Water and society from ancient times to the present : resilience, decline and revival / edited by Federica Sulas and Innocent Pikirayi.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Water and society : introduction / Federica Sulas and Innocent Pikirayi -- Part I -- Sustaining freshwater security and community wealth : diversity and change in the Pre-Columbian Maya lowlands / Christian Isendahl, Lisa J. Lucero and Scott Heckbert -- Archaeological identification of human sensitivity to drought / Scott E. Ingram -- Water and risks in marginal landscapes of Anatolia / Bülent Arikan -- Water management and irrigation systems in the medieval Mediterranean / José Ma Martín Civantos -- The tale the river tells : floodplains, climate change and archaeology in West Africa / Peter R. Coutros -- Water and large-scale societies in southern Zambezia, 900-1900 CE / Innocent Pikirayi -- Traditions of water in the northern Horn of Africa / Federica Sulas -- Part II -- Managing water and land at the Amazon River estuary : from Pre-Columbian times to the present / Denise Pahl Schaan and Eliana Teles Rodrigues -- Ancient water management in southern Arabia : creativity, resilience and sustainability in Yemen and Oman / Michael J. Harrower and Smiti Nathan -- Qanāts of Iran : sustainable water supply systems / Ali Asghar Semsar Yazdi and Majid Labbaf Khaneiki -- Angkor, food production, water management and climate change : the trajectory of urbanism in SE Asia to the mid-second millennium CE / Roland Fletcher -- Hydraulic complexities : collapse and resilience in Sri Lanka / Keir M. Strickland, Robin Coningham, Prishanta Gunawardhana and Ian Simpson -- Historic water systems in India : relevance for sustainable development of significant cultural landscapes / Anuradha Chaturvedi -- Historic water systems, urban growth and resilience in American cities / Martin V. Melosi -- Concluding essay 1. Resource gain and complexity : water past and future / Joseph A. Tainter, Vernon L. Scarborough and Timothy F.H. Allen -- Concluding essay 2. Historical water socioecological systems : sustainability, resilience and transformability / Fekri A. Hassan.

"As water availability, management and conservation become global challenges, there is now wide consensus that historical knowledge can provide crucial information to address present crises, offering unique opportunities to appreciate the solutions and mechanisms societies have developed over time to deal with water in all its forms, from rainfall to groundwater. This unique collection explores how ancient water systems relate to present ideas of resilience and sustainability and can inform future strategy. Through an investigation of historic water management systems, along with the responses to, and impact of, various water-driven catastrophes, contributors to this volume present tenable solutions for the long-term use of water resources in different parts of the world. The discussion is not limited to issues of the past, seeking instead to address the resonance and legacy of water histories in the present and future. Water and Society from Ancient Times to the Present speaks to an archaeological and non-archaeological scholarly audience and will be a useful primary reference text for researchers and graduate students from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds including archaeology, anthropology, history, ecology, geography, geology, architecture and development studies."--Page i.