2008/05/01 by Kaveh Madani · 1 citation
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · Engineering · #Water management and technologies #Water resources management and optimization #Hydraulic flow and structures
paper · doi:10.1061/40976(316)77
openalex publication_date 2008/05/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
Qanats are renewable water supply systems that have sustained human settlement in arid areas such as Iran. By their very nature, Qanats have encouraged sustainable water use for millennia. However, the socio-economic changes in the 20th century introduced other water harvesting methods such as deep wells whose immediate advantages caused Qanats to be laid aside even though the application of these new methods alone could not contribute to achieving sustainable water resources. By developing the Causal Loop Diagrams of the problem, this study focuses on the interaction dynamics of Qanats and deep wells to explore the physical and socio-economical reasons of Qanats failure in the 20th century.