Stormer-Traditional rainwater harvesting system: a sustainable solution for a non-urban population in the Mediterranean.

The project has been granted to LabeMed-Aix-Marseille University

Project Director: Saba Farès - IREMAM (UMR 7310) & Henri Amouric LA3M (UMR 7298) Aix Marseille-Univresity

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This project proposes to carry out a collective reflection around traditional hydraulic systems for harvesting rainwater in the Mediterranean basin, one of the regions where the population is most affected by climate change and where natural water resources are fault (no river, few sources). The project aims to study, with a diachronic and interdisciplinary approach, the resilience of the population around this basin in a context of aridification. Our project focuses on “rain-dependent” regions and populations.From Morocco, Tunisia and Jordan, we will focus on:

• The diversity of devices, material and immaterial, that societies have put in place throughout their history to cope with drought: Rainwater harvesting facilities, sacred investments of these facilities and popular beliefs linked to the environment (language, religion)
• Socioeconomic construction around hydraulic developments, delimitation of territories, regulation of access and exploitation
• Conflicts and political issues linked to popular hydraulic structures.

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External partner institutions: Territorial Observations Laboratory (LOTERR, EA 7304)

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Results

• Creation of a research team with a broad disciplinary panel (archaeology, geographers, geologists, historians, hydrology engineers) to address the subject
• International collaboration with local authorities in Jordan and with new research institutions (IMS-FORTHellas).

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Manifestations

05/28/2018 - 05/29/2018 "Domestication of rainwater in the Mediterranean and societal implications" MMSH, Aix-en-Provence