Using cultural heritage and historical analyses for current and future problems with too much or too little water

Abstract

The Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands, as part of the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, executes a program on water and heritage. The program aims to provide information that can be of use in spatial planning by civil services. The underlying principle of the program is the premise that archaeologists and other cultural heritage professionals have the knowledge and means to make cross-overs between heritage and climate change and issues related to this, such as flooding and drought. The program consists of numerous projects, such as cultural heritage research as a knowledge base for predicting the location of water related problems in cities and researching the relation between soil, subsoil and water systems and the location and development of cities. This article digs deeper into the concept of using past data for present issues. It provides examples of how archaeological data and historical analysis can be used for current and future water-management problems.