First seminar-meeting on the management and experimentation with earthen irrigation channels
On Wednesday, 25 March 2026, the first seminar-meeting on the treatment and proposed actions for earthen irrigation channels took place, organised by the Laboratory of Biocultural Archaeology (MEMOLab) at the University of Granada as part of the WatHer Project.
The meeting was held in the Postgraduate Lecture Theatre at the University of Granada and brought together around twenty specialists from various environmental, social, technical and humanities disciplines.
The aim of this meeting was to jointly devise an action and experimentation plan to address the challenges of water use in earthen irrigation channels. To this end, the historic hydraulic system of Benamaurel (Granada) was taken as a case study, along with two starting points.
Firstly, to establish proposals for the management of earthen irrigation channels that facilitate water resource management. This point is based on testing technical solutions and monitoring the process to facilitate maintenance, increase efficiency, resolve water scarcity issues and, above all, preserve the landscapes along with their functions, as well as their cultural and socio-ecosystemic values.
Secondly, this meeting aims to mark the start of a network of researchers that can be consolidated at various levels around this theme. Consequently, during this initial meeting, a range of proposals, methodologies and highly valuable solutions were put forward, offering numerous possibilities for achieving the objectives set.
