Ruling the waters: managing the water supply of Constantinople, ad 330–1204

Crow, James

doi:10.1007/s12685-012-0054-y

Cited by 19 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…Data sources for maintenance of the aqueduct system in the middle Byzantine period (9th–13th centuries) are virtually absent, but the aqueducts were certainly functioning around AD 1000 when there was evidence for repairs under Basil II at Ballıgerme with limited sources in the following century (Crow et al, 2008, p. 106). This implies that the city retained workers to ensure necessary repairs of the system as it did in the fifth century (Crow, 2012).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the fourth and fifth centuries, Roman engineers already had half a millennium of experience in the construction of water supply systems, but the Constantinople system was still a challenge due to its scale and the lack of nearby springs of sufficient discharge (Bono et al, 2001). Due to the hilly terrain, the actual length of the combined channels was at least 426 km, and maybe up to 565 km if a double channel ran all the way to the city (Çeçen, 1996; Crow, 2012; Crow et al, 2008; Ruggeri, 2018, p. 98). This implies that the combined aqueduct system is the longest and most complex water supply system for a city in the ancient world, both in Roman and Byzantine times (Çeçen, 1996).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Carbonates from the ancient world's longest aqueduct: A testament of Byzantine water management

et al. 2021

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The fourth‐ and fifth‐century aqueduct system of Constantinople is, at 426 km, the longest water supply line of the ancient world. Carbonate deposits i659ide an archive of both archaeological developments and palaeo‐environmental conditions during the depositional period. The 246‐km‐long aqueduct line from the fourth century used springs from a small aquifer, whereas a 180‐km‐long fifth‐century extension to the west tapped a larger aquifer. Although historical records testify at least 700 years of aqueduct activity, carbonate deposits in the aqueduct system display less than 27 years of operation. This implies that the entire system must have been cleaned of carbonate, presumably during regular campaigns. A 50‐km‐long double‐aqueduct section in the central part of the system may have been a costly but practical solution to allow repairs and cleaning of the aqueducts of carbonate to ascertain a continuous water supply to the city. The fifth‐century channel was commonly contaminated with clay, caused by the nature of the aqueduct system and possible local damage to the channel. This clay‐rich water could have been one of the reasons for the construction of large reservoirs in Constantinople.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Carbonates from the ancient world's longest aqueduct: A testament of Byzantine water management

et al. 2021

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“…Urban history has produced a rich historiography, and important studies have dealt with city-hinterland relations and urban supply (Campbell et al 1993;Galloway 2000, Hoffmann 2007Crow 2012). Whereas both cities and rivers figure prominently in environmental history (Isenberg 2006;Tarr and Dupuy 1988;Cronon 1991;Melosi 1993;Schott 2007;Winiwarter 1998;Bernhardt 2001;Massard-Guilbaud 2007), city-river interaction has received little attention.…”

Section: Figmentioning

confidence: 99%

Looking at half a millennium of co-existence: the Danube in Vienna as a socio-natural site

Winiwarter¹,

Schmid²,

Dressel

2013

Water Hist

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Which insights can be gained from a long-term study for river management today? Vienna's layout and city budget are still influenced by interventions undertaken in the 19th century or even earlier. This introduction to a thematic issue on the Viennese Danube's environmental history from 1500 to 1890 offers a short overview of important events in Vienna's and the Danube's intertwined histories as well as an overview of the study's conceptual basis and summarizes the main results, ranging from method development and floodplain evolution reconstruction to the histories of settlement, sewage and regulation. Today, Vienna is a city with almost 2 million inhabitants, the capital of a small, landlocked country. Since the great regulation of the 1870s, the Danube river has flowed straight through it. A second, parallel river bed was designed in the 1970s to build a retention basin big enough to cope even with major floods. The path leading to this arrangement was both long and winding. To understand the complex interaction between urbanites and the river, one must look beyond the water-filled channel and take the entire floodplain into account. To do this, our interdisciplinary group of researchers synthesized results from river morphology and history into a long-term perspective.

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“…In addition to the vulnerability of the city to destructive earthquakes, the other major environmental concern in İstanbul has historically been the persistent challenge of securing water needs of its inhabitants. The region lacks large freshwater sources and provisioning of suffi cient water to the city has been a persistent problem throughout the ages (Crow 2012 ;Çeçen 1992 ). The forests north of the city have been crucial since the Roman times in provisioning of the drinking water to the inhabitants of the city.…”

Section: Wetlandsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Local Assessment of İstanbul: Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services

Güneralp

Tezer

Albayrak³

2013

Urbanization, Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services: Challenges and Opportunities

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İstanbul, with a population of over 13 million, is Turkey's most populated metropolitan area and the economic powerhouse of the country. The city is located in a region that has rich biodiversity due partly to its unique location at the crossroads of two continental landmasses and two large water bodies. The geographical characteristics and the city's topography allow for diverse micro-climatic zones to exist in a relatively small area, 5,461 km 2 . Moreover, due to millennia of human settlement including sixteen centuries as an imperial capital, many exotic species have found their way to the region. This assessment provides an overview of the main challenges and opportunities that İstanbul is faced with in regards to biodiversity conservation and support for the ecosystem services upon which the city depends, while simultaneously managing population growth and economic development. The assessment will also highlight the Ömerli Watershed, which supplies most of the city's drinking water. The watershed's freshwater provisioning capacity has been degrading due to urbanization in its catchment area, while the demand for water in the city overall has been increasing. An ecological-asset evaluation of the watershed has been carried out to develop an ecosystem services-based spatial decision-making framework. The evaluation is part of the urban biosphere reserve initiative that may be a solution to prevent further decrease of the watershed's biodiversity and degradation of its ecosystem services. Keywords Illegal settlements (gecekondus) • Urban watersheds • Ecosystem services • Freshwater • İstanbul

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Ruling the waters: managing the water supply of Constantinople, ad 330–1204

Cited by 19 publications

References 15 publications

Carbonates from the ancient world's longest aqueduct: A testament of Byzantine water management

Carbonates from the ancient world's longest aqueduct: A testament of Byzantine water management

Looking at half a millennium of co-existence: the Danube in Vienna as a socio-natural site

Local Assessment of İstanbul: Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services

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