GENERAL DEFINITION OF THE TECHNIQUE TYPOLOGIES OF OASIS SETTLEMENTS

TYPOLOGIES OF OASIS SETTLEMENTS

GENERAL DEFINITION OF THE TECHNIQUE

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Technique:TYPOLOGIES OF OASIS SETTLEMENTS DEFINITION CHARACTERS DESCRIPTION AND DIFFUSION Type of settlements in arid lands, result of a comprehensive program for the organization and management of desert space that eliminates the aridity of that space’s surfaces by creating niches and microenvironments. GENERAL CHARACTERS DESCRIPTION AND DIFFUSION An oasis is not a natural result of chance, it is a carefully designed and managed ecosystem. It is the result of a comprehensive program for the organization and management of desert space that eliminates the aridity of that space’s surfaces by creating niches and microenvironments that contrast with the overall cycle. An oasis requires a complex of highly elaborate knowledge that combines an assortment of skills with a refined awareness of place. Geographical and social components are both essential to its making. The two aspects are inextricably bound together. The oasis model explains how very old communities were born and worked, and it enables one to understand the techniques, procedures and principles by which harmonious, balanced relationships may be established between human presence and the order of the land. This theme is of acute scientific interest at a time, like the present, when the global interaction of environmental phenomena has made the human contribution to the balance of nature dramatically clear. The structure of the oasis can be represented as a catchment tunnel 4 to 8km long which, from the edge of the depression leads uphill toward the high ground; a stronghold (kasbah) or village (ksour) on the rocky edge; and a strip of palm groves extending down into the sebkha to a depth equivalent to the water flow. The amount of cultivable land depends on the water borne by the catchment tunnels. Water permits the creation of soil in the desert, but the possibility of extension toward the bottom of the sebkha has an impassable limit determined by the fact that, as one advances toward the depression, the salt concentration of the soil increases. Therefore, the palm grove extends along the edges of the sebkha with the digging of new tunnels and the installation of new villages. ADVANTAGES AND SUSTAINABILITY Oases constitute an extraordinary reserve of biological diversity and sustainable knowledge, and local populations are the holders of solutions that can be re-proposed, adapted and renewed with the help of the appropriate technologies. This knowledge from the distant past can guide the establishment of new technological paradigms: the capacity to evaluate internal resources and to manage them locally; versatility and interpenetration of technical, ethical an esthetic values; production not as an end in itself, but directed toward collective wellbeing and founded on the principle that every activity must feed another without waste or refuse; the utilization of energy forms based on cycles that continuously renew themselves. TRADITIONAL TECHNIQUE DATA Technique TYPOLOGIES OF OASIS SETTLEMENTS Icon Cathegory E - Settlements, architecture and movable handworks Identification code E6 Local applications of the technique Success stories Innovative technologies and solutions RELATED TECHNIQUES B10h COMB-SHAPED SHRING SYSTEMS B7a DOMESTICATION AND DISSEMINATION OF PALM TREE C13b UNDERGROUND CATCHMENT TUNNELS Author: IPOGEA, www.ipogea.org Reference: References: Lureano P., Sahara jardin méconnu, Larousse, Paris, 1991 Bibliograpy: AA.VV. Qanat Bibliography. The First International Conference on Qanat, in Perse et Anglais, Yazd, Iran, 2000 Goblot, H., Les Qanats, une technique d'acquisition de l'eau, Mouton, Paris, 1979 DeepeningDownload PDF