ABSTRACT
The INCULTUM Pilot 1 (Altiplano de Granada) focuses on the revaluation of historical water management systems through documentation, recovery and knowledge. The need to maintain and protect these historical irrigation and traditional water management systems has led us to establish synergies between different scientific disciplines (Archaeology, History, Anthropology, Hydrogeology, Pedology, Agronomy, Ecology). This transdisciplinary approach allows us to understand their cultural and environmental values and the local ecological knowledge that has kept these systems in operation since medieval times. A new vision of the complexity of these systems has led us to establish strategies to promote their conservation, allowing, in turn, to attempt a process of revaluation.
Irrigation systems are managed communally by farmers, organised in governance institutions called “Irrigators Communities”. The Altiplano de Granada is part of the UNESCO Geopark, characterised by a dry climate and a dramatic badlands landscape where the irrigation systems created a true oasis full of life, beauty and heritage values.
Our pilot case is based on the preservation and enhancement of historical irrigation systems using tourism as a way to acknowledge their value and to diversify economic activities based on multifunctionality and ecosystem services. Using acequias as cultural routes, visitors can learn about their operation, history, cultural values, environmental benefits and local agrarian production.
But the proposal is based on an effective return to Irrigators Communities, promoting innovative governance mechanisms and a social distribution of benefits coming from tourism. Payment for services agreements have been developed as a new tool to support Irrigators Communities and allow irrigation system preservation based on multifunctionality, ecosystem services and the values they provide. This mechanism is an important social and economic innovation that places the local communities at the centre and the main objective, using tourism as a tool for social development and a way for the visitors to learn and enjoy the agrarian heritage and cultural landscapes while promoting its preservation at the same time.
