Hydraulic heritage systems, both underground and exposed, have been known to be sustainable for millennia. Persian and also Roman aqueducts are examples of such hydrosystems. Their values are often overlooked but they have undeniable advantages: they have functional interconnectedness with their surrounding society and ecology, which sometimes leads to revitalization plans. By using the notion ...

Historically, access to water resources had always been a key issue in the formation and perpetuation of ancient cities, more importantly in the arid and semi-arid regions like the central plateau of Iran. Based on the environmental situations, Persian civilization considered ecological realities and social interaction of conservation and proper distribution of the water to sustain its availabi...

The Yazd-Ardakan basin in Central Iran has two separated aquifers. The shallow unconfined aquifer is supplies 40 Qanats. The deep saturated confined aquifer is the main water storage. Due to over-withdrawal, water table has been decreasing during last 25 years. Recent study shows that the shortage of the aquifer is about 16 meters and land subsidence is 0.5 1.2 meters. Long deep cracks are foun...