The Evolution of Agricultural Drainage from the Earliest Times to the Present

Mohammad Valipour, Jens Krasilnikof, Stavros Yannopoulos, Rohitashw Kumar, Jun Deng, Paolo Roccaro, Larry Mays, Mark E. Grismer and Andreas N. Angelakis
Additional contact information
Mohammad Valipour: Center of Excellence for Climate Change Research/Department of Meteorology, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabia
Jens Krasilnikof: Department of History and Classical Studies, School of Culture and Society, Aarhus University, 8000 Aarhus C, Denmark
Stavros Yannopoulos: Faculty of Engineering, School of Rural and Surveying Engineering, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece
Rohitashw Kumar: College of Agricultural Engineering and Technology, SKUAST-Kashmir, Srinagar 190025, India
Jun Deng: Department of Water History Research, China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research, Research Center on Flood and Drought Disaster Reduction of the Ministry of Water Resources, Beijing 100038, China
Paolo Roccaro: Department of Civil Engineering and Architecture, University of Catania, 95124 Catania, Italy
Larry Mays: School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85281, USA
Mark E. Grismer: Departments of LAWR and Biological & Agricultural Engineering, UC Davis, Davis, CA 95616, USA
Andreas N. Angelakis: Institute of Crete, National Foundation for Agricultural Research (N.AG.RE.F.), 71307 Iraklion and Hellenic Union of Municipal Enterprises for water Supply and Sewerage, 41222 Larissa, Greece

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 1, 1-30

Abstract: Agricultural developments require changes in land surface and subsurface hydraulic functions as protection from floods, reclamation of flooded land, irrigation, and drainage. Drainage of agricultural land has a long history and apparently traces back to the earliest civilizations of Mesopotamia and Iran before 4000 BC. In the Eastern Mediterranean, the Minoan and Mycenaean civilizations developed techniques and strategies of drainage of agricultural lands from the middle of the 2nd millennium BC. After the collapse of the Aegean Bronze-age civilizations, society building and agricultural innovation in the archaic and Classical periods (ca. 800–300 BC) included successful attempts at controlling drainage and irrigation techniques. In addition, China, India, and Mesoamerica have extensive histories of drainage. The aim of this review paper is to trace the evolution of the main foundings on agricultural drainage technologies through the centuries until the present. This historical review reveals valuable insights into ancient hydraulic technologies as well as irrigation and drainage management that will help to find bright horizons for sustainable agriculture in future.

Keywords: agricultural drainage; irrigation; land reclamation; water and civilization; sustainable drainage (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/1/416/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/1/416/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:1:p:416-:d:305441

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().