ITALIAN PROPOSAL SPAWNS OASIS IN TUCSON AND GREEN DEVELOPMENT HOPES IN THE MIDDLE EAST
(ANSA) - Milan, December 29
On the face of it, it seems a curious affair, like the re-introduction of horse-drawn chariots to fight combustion engine emissions. The sprawling, desert city of Tucson, the University of Arizona, and the Native American Nations have embraced a Florentine proposal to create an artificial oasis near downtown Tucson. The oasis is to be made using water collection strategies the indigenous Hohokam people developed over 3000 years ago, and serve as a beacon of sustainable practices for re-greening the desert.
The City of Tucson has so far pledged 20 million U.S. dollars to the effort, marking the first time a major, modern city has looked to ancient, native techniques to help fight its own struggle against desertification. To oasis supporters like Pietro Laureano, who challenged 60 Arizona leaders and scholars at a November conference in Tuscon to create it, it marks a major breakthrough.
Laureano is perhaps Italy’s foremost expert on combating desertification. Laureano is the Italian representative on the United Nations Convention for the Fight Against Desertification (UNCCD), and runs the environmental planning group IPOGEA in Florence. Laureano spent years studying Sahara desert oases and other human settlements in critically dry locations around the Mediterranean.
Beginning more than twenty years ago, his books and papers have documented them and earth-friendly water-management techniques they offer to contemporary societies. Whereas traditional water collection systems often capture rain run-off and night condensation, contemporary desert settlements tax rivers and ground water.
United States’ “Sunbelt” cities of the southwest – like Tucson - tap so much water from the Colorado River and its tributaries, that it infrequently reaches the end of its course in the Gulf of California. Sunbelt cities in Arizona, California, Nevada and Texas currently face a fresh water crisis expected to worsen if they continue to grow or if the climate – with global warming - becomes any drier. The Tucson oases project will include building a new branch of the International Traditional Knowledge Institute (ITKI), an UNESCO backed organization based in Italy and co-founded by Laureano. One of the ITKI’s tasks will be to document and communicate what has been heralded as one of the most important archaeological finds of the decade: 3200 year-old irrigation canals north of Tucson, and even older canals downtown.
Researchers found that farmers in the Tucson basin began cultivating maize 4100 years ago, and went on to create the oldest and most enduring agricultural water management system in the United States. “Here there is ancient infrastructure without resorting to new, external resources, on which one could base a contemporary city,” Pietro Laureano told ANSA in an interview.
The traditional irrigation canals remained in use for more than 3000 years, until devastating floods in 1940 irreparably wiped out most of the ancient infrastructure. Laureano recognized similarities between the Hokohams’ techniques and traditional technologies used in the Sahara desert to create oases.
At the time of the November conference, Laureano had just finished the successful renovation of a sand-covered Algerian oasis, abandoned forty years ago – a project financed by a Venetian tax on fresh water usage.
“The location for the oasis was identified through Google Earth. You could see the markings in the earth from satellite images,” Laureano told ANSA. By restoring the 600 year old water collection system, Laureano’s team created a gallery that produced one liter of water per second. When newly planted palm trees reach sufficient height, people will be invited back to the area.
“The oasis in Algeria is like other small projects, but with Tucson (the oasis initiative) becomes something important,” Laureano said. The Tucson decision is even showing signs of becoming a beacon for the Middle East. Since the Tucson team embraced the idea of reintroducing Hohokam water management, Laureano has been invited – via Italian ambassadors and Arab governments - to Saudia Arabia, Oman and Qatar. Oman is interested in restoring extensive networks of pre-existing water collection infrastructure, whereas Saudia Arabia and Qatar are contemplating new systems based on traditional techniques, Laureano reported. “The New Yorker” magazine reported in December that the reintroduction traditional agriculture techniques in the mid-1980’s in Maradi, Niger, sparked a re-greening movement among local farmers, who have since reforested over twelve million acres, or added roughly 200 million trees to a formerly barren landscape.
Laureano commented, “These are all important experiences that utilize simple solutions, solutions recognized by tradition” and the test of time.
(ANSA) - Milan, December 29
On the face of it, it seems a curious affair, like the re-introduction of horse-drawn chariots to fight combustion engine emissions. The sprawling, desert city of Tucson, the University of Arizona, and the Native American Nations have embraced a Florentine proposal to create an artificial oasis near downtown Tucson. The oasis is to be made using water collection strategies the indigenous Hohokam people developed over 3000 years ago, and serve as a beacon of sustainable practices for re-greening the desert.
The City of Tucson has so far pledged 20 million U.S. dollars to the effort, marking the first time a major, modern city has looked to ancient, native techniques to help fight its own struggle against desertification. To oasis supporters like Pietro Laureano, who challenged 60 Arizona leaders and scholars at a November conference in Tuscon to create it, it marks a major breakthrough.
Laureano is perhaps Italy’s foremost expert on combating desertification. Laureano is the Italian representative on the United Nations Convention for the Fight Against Desertification (UNCCD), and runs the environmental planning group IPOGEA in Florence. Laureano spent years studying Sahara desert oases and other human settlements in critically dry locations around the Mediterranean.
Beginning more than twenty years ago, his books and papers have documented them and earth-friendly water-management techniques they offer to contemporary societies. Whereas traditional water collection systems often capture rain run-off and night condensation, contemporary desert settlements tax rivers and ground water.
United States’ “Sunbelt” cities of the southwest – like Tucson - tap so much water from the Colorado River and its tributaries, that it infrequently reaches the end of its course in the Gulf of California. Sunbelt cities in Arizona, California, Nevada and Texas currently face a fresh water crisis expected to worsen if they continue to grow or if the climate – with global warming - becomes any drier. The Tucson oases project will include building a new branch of the International Traditional Knowledge Institute (ITKI), an UNESCO backed organization based in Italy and co-founded by Laureano. One of the ITKI’s tasks will be to document and communicate what has been heralded as one of the most important archaeological finds of the decade: 3200 year-old irrigation canals north of Tucson, and even older canals downtown.
Researchers found that farmers in the Tucson basin began cultivating maize 4100 years ago, and went on to create the oldest and most enduring agricultural water management system in the United States. “Here there is ancient infrastructure without resorting to new, external resources, on which one could base a contemporary city,” Pietro Laureano told ANSA in an interview.
The traditional irrigation canals remained in use for more than 3000 years, until devastating floods in 1940 irreparably wiped out most of the ancient infrastructure. Laureano recognized similarities between the Hokohams’ techniques and traditional technologies used in the Sahara desert to create oases.
At the time of the November conference, Laureano had just finished the successful renovation of a sand-covered Algerian oasis, abandoned forty years ago – a project financed by a Venetian tax on fresh water usage.
“The location for the oasis was identified through Google Earth. You could see the markings in the earth from satellite images,” Laureano told ANSA. By restoring the 600 year old water collection system, Laureano’s team created a gallery that produced one liter of water per second. When newly planted palm trees reach sufficient height, people will be invited back to the area.
“The oasis in Algeria is like other small projects, but with Tucson (the oasis initiative) becomes something important,” Laureano said. The Tucson decision is even showing signs of becoming a beacon for the Middle East. Since the Tucson team embraced the idea of reintroducing Hohokam water management, Laureano has been invited – via Italian ambassadors and Arab governments - to Saudia Arabia, Oman and Qatar. Oman is interested in restoring extensive networks of pre-existing water collection infrastructure, whereas Saudia Arabia and Qatar are contemplating new systems based on traditional techniques, Laureano reported. “The New Yorker” magazine reported in December that the reintroduction traditional agriculture techniques in the mid-1980’s in Maradi, Niger, sparked a re-greening movement among local farmers, who have since reforested over twelve million acres, or added roughly 200 million trees to a formerly barren landscape.
Laureano commented, “These are all important experiences that utilize simple solutions, solutions recognized by tradition” and the test of time.