Qanat, a sustainable and environmentally friendly system for water resource management in arid area

Billions of people lack water! The water scarcity as a result of human activities and climate changes become one of the biggest global issue for the mankind around the world. Particularly, in arid and semi-arid countries people have significant problem for water supply due to the climate situation and high water demand. However, in the middle deserts of Iran there is a valuable local knowledge for water supply called Qanat, which refers back to more than ۳۰۰۰ years ago. The ancient Iranians started to solve this problem constructing elaborate tunnel systems for extracting groundwater for agriculture and domestic purposes in dry desert. In this research first we introduce Qanat, then we briefly review the history of Qanat from past to percent. We also listed the advantages of Qanat and study the main obstacles of this ancient wisdom. Additionally, we suggest some methods for using and renewing Qanat system through using new technology.

کلیدواژه ها:

Qanat ، underground water ، sustainable management ، arid area