The researchers used computer Geographic Information Systems (GIS) mapping to determine that ancient forager-herders developed expert knowledge of hydrology and targeted particular small watersheds and landforms for irrigation. Studies of contemporary land and water rights, including principles enshrined in Islamic law, suggest their origins lie at the very beginnings of water management as tribal principles of water equity intertwined with changing ideologies and culture."
You should see the Marib dam, right in the middle of the desert...
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I just read an article about the asequias of New Mexico - centuries-old irrigation ditches dug by hand, from the ARabic word for canal:
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/people-places/ditches.html
the magazine was six years old and I was reading it at chemo today. I tore out the article to mail to you but it's online. Beautiful piece about the water sharing practices of the Hispanic families of New Mexico. Permaculture has taken this idea it seems. THe article did not say whether the practice came to the Spanish via the Arabs - only that the word is Arabic.
Reminds me of the Yemenite hydrology you're talking about above.
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