduct developments from several regions are made. These technologies are the underpinning of modern achievements in water supply engineering and water management practices, and current issues of sustainability, cost-effectiveness, and decentralization have led engineers to consider combining older proven technologies with modern infrastructure advancements.

Section IV

Middle East

9 Iranian Qanāts An Ancient and Sustainable Water Resources Utilization

Saeid Eslamian, Alireza Davari, and Mohammad Naser Reyhani

CONTENTS

9.1 Introduction

9.1.1 Sustainability

9.1.1.1 Principles of Sustainable Groundwater Development

9.1.1.2 Long-Term Conservation of Groundwater Resources

9.2 History

9.2.1 Elamites and Assyria (ca. 1400–550 BC)

9.2.2 Achaemenian Empire (ca. 550–330 BC)

9.2.3 Seleucidian Era (312–250 BC)

9.2.4 Parthian Era (250 BC–150 AD)

9.2.5 Sassanid Era (226–650 AD)

9.2.6 After Islam (from 621 AD to Ilkhanid Era)

9.2.7 Ilkhanid Era

9.2.8 Safavid Era

9.2.9 Dynasty of Qajar

9.2.10 Period of Pahlavi

9.2.11 Time of the Islamic Republic

9.3 Global Distribution of Qanāts

9.4 Geographical Distribution of Qanāts in Iran

9.4.1 The Province of Yazd

9.4.2 The Province of Semnan

9.4.3 The Province of Khorasan

9.4.4 The Province of Kerman

9.4.5 The Province of West Azarbayjan

9.5 The Nature of Qanāts

9.5.1 Goals of Construction of Qanāts

9.5.2 Prerequisite Conditions for the Creation of Qanāts

9.5.3 Qanāt Construction

9.5.4 Types of Qanāt

9.5.4.1 Qanāt Type According to Length

9.5.4.2 Qanāt Type According to Discharge

9.5.4.3 Qanāt Type According to Depth

9.5.5 Maintenance

9.6 Structure

9.6.1 Techno-Physical Structure of Qanāt

9.6.1.1 Structural Feature

9.6.1.2 Gallery

9.6.2 Boneh as the Social Structure of Qanāt: What Is Boneh?

9.6.2.1 Advantages of the Boneh System

9.6.2.2 Disadvantages of the Boneh System

9.6.3 Qanāt as a Technique to Adapt to the Climate Change

9.7 Qanāts are a Means of Sustainability

9.7.1 Linking Qanāt to Sustainable Development Goals

9.7.2 Social

9.7.3 Culture

9.7.4 Economic

9.7.5 Environmental

9.7.6 Community Development

9.7.7 Water Conservation

9.7.8 The Tension between a Sustainable Unequal System and the Modern System

9.8 Summary and Conclusions

References

9.1 INTRODUCTION

Water, the most precious commodity in deserts, is the single most natural resource that determines the suitability of a habitat for the living organisms. Throughout the arid Middle East and North Africa, water shortages have become increasingly acute. Population growth, combined with agricultural expansion and intensification, has heightened demand for domestic, industrial, and agricultural (especially irrigation) water use. Local surface and subsurface water resources are no longer sufficient to meet these burgeoning needs throughout the region (Ahmadi et al. 2010). Domestic water supply is so short that it is rationed in a number of Middle-Eastern cities, and, as the region’s cities continue to grow, it is likely that urban water demand will also grow (Gupta and Onta 1997). In rural areas, irrigation water is increasingly scarce. A scarcity of irrigation water will force small farmers off the land and increase food imports across the Middle East (Gupta and Onta 1997).

Groundwater has always been considered a readily available source of water for domestic, agricultural, and industrial use. In many parts of the world, groundwater extracted for a variety of purposes has made a major contribution to the improvement of the social and economic circumstances of human beings (Eslamian 2014). Management strategies have been focused on the development of groundwater resource, while projects of various types and scales have been developed and managed in response to the growing demand for water by communities and industries. Despite bringing many benefits, with the increase in demand, this resource is being overexploited in many areas, resulting in a permanent depletion of the aquifer system and associated environmental consequences such as land subsidence and water quality deterioration.

Moreover, with changes in land use and a vast increase in the quantities and types of industrial, agricultural, and domestic effluents entering the hydrological cycle, a gradual decline in water quality is observed owing to surface and subsurface pollution.

To meet growing demands for water, governments and other investors in the Middle East have abandoned traditional, sustainable (but less productive) water supply systems in favor of modern, less sustainable (but more productive) hydraulic systems. In river valleys, modern dams have been constructed to trap surface water. Where surface water is not available, modern pumping technologies that provide access to previously unknown or inaccessible groundwater reservoirs are being used extensively. One of the most striking examples of this shift in water technologies has been the case of qanāts. These ancient, gravity-flow water supply systems, which have provided dependable, renewable supplies of water to Middle-Eastern towns and villages for millennia, are being rapidly replaced by a more productive but less sustainable water technology, deep wells. On the Iranian plateau, an important heartland of qanāt-watered settlement, this change in water technology is draining aquifers, altering the distribution of towns and villages, and transforming the lifeworld of Iranian villagers (Eslamian et al. 2015).

As history has evolved, the development and management of water resources have occurred in numerous ways, with qanāts representing potentially one of the greatest hydrologic achievements of the ancient world. In fact, qanāts may be considered the first long-distance water transfer system. Qanāts are an ancient water transfer system found in arid regions, wherein groundwater from mountainous areas, aquifers, and, sometimes, rivers is used. Considered as the oldest, biggest achievement of human engineering, these systems cover extensive regions, including, for example, Japan and Mexico. Central Iran is exceptionally in the plateau regions of Iran; water obtained in this way from the subsurface is used for domestic and agricultural purposes. The adoption of the qanāt technique was instrumental in transforming the entire arid Middle East world into oases of date palms and other crops. This region is well known for its qanāts features, because the most splendid qanāts exist throughout this region, many of which are still active; these play a vital role in water supply in today’s context (Behnia 1988).

Mass migration to cities, availability of high-yielding water extraction technologies, and lack of funding to maintain the existing qanāts have resulted in the decline of the share of qanāts in supplying water to rural communities in many Middle-Eastern countries. The climatic change and its impact on regional water resources have also led to decline of water tables (Yin, 2003). This resulted in overexploitation of groundwater resources due to excessive issuance of permits for deep wells and caused many qanāts to dry up. As such, the community distribution of water rights that has been provided and protected by qanāts over many centuries is now being replaced by demands, from individual farmers, for deep-well permits. This has led to growing inefficacies in irrigation water uses in a region affected by severe droughts and water scarcity.

In this sense, after a brief review of qanāt structure, the advantages of qanāts in sustainable provision of quality water in arid and semi-arid regions are reviewed and emphasized. The aim of this review is to demonstrate that this ancient system of water supply should not only be protected as a great human heritage but also be reconsidered as part of a sustainable groundwater management agenda in arid and semi-arid rural areas.

9.1.1 SUSTAINABILITY

Sustainable development, as presently understood, has its origin in the World Conservation Strategy (IUCN, 1980). This strategy set out some now widely accepted principles of environmental sustainability and identified three essential life-support systems: soil, air, and water. The sustainable development concept was subsequently promoted to a high level of international prominence in the report Our Common Future (WCED 1987), known as the Brundtland Report. It defined sustainable development as “development which meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”

Water resources projects are sustainable, if water of sufficient quantity and quality at acceptable prices is available to meet the demands and quality standards of the region now and in the future, without causing the environment to deteriorate (Plate 1993).

Water resources come from systems such as rivers, lakes, wetlands, and aquifers. The planning for utilization of these resources must be considered in association with their functions in the hydrological cycle and their interactions with the physical, chemical, and biological processes in terrestrial ecosystems. Planning and decision making for groundwater development are continuous dynamic processes.

When one addresses the question of sustainable development, the objectives and concerns of development will change over time and the development planning must adjust with the changing conditions. Short-term socioeconomic gains may have to be traded with long-term sustainability, with its varied dimensions. This again is not an easy task because of the complex interactions involved and the difficulties of specifying various non-commensurate criteria.

9.1.1.1 Principles of Sustainable Groundwater Development

The goal of environmentally sound and sustainable development of water resources is to develop and manage them in such a way that the resource base is maintained and enhanced over the long term. Groundwater development begins typically with a few pumping wells, and initially, the groundwater management practice, in many cases, is geared to facilitate usage and development. As development progresses with more and more drilled wells scattered over the basin, issues such as overexploitation, equitable sharing of water, and degradation of water quality become apparent in many basins. Thus, the emphasis of groundwater management practice has to be changed, so that the available resource is utilized in an efficient, sustainable, and equitable manner, contributing to the economic and social well-being of the broader community. A sustainable groundwater development depends on the understanding of processes in the aquifer system, quantitative and qualitative monitoring of the resource, and the inter...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Preface
• Editors
• Contributors
• SECTION I Introduction
• SECTION II Europe
• SECTION III Africa
• SECTION IV Middle East
• SECTION V Eurasia
• SECTION VI Asia
• SECTION VII Americas
• SECTION VIII Past, Present, and Future Trends
• Index