{"id":6749,"date":"2024-07-06T21:56:25","date_gmt":"2024-07-06T21:56:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/androsresearchcenter.org\/?page_id=6749"},"modified":"2024-07-17T11:45:19","modified_gmt":"2024-07-17T11:45:19","slug":"traditional-water-management","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/androsresearchcenter.org\/en\/traditional-water-management\/","title":{"rendered":"traditional water management"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Traditional Stewardship of Water Resources<\/h1>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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Traditional Water Management practices in the Central Highlands of Andros
Actions to Document, Preserve, Interpret & showcase<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Andros the watery island<\/b><\/p>

Andros Island is the northernmost of the Cyclades islands cluster in the Aegean Archipelago in Greece. One of the ancient names of Andros is Ydrousa, meaning the watery island. The abundance of water distinguishes Andros from the other dry Cycladic islands. Its mountainous character, its proximity to mountainous Evia, and the cold currents of the Cave D\u2019 Oro (international water passage), between the two places, which attract moisture and clouds, partly explain the increased rainfall rates that Andros enjoys. The predominance of schist rock favors the infiltration of surface water and the enrichment of underground aquifers.\u00a0<\/p>

The importance and utilization of water are demonstrated by the numerous structures in the Andros agricultural landscape: dry stone wall terraces for the retention of soil and water, a network of water channels that from the mountain springs and gullies, channel the water to the small plains of the island for irrigation, the hundreds of stone water tanks that store water until it is consumed, the abundance of arched bridges and watermills. Andros developed an agricultural civilization based largely on the grace of water. Water favored the creation of microclimates in which important ecosystems developed, with a wide variety of flora and important fauna. It is no coincidence that today almost half of the island is classified as a Nature reserve, testifying to a rich biodiversity.\u00a0<\/p>

Traditional surface water management<\/b><\/p>

The management of surface water in Andros is a traditional ritual process, a customary practice, which seems to be passed down from generation to generation, linked to ownership. To implement water rights delimitation, before the use of clocks, the movements of the stars were used (from sunrise to sunset) or the use of marks in the landscape (until the sun meets a certain rock on a slope, for example) They are found on property titles and their delimitation is initially shaped by the movements of the stars (from sunrise to sunset) or the use of marks in the landscape (until the sun meets a certain rock on a slope, for example). The historian Dimitrios Polemis refers in an article to the so-called ‘nerochartia’ (water documents), which recorded agreements on the distribution of water between farmers, citing documents from the 17th and 18th centuries. These water rights seem to have been exercised for centuries, through the use and maintenance of surface water management systems consisting of central mountain springs, water tanks in networks, water cisterns for temporary storage, and the maintenance of which is done with knowledge and techniques that are passed on orally and empirically.\u00a0<\/p>

It is these practices, knowledge, locations, and elements of surface water management systems on the central mountain range of Andros, which is the richest location in water, that our action aims at recording, understanding, and preserving. These are both practices and sites that are in danger of being lost to oblivion, as along with the decline in agricultural activity over the last 10 years, water managers are becoming fewer and fewer, endangering knowledge and practices.\u00a0<\/p>

Action objectives<\/b><\/p>

The objectives\u00a0 of our water project, are:<\/p>