A methodological system for hydraulic heritage assessment: a management tool

Abstract

Traditional irrigation systems are spatial units with a remarkable cultural and heritage value, which in turn generate water landscapes. They are part of hydraulic heritage, which includes material, ideational and symbolic assets. However, the assets related to historical irrigation systems and their landscape units have been poorly studied and evaluated. This paper develops a methodological system for the assessment of hydraulic heritage which combines basic and multi-criteria quantitative techniques. The authors conducted an evaluation of water heritage assets and their associated systems for the purpose of establishing a hierarchy for devising appropriate heritage management actions.

Evaluation of Landscape Quality in Valencia’s Agricultural Gardens—A Method Adapted to Multifunctional, Territorialized Agrifood Systems (MTAS)

“…The work by Hermosilla (2010) [48] explains the choice of indicators that make up the system, based mainly on the ones used in the National Industrial Heritage Plan from the Spanish Cultural Heritage Institute [52]. The structure of the water heritage method has also been optimized in the publications by Mayordomo (2016, 2017) [53,54], in which they analyze and verify the improvements made based on studying 50 or so publications linked to heritage evaluation and on consulting experts in traditional irrigation.…”

“…There are three categories, and they refer to "intrinsic values", "heritage values" and "potential and viability values". These sets of values are used in different plans by the Spanish Cultural Heritage Institute [52,69,70], and have been used as the basis with some adaptation in other methods of landscape evaluation such as the ones by García-Cortés and Carcavilla (2013) [71], González (2007) [72], Hermosilla and Mayordomo (2017) [54] and Medina (2015) [73]. These three categories are made up of 15 criteria, each which is broken down in turn into three specific variables, so that there are 45 attributes that make up the system.…”

“…There is no weighting or hierarchy for any indicator over others. This quantification system enables greater operability for the indicators and has shown its efficiency in heritage evaluation systems such as the one by Bravo (2018) [80], Hermosilla and Iranzo (2014) [81], Hermosilla and Mayordomo (2017) [54], and Serrano and González-Trueba (2005) [82]. The global calculation for each MTAS is obtained from the sum of the scores given to the 45 variables.…”

Závlahy – znovuobjevované dědictví, jejich dokumentace, popularizace a ochrana na příkladu historických lučních závlah

“…vnitřních hodnot, hodnot kulturního dědictví a hodnot potenciálu a proveditelnosti. Tento metodický přístup byl použit i pro hodnocení historických zavlažovacích systémů [15,16] a hodnocení odvodňovacích tunelů a tzv. kanátů (qanat) [17].…”

The Application of Cluster Analysis and Scaling Analysis Methods for the Assessment of Dams in Terms of Heritage Preservation

“…The Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport of the Government of Spain (2012) uses one of the few assessment methodologies for historical WM constructions which consists of "12 criteria and 36 variables that make up the categories of intrinsic values, heritage values, and potential and feasibility values". This methodology was used for the assessment of historical irrigation systems (Hermosilla and Mayordomo 2017;Hermosilla and Peña 2010), and on drainage tunnels or qanats (Hermosilla and Iranzo 2014). Douet (2018) included the dams and reservoirs as one of the main priorities of the heritage of water industry and industry itself.…”