Societies linked to their environment.

Local technical knowledge for sustainable water management.

Abstract

Chile faces a scenario of water scarcity, caused by climate change and inefficient management of water resources. Urban settlements are vulnerable and must adapt to ensure future water availability for their inhabitants and for nearby ecosystems. In a search for possible ways to face this challenge, the contributions of old societies on water management are presented. In these societies, the recognition of the hydrographic basin as a determining territorial unit of the interventions, the use of local materials and the recognition of the environment, made possible the construction of a landscape together with the efficient management of available water. All this allowed the stability of these societies for long periods of time.

Ancestral technical knowledge -developed by great civilizations, as well as that developed by indigenous communities still in force- constitutes a comprehensive body of knowledge about low impact on the environment and high resilience in the face of changes. This knowledge constitutes a model to reorient the strategies for the recognition of the environment and the sustainable management of water from the local management of the available resources.