Water and Heritage project
Funding
ICOMOS Netherlands and the Centre for Global Heritage and Development received funding for the follow up of the Water and Heritage project. The funding comes from the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Water and will be used for several purposes. It will be used to send a number of Dutch delegates to the Water as Heritage International Conference in Taiwan (May 27-31, 2019), to launch the publication ‘Adaptive strategies for water heritage’ and to create a related website.
Preamble
In 2012, ICOMOS Netherlands started to raise the importance of water-related heritage for a sustainable future. In September 2013 the international conference "Protecting deltas: heritage helps" was organized in Amsterdam, with the results of ‘the Statement of Amsterdam’ and the publication "Water & heritage; material, conceptual and spiritual connections”.
Conference TUDelft- Fort Vechten (2016)
In November 2016, ICOMOS NL in collaboration with the Centre for Global Heritage and Development organised the two-day international conference "Water and Heritage for the Future" that took place in Delft and Fort Vechten.
Humans have long shaped their environment in response to water: from drainage and drinking to defense against flooding and to waterways for shipping, water is a core aspect of heritage structures and narratives in cities and landscapes. In the coming decades, the impact of climate change will threaten existing heritage on coast lines, low-lying delta cities and rural areas as well as irrigation systems and water supplies around the world. Focusing on low-lying deltas, the cities and rural areas placed in them we argue that a comprehensive and interconnected approach to historical research, policy-making, education and outreach is necessary to develop sustainable adaptation strategies for water-related heritage. Such an approach requires novel theoretical, methodological and conceptual approaches as well as instruments that acknowledge the inseparability of natural and cultural heritage, the interconnection of spatial and conceptual aspects of heritage, and the importance of water related heritage for the future including the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). They also require new policy, education, and outreach tools.
The Centre for Global Heritage and Development together with ICOMOS Netherlands cooperate in the collection and presentation of scientific evidence, and the development of policy relevant documentation and awareness raising materials in the project “Water and Heritage for the Future”. This initiative is to stress both within ICOMOS, IUCN, ICOM and other heritage institutions, as well with water management related organizations the relevance of water related cultural and natural heritage for the future. On the 25th of November at the TU-Delft, participants will establish the scientific concepts and evidence from examples from around the world of traditional water heritage icons (material, conceptual and spiritual), still existing today and as beacons for the future. On the 26th of November in Fort Vechten, Utrecht, participants will build upon the outcomes of the fist day (Science Day) and discuss the modes to present and role out the scientific outcomes into policy development, public awareness raising and education.
Book
This conference led to the publication 'Adaptive strategies for water heritage, Past, present, and future' was published in 2020. At this conference the idea for an International Scientific Committee 'Water and Heritage' was born.
Conference ICOMOS (2017)
December 2017, at the General Assembly of ICOMOS, the ICOMOS Scientific Council officially requested ICOMOS NL to make a proposal for an International Scientific Committee on Water and Heritage. Subsequently, during the General Assembly, the Taiwan International Institute for Water Education offered to host an international conference on Water and Heritage in 2019 to assist the installment of the scientific committee. There is now a Program Committee with representatives from five continents and from both WATER (IWA, ICID, CIRAT) and various scientific committees of ICOMOS, an Advisory Board and a Concept Note.
From left to right: Henk van Schaik (Water Ambassador Icomos Netherlands), Emily Schultz van Haegen (former Minister Infrastructure and Environment), Blanca Jimenez-Cisneros (UNESCO Director Division of Water Sciences) and Diederik Six (board member ICOMOS Netherlands)
Involved researchers
Carola Hein
Jan Kolen
Maurits Ertsen
Gerdy Verschuure-Stuip
Sabine Luning
Ian Lilly