Fragile Landscapes: Past, Present and Future of Sustainable Water Management on the Konya Plain, Turkey

Water is a vital resource for human societies, from drinking to sanitation to food production. Changing social, economic and environmental conditions significantly affect the availability and quality of water, thus affecting people’s health, wellbeing and access to food. Dry regions, where some of the poorest people in the world live, are most vulnerable to changes. This project focuses on the Konya Plain (Turkey) to evaluate how these changes have taken place over the last 500 years, and what is likely to occur over the next decades. The excellent archival and archaeological records there will enable the research team to reconstruct past water use and management with an unparalleled level of detail. The team will use a comparative understanding of what sustainable water management is and how it has occurred at various times and places to make suggestions for how to mitigate future water risk, both for the study area and more generally.

Professor John Wainwright, Durham University; Dr Gianna Ayala, University of Sheffield; Dr Ender Peker, British Institute at Ankara; Dr Dan Lawrence, Durham University; Dr Michele Massa, British Institute at Ankara; Dr Davide Motta, Northumbria University; Professor Faruk Ocakoglu, Eskişehir Osmangazi University, Turkey