Is California's future hydraulically sustainable?
The term “hydraulic society” describes the ancient cities and social systems that relied on irrigated agriculture, such as Egypt's Nile Valley. For 5,000 years, the annual cycle of floods replenished the Nile region's soil and nutrients, eliminating the need for...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources
2000-03-01
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| Series: | California Agriculture |
| Online Access: | http://calag.ucanr.edu/archive/?article=ca.v054n02p10 |
| Summary: | The term “hydraulic society” describes the ancient cities and social systems that
relied on irrigated agriculture, such as Egypt's Nile Valley. For 5,000 years, the
annual cycle of floods replenished the Nile region's soil and nutrients, eliminating
the need for complex canal systems such as those found in the Sumerian and Mesopotamian
regions. California is the first hydraulic society that is rapidly developing into
a postindustrial economy; this change will require the partial re-allocation of our
water resources. California should attempt to move toward a decentralized, resilient
“ancient Egyptian” model of water allocation rather than continue with a centralized
but less responsive “Mesopotamian” model. A hydraulic society can be destabilized
by drought conditions, degradation of water quality, and the inability of distribution
systems to adapt to social or economic changes. Although hydraulic societies are ecologically
unstable due to their modification and specialization of the ecosystem, changing the
system of social feedback can compensate for this rigidity. |
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| ISSN: | 0008-0845 2160-8091 |