Educational past
Knowledge from the past for solutions today
In the themed year 'Water Management', CAG and KIEN, together with the heritage communities of traditional grassland irrigation and watermill landscapes, looked for sustainable applications of these intangible heritage practices. The opportunities are great, but so are the challenges. To use intangible heritage as a lever in climate challenges, there are four major points of attention.
1. Need for a change in mentality
Water and soil (composition) traditionally structure the landscape. But over the past 70 years we have shaped that landscape to our will, based on the feasibility of nature. Watercourses were straightened, infertile soils were made fertile, and the landscape was redesigned according to our own wishes. We are now reaching the limits of that idea. A change in our relationship with the landscape is necessary, beginning with the sustainability of our environment, to living with and in the landscape, and with a focus on the importance of ecosystem services.
However, such water and soil-driven thinking is not self-evident. Intangible heritage can play a role in a change in mentality as it contains a wide range of ideas and inspiration that is based on centuries of coexistence with nature and the landscape. It must be recognized that knowledge from the past is no longer always sufficient. The water system has changed due to an increased flow rate (including all kinds of human interventions such as widening and straightening of watercourses) and more intense rain showers.
The great thing about heritage is that it is a tangible, cosy asset, with which you can show citizens how the landscape is put together.
– Hein Elemans
2. Co-production as a key word
Heritage communities can complement knowledge about climate and environmental changes with local insights. But looking to the past is not always a logical step for policy makers or watercourse and landscape managers, which is why co-production or involving different parties and knowledge systems from the start is essential when drawing up policy and management plans. Heritage communities can thus share their knowledge and feel involved in sustainable, future-oriented area development. At the same time, policymakers can also share the possibilities or obstacles to give heritage an active role. By assuming co-production, an approach from different angles and across policy domains becomes possible. Nature and culture, after all, are inseparable and dependent on one another.
There is a lot of knowledge in many different fields, but sometimes there is a lack of searching for connections.
– Hans Nuyttens
3. Need for policy and good examples
The connection between sustainability, development and heritage is still in its infancy. CAG and KIEN strive to make policymakers, professionals and the public understand the importance of this link. Today, there are frameworks in various policy instruments, visionary texts or strategies on which an active role for heritage can be based, for example in Visie2050. But policy changes require best practices and visionary targets that contribute to a cultural change. To change the mindset towards participatory management and a different view of the landscape, nature and heritage, theoretical concepts such as the 'Biocultural Heritage Framework' can also help.
In the context of the European Water Framework Directive and the quality of surface water, quite a few interventions will be required in the coming years. The question is how we can deal with this creatively and take old systems into account.
- Eric Brinckmann
4. Substantiate with research
Intangible heritage is often crucial in understanding water systems and watercourse management. Heritage practices have often contributed greatly to the origins and development of an area. Historical forms of land use and water management bring their own ecological values. Consider the diversity of species in the water meadows, which are dependent on regular irrigation. Or the impoundment of water-by-water mills, which has led to the inundation of upstream areas and peat formation. Moreover, it is not only about the biological and ecological influence that heritage has (had), but also about the identity formation and social aspects associated with heritage practice. Studying historical systems provides insight into the effects of intangible heritage.
Studying cultural-historical water systems is important. As humans, we have had a lot of influence on the soil and water. We cannot see the landscape today without human intervention.
– Arjan Conijn
In addition, history can also provide us with targeted ideas for adjustments in a changing environment. If the groundwater level needs to rise and areas need to be rehydrated, historical research into the agricultural past in wet areas can provide information about varieties and species that thrive there. Research into the changing ecosystem services of the landscape also teaches us how the landscape and our interaction with it evolved. Cultural heritage often falls under 'cultural ecosystem services', but heritage has just as many links to producing and regulating ecosystem services, and just as much value for sustainable development.
Conclusion
Embedding intangible heritage in development, management, policy and research requires a new perspective. It challenges conventional thinking patterns and established values. The themed year 'Water Management' reveals that there are still many needs: for good examples, for further research, for awareness about the intangible heritage of water and land, for safeguarding that intangible heritage, for policy, for cross-domain and participatory management... Intangible heritage of water and land has shaped and determined the landscape. Let it be this way in the future as well.
