Water resources and their role in attracting tourists (Case Study: Tehran’s Qanats)

Document Type : Research Article

Authors

1 PhD Student, Department of Urbanism, Emarat Branch, Islamic Azad University, Dubai, UAE

2 Associate Professor, Department of Geography, Tehran Central Branch of Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran

3 Assistant Professor, Department of Urbanism, Eastern Branch of Tehran, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

Since Iranians introduced Qanat to the world, it has been widely spread around the world due to its usefulness providing people with groundwater. According to studies conducted in Iran, it is estimated that about 10,000 km qanats with 300,000 wells lie under Iranian urban areas. In order to utilize these water resources, sustainable development should be taken into account, which is exploitation of these resources with responsibility, reasonable and proper planning. Tourism is associated with many advantages including cultural exchange, flourished native businesses, increased rate of employment, and familiarity of  communities with each other. Studying the history and structure of Qanats in Iran and other regions reveals the high technical knowledge of our ancestors. Many reasons contribute to the decline of Qanats in Iran including new methods of irrigation, climate changes and inappropriate management knowledge. However, based on previous successful experiences in reviving Qanats and turning them into tourist attractions in different parts of the world and also Iran, the high potential of this structure to attract a huge number of tourists is revealed; therefore, reviving and improving these structures in historical parts of Tehran is recommended.

Keywords

Main Subjects

References

منابع
 
1.  Stiros SC. Accurate measurements with primitive instruments: the “paradox” in the qanat design. Journal of Archaeological Science. 2006;33(8):1058-64.
2.  Maleki A, Khorsandi A. Qanat in Iran, The case study of Tehran qanats. 2005, [Persian].
3.  Shams A. A rediscovered-new ‘Qanat’ system in the High Mountains of Sinai Peninsula, with Levantine reflections. Journal of Arid Environments. 2014;110:69-74.
4.  Wilkinson TJ, Boucharlat R, Ertsen MW, Gillmore G, Kennet D, Magee P, et al. From human niche construction to imperial power: long-term trends in ancient Iranian water systems. Water History. 2012;4(2):155-76.
5.  Hamidian A, Ghorbani M, Abdolshahnejad M, Abdolshahnejad A. RETRACTED: Qanat, Traditional Eco-technology for Irrigation and Water Management. Agriculture and Agricultural Science Procedia. 2015;4:119-25.
6.  Carrión A, Fornes A. Underground medieval water distribution network in a Spanish town. Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology. 2016;51:90-7.
7.  L.Khaniki M, S.Yazdi AA. Qanat Tourism. Yazd: Shahandeh; 2015.
8.  Parsizadeh F, Ibrion M, Mokhtari M, Lein H, Nadim F. Bam 2003 earthquake disaster: On the earthquake risk perception, resilience and earthquake culture – Cultural beliefs and cultural landscape of Qanats, gardens of Khorma trees and Argh-e Bam. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction. 2015;14:457-69.
9.  Abbasnejad A, Abbasnejad B, Derakhshani R, Hemmati Sarapardeh A. Qanat hazard in Iranian urban areas: explanation and remedies. Environmental Earth Sciences. 2016;75(19):1306.
10.   Mahmoodi MR, Fadaei Nezhad S. Feasibility Study on the Establishment of Ecomuseums in Areas under the Influence of Qanats in Iran. Journal of Applied Environmental and Biological Sciences. 2015;5(11):72-80.
11.   Martínez-Santos P, Martínez-Alfaro PE. A priori mapping of historical water-supply galleries based on archive records and sparse material remains. An application to the Amaniel qanat (Madrid, Spain). Journal of Cultural Heritage. 2014;15(6):656-64.
12.   ToossabConsultingEngineersCompany. Study of Qantas water quality of in Tehran. Tehran: 2011 Contract No.: 430752 –5139.
13.   Lightfoot DR. Syrian qanat Romani: history, ecology, abandonment. Journal of Arid Environments. 1996;33(3):321-36.
14.   Goes BJM, Parajuli UN, Haq M, Wardlaw RB. Karez (qanat) irrigation in the Helmand River Basin, Afghanistan: a vanishing indigenous legacy. Hydrogeology Journal. 2017;25(2):269-86.
15.   Abbasnejad A. Qanat: a resource or a hazard? Rebuttal to “Qanat is not a hazard” by Parise (Environ Earth Sci 2016 75: 1476). Environmental Earth Sciences. 2017;76(5):214.
16.   Parise M. Qanat is not a hazard. Environmental Earth Sciences. 2016;75(23):1476.
17.   Naghibi SA, Pourghasemi HR, Abbaspour K. A comparison between ten advanced and soft computing models for groundwater qanat potential assessment in Iran using R and GIS. Theoretical and Applied Climatology. 2017.
18.   Naghibi SA, Pourghasemi HR, Pourtaghi ZS, Rezaei A. Groundwater qanat potential mapping using frequency ratio and Shannon’s entropy models in the Moghan watershed, Iran. Earth Science Informatics. 2015;8(1):171-86.
19.   Bailiff IK, Gerrard CM, Gutierrez A, Snape-Kennedy LM, Wilkinson KN. Luminescence dating of irrigation systems : application to a qanat in Aragon, Spain. Quaternary geochronology. 2015;14(B):459-.
20.   Fattahi M. OSL dating of the Miam Qanat (KĀRIZ) system in NE Iran. Journal of Archaeological Science. 2015;59:54-63.
Iranian journal of Ecohydrology
Volume 4, Issue 3
September 2017
Pages 931-941

Files

History

  • Receive Date: 18 April 2017
  • Revise Date: 08 August 2017
  • Accept Date: 21 July 2017
  • First Publish Date: 23 September 2017
  • Publish Date: 23 September 2017

Share

How to cite

Statistics