Humankind changed from communities of actively engaged water workers into passive users. In so doing, crucial knowledge about how communities created, maintained, and expanded ‘living water systems’, such as rice terraces, lowpasture systems, polders, floating-gardens, brooks-mill, and tidal systems, is rapidly diminishing. Revealing stories (oral accounts) of water workers generate insights and understanding of forgotten aspects of the landscape. They hold information on how to engage with water in a more holistic way, strategies that might help in facing today’s challenges.
The world in general, but planners, spatial designers, and water managers working with water, in particular, have so far taken little account of these stories. To help to overcome this knowledge gap, to learn from the past, the Visual Water Biography (VWB) is developed.
The case of the Brook and Sprengen system, a water system with a rich and dynamic history as industrial water mills, was used to develop the method through engaging with local citizens and heritage organisations.
authors:
I. Bobbink & S.Loen (2021)
https://journals.open.tudelft.nl/spool/article/view/4859
DOI https://doi.org/10.7480/spool.2020.2.4859
©Suzanne Loen / LILA Living Landscapes
Published 24 March 2021