The karst landscapes of southern Italy, even though showing lack or scarce presence of water at the surface, host a variety of ancient hydraulic works realized to collect and store water resources, at the advantage of the local settlements and for agricultural purposes. Ancient populations were forced to gain a deep knowledge of the territory in order to exploit the few available water resources, and developed at this aim several techniques, until reaching a high level of capability to collect, transport, and distribute water, even at long distances. Many areas in southern Italy still nowadays present hydraulic works of remarkable interest and historical values, which are briefly described in the present paper, together with other features used for water storage in karst.
Ancient hydraulic systems for collection, transport and storage of water in karst settings of southern Italy.
PARISE, Mario;
2012-01-01
Abstract
The karst landscapes of southern Italy, even though showing lack or scarce presence of water at the surface, host a variety of ancient hydraulic works realized to collect and store water resources, at the advantage of the local settlements and for agricultural purposes. Ancient populations were forced to gain a deep knowledge of the territory in order to exploit the few available water resources, and developed at this aim several techniques, until reaching a high level of capability to collect, transport, and distribute water, even at long distances. Many areas in southern Italy still nowadays present hydraulic works of remarkable interest and historical values, which are briefly described in the present paper, together with other features used for water storage in karst.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
