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157-625: The irrigation system started at the Pous de Montcada, replacing the old Roman aqueduct in Barcelona. The remains of Rec Comtal, on its way through the Sant Andreu district, are located on undeveloped land between Carrer Fernando Pessoa and the platform of the Station, next to Carrer Palomar. These remains are completely covered by vegetation. The only visible element is a lowered arch bridge over

314-582: A groma , a relatively simple apparatus that was eventually displaced by the more sophisticated dioptra , a precursor of the modern theodolite . In Book 8 of his De architectura , Vitruvius describes the need to ensure a constant supply, methods of prospecting, and tests for potable water. Greek and Roman physicians were well aware of the association between stagnant or tainted waters and water-borne diseases, and held rainwater to be water's purest and healthiest form, followed by springs. Rome's public baths, ostensibly one of Rome's greatest contributions to

471-510: A "never failing" spring, stream or river; but acknowledges that not every farm did. Farmland without a reliable summer water-source was virtually worthless. During the growing season, a "modest local" irrigation system might consume as much water as the city of Rome; and the livestock whose manure fertilised the fields must be fed and watered all year round. At least some Roman landowners and farmers relied in part or whole on aqueduct water to raise crops as their primary or sole source of income but

628-540: A ball drive, gear drive, or impact mechanism. Rotors can be designed to rotate in a full or partial circle. Guns are similar to rotors, except that they generally operate at very high pressures of 275 to 900 kPa (40 to 130 psi) and flows of 3 to 76 L/s (50 to 1200 US gal/min), usually with nozzle diameters in the range of 10 to 50 mm (0.5 to 1.9 in). Guns are used not only for irrigation, but also for industrial applications such as dust suppression and logging . Sprinklers can also be mounted on moving platforms connected to

785-471: A base of natural earth, without any special coating. Along the route there were bridges, mostly stone, but there could be wooden ones, which facilitated the crossing. Through archeology it has been possible to document that the Rec was cleaned with some regularity, which means that no materials from the first moment of construction are preserved. Where the most changes occurred in relation to the shape and layout of

942-425: A cash income through the sale of surplus foodstuffs, and an increase in the value of the land itself. In the countryside, permissions to draw aqueduct water for irrigation were particularly hard to get; the exercise and abuse of such rights were subject to various known legal disputes and judgements, and at least one political campaign; in 184 BC Cato tried to block all unlawful rural outlets, especially those owned by

1099-419: A circular or semi-circular pattern. Traveling Sprinklers: These move along the hose path on their own, watering as they go, ideal for covering long, narrow spaces. Each type offers different advantages based on garden size and shape, water pressure, and specific watering needs. Subirrigation has been used for many years in field crops in areas with high water tables . It is a method of artificially raising

1256-589: A clock or timer. Most automatic systems employ electric solenoid valves . Each zone has one or more of these valves that are wired to the controller. When the controller sends power to the valve, the valve opens, allowing water to flow to the sprinklers in that zone. There are two main types of sprinklers used in lawn irrigation, pop-up spray heads and rotors. Spray heads have a fixed spray pattern, while rotors have one or more streams that rotate. Spray heads are used to cover smaller areas, while rotors are used for larger areas. Golf course rotors are sometimes so large that

1413-436: A commensurate water-fee. Some individuals were gifted a right to draw overflow water gratis , as a State honour or grant; pipe stamps show that around half Rome's water grants were given to elite, extremely wealthy citizens of the senatorial class. Water grants were issued by the emperor or State to named individuals, and could not be lawfully sold along with a property, or inherited: new owners and heirs must therefore negotiate

1570-426: A computerized set of valves . In sprinkler or overhead irrigation, water is piped to one or more central locations within the field and distributed by overhead high-pressure sprinklers or guns. A system using sprinklers, sprays, or guns mounted overhead on permanently installed risers is often referred to as a solid-set irrigation system. Higher pressure sprinklers that rotate are called rotors and are driven by

1727-580: A continuous water-flow and the inevitable deposition of water-borne minerals within the pipes somewhat reduced the water's contamination by soluble lead. Lead content in Rome's aqueduct water was "clearly measurable, but unlikely to have been truly harmful". Nevertheless, the level of lead was 100 times higher than in local spring waters. Most Roman aqueducts were flat-bottomed, arch-section conduits, approximately 0.7 m (2.3 ft) wide and 1.5 m (5 ft) high internally, running 0.5 to 1 m beneath

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1884-494: A direct financial cost to the farmer. Irrigation often requires pumping energy (either electricity or fossil fuel) to deliver water to the field or supply the correct operating pressure. Hence increased efficiency will reduce both the water cost and energy cost per unit of agricultural production. A reduction of water use on one field may mean that the farmer is able to irrigate a larger area of land, increasing total agricultural production. Low efficiency usually means that excess water

2041-416: A flood (spate), water is diverted to normally dry river beds (wadis) using a network of dams, gates and channels and spread over large areas. The moisture stored in the soil will be used thereafter to grow crops. Spate irrigation areas are in particular located in semi-arid or arid, mountainous regions. Micro-irrigation , sometimes called localized irrigation , low volume irrigation , or trickle irrigation

2198-409: A higher profit than potatoes. The land is flood irrigated twice a day to simulate tidal flooding; the water is pumped from the sea using wind power. Additional benefits are soil remediation and carbon sequestration . Until the 1960s, there were fewer than half the number of people on the planet as of 2024. People were not as wealthy as today, consumed fewer calories and ate less meat , so less water

2355-417: A key aspect of agriculture for over 5,000 years and has been developed by many cultures around the world. Irrigation helps to grow crops, maintain landscapes, and revegetate disturbed soils in dry areas and during times of below-average rainfall. In addition to these uses, irrigation is also employed to protect crops from frost , suppress weed growth in grain fields, and prevent soil consolidation . It

2512-466: A legal landscape at least as daunting as the physical one". In the aftermath of the Second Punic War , the censors exploited a legal process known as vindicatio , a repossession of private or tenanted land by the state, "restoring" it to a presumed ancient status as "public and sacred, and open to the people". Livy describes this as a public-spirited act of piety, and makes no reference to

2669-459: A local level, particularly when ager publicus was understood to be common property, to be used for whatever purpose seemed fit to its user. After ager publicus , minor, local roads and boundaries between adjacent private properties offered the least costly routes, though not always the most straightforward. Sometimes the State would purchase the whole of a property, mark out the intended course of

2826-415: A low "venter" bridge, then rose to a receiving tank at a slightly lower elevation. This discharged into another conduit; the overall gradient was maintained. Siphon pipes were usually made of soldered lead, sometimes reinforced by concrete encasements or stone sleeves. Less often, the pipes were stone or ceramic, jointed as male-female and sealed with lead. Vitruvius describes the construction of siphons and

2983-550: A maximum gradient of about 1:700) and Las Medulas in northern Spain . Where sharp gradients were unavoidable in permanent conduits, the channel could be stepped downwards, widened or discharged into a receiving tank to disperse the flow of water and reduce its abrasive force. The use of stepped cascades and drops also helped re-oxygenate and thus "freshen" the water. Some aqueduct conduits were supported across valleys or hollows on multiple piered arches of masonry, brick or concrete, also known as arcades . The Pont du Gard , one of

3140-426: A minor branch of the main aqueduct supplied a local suburb via a lead siphon whose "belly" was laid across a riverbed, eliminating any need for supporting bridgework. Some aqueducts running through hilly regions employed a combination of arcades, plain conduits buried at ground level, and tunnels large enough to contain the conduit, its builders and maintenance workers. The builders of Campana's Aqua Augusta changed

3297-500: A more conservative 520,000–635,000 m per day, supplying an estimated population of 1,000,000. Hundreds of aqueducts were built throughout the Roman Empire. Many of them have since collapsed or been destroyed, but a number of intact portions remain. The Zaghouan Aqueduct , 92.5 km (57.5 mi) in length, was built in the 2nd century AD to supply Carthage (in modern Tunisia ). Surviving provincial aqueduct bridges include

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3454-429: A new grant, in their own name. In the event, these untransferable, personal water grants were more often transferred than not. Frontinus thought dishonest private users and corrupt state employees were responsible for most of the losses and outright thefts of water in Rome, and the worst damage to the aqueducts. His De aquaeductu can be read as a useful technical manual, a display of persuasive literary skills, and

3611-438: A public aqueduct could draw, under license, a specified quantity of aqueduct water for irrigation at a predetermined time, using a bucket let into the conduit via the inspection hatches; this was intended to limit the depletion of water supply to users further down the gradient, and help ensure a fair distribution among competitors at the time when water was most needed and scarce. Columella recommends that any farm should contain

3768-412: A pull-through device. In Rome, where a hard-water supply was the norm, mains pipework was shallowly buried beneath road kerbs, for ease of access; the accumulation of calcium carbonate in these pipes would have necessitated their frequent replacement. Full closure of any aqueduct for servicing would have been a rare event, kept as brief as possible, with repair shut-downs preferably made when water demand

3925-424: A rectangular or square pattern. They are good for covering large, flat areas evenly. Impact (or Pulsating) Sprinklers: These create a rotating, pulsating spray, which can cover a circular or semi-circular area. They are useful for watering large lawns. Stationary Sprinklers: These have a fixed spray pattern and are best for smaller areas or gardens. Rotary Sprinklers: These use spinning arms to distribute water in

4082-930: A restoration by Vespasian and another, later, by his son Titus . To many modern scholars, the delay seems implausibly long. It might well have been thought politic to stress the personal generosity of the new Flavian dynasty , father and son, and exaggerate the negligence of their disgraced imperial predecessor, Nero , whose rebuilding priorities after Rome's Great Fire were thought models of self-indulgent ambition. Aqueduct mains could be directly tapped, but they more usually fed into public distribution terminals, known as castellum aquae ("water castles"), which acted as settling tanks and cisterns and supplied various branches and spurs, via lead or ceramic pipes. These pipes were made in 25 different standardised diameters and were fitted with bronze stopcocks. The flow from each pipe ( calix ) could be fully or partly opened, or shut down, and its supply diverted if necessary to any other part of

4239-708: A result of irrigation and the subsequent effects on natural and social conditions in river basins and downstream of an irrigation scheme . The effects stem from the altered hydrological conditions caused by the installation and operation of the irrigation scheme. Amongst some of these problems is depletion of underground aquifers through overdrafting . Soil can be over-irrigated due to poor distribution uniformity or management wastes water, chemicals, and may lead to water pollution . Over-irrigation can cause deep drainage from rising water tables that can lead to problems of irrigation salinity requiring watertable control by some form of subsurface land drainage . In 2000,

4396-424: A single sprinkler is combined with a valve and called a 'valve in head'. When used in a turf area, the sprinklers are installed with the top of the head flush with the ground surface. When the system is pressurized, the head will pop up out of the ground and water the desired area until the valve closes and shuts off that zone. Once there is no more pressure in the lateral line, the sprinkler head will retract back into

4553-636: A slight overall downward gradient within conduits of stone, brick , concrete or lead; the steeper the gradient, the faster the flow. Most conduits were buried beneath the ground and followed the contours of the terrain; obstructing peaks were circumvented or, less often, tunneled through. Where valleys or lowlands intervened, the conduit was carried on bridgework , or its contents fed into high-pressure lead, ceramic, or stone pipes and siphoned across. Most aqueduct systems included sedimentation tanks, which helped to reduce any water-borne debris. Sluices , castella aquae (distribution tanks) and stopcocks regulated

4710-408: A state honour. In cities and towns, clean run-off water from aqueducts supported high consumption industries such as fulling and dyeing , and industries that employed water but consumed almost none, such as milling . Used water and water surpluses fed ornamental and market gardens, and scoured the drains and public sewers. Unlicensed rural diversion of aqueduct water for agriculture was common during

4867-439: A warning to users and his own staff that if they stole water, they would be found out, because he had all the relevant, expert calculations to hand. He claimed to know not only how much was stolen, but how it was done. Tampering and fraud were indeed commonplace; methods included the fitting of unlicensed or additional outlets, some of them many miles outside the city, and the illegal widening of lead pipes. Any of this might involve

Rec Comtal - Misplaced Pages Continue

5024-399: Is supplementary to rainfall as happens in many parts of the world, or whether it is ' full irrigation' whereby crops rarely depend on any contribution from rainfall. Full irrigation is less common and only happens in arid landscapes experiencing very low rainfall or when crops are grown in semi-arid areas outside of any rainy seasons. Surface irrigation, also known as gravity irrigation, is

5181-480: Is a form of sprinkler irrigation utilising several segments of pipe (usually galvanized steel or aluminium) joined and supported by trusses , mounted on wheeled towers with sprinklers positioned along its length. The system moves in a circular pattern and is fed with water from the pivot point at the center of the arc. These systems are found and used in all parts of the world and allow irrigation of all types of terrain. Newer systems have drop sprinkler heads as shown in

5338-503: Is a system where water is distributed under low pressure through a piped network, in a pre-determined pattern, and applied as a small discharge to each plant or adjacent to it. Traditional drip irrigation use individual emitters, subsurface drip irrigation (SDI), micro-spray or micro-sprinklers, and mini-bubbler irrigation all belong to this category of irrigation methods. Drip irrigation, also known as microirrigation or trickle irrigation, functions as its name suggests. In this system, water

5495-415: Is also the means of delivery of fertilizer. The process is known as fertigation . Deep percolation, where water moves below the root zone, can occur if a drip system is operated for too long or if the delivery rate is too high. Drip irrigation methods range from very high-tech and computerized to low-tech and labor-intensive. Lower water pressures are usually needed than for most other types of systems, with

5652-502: Is also used to cool livestock , reduce dust , dispose of sewage , and support mining operations. Drainage , which involves the removal of surface and sub-surface water from a given location, is often studied in conjunction with irrigation. There are several methods of irrigation that differ in how water is supplied to plants. Surface irrigation , also known as gravity irrigation, is the oldest form of irrigation and has been in use for thousands of years. In sprinkler irrigation , water

5809-422: Is common in many parts of the world as rainfed agriculture , or it can be full irrigation, where crops rarely rely on any contribution from rainfall. Full irrigation is less common and only occurs in arid landscapes with very low rainfall or when crops are grown in semi-arid areas outside of rainy seasons. The environmental effects of irrigation relate to the changes in quantity and quality of soil and water as

5966-422: Is delivered at or near the root zone of plants, one drop at a time. This method can be the most water-efficient method of irrigation, if managed properly; evaporation and runoff are minimized. The field water efficiency of drip irrigation is typically in the range of 80 to 90% when managed correctly. In modern agriculture, drip irrigation is often combined with plastic mulch , further reducing evaporation, and

6123-457: Is dependent upon farmers having sufficient access to water. However, water scarcity is already a critical constraint to farming in many parts of the world. There are several methods of irrigation. They vary in how the water is supplied to the plants. The goal is to apply the water to the plants as uniformly as possible, so that each plant has the amount of water it needs, neither too much nor too little. Irrigation can also be understood whether it

6280-436: Is diverse, but at the same time complementary, and helps to reconstruct part of the layout and morphology. We do not know what the primitive Rec would look like, given that throughout the millennium of its existence it has undergone several remodelings. What can be said is that it was a large open-air canal, with a width that varied according to the layout. The walls were of Montjuïc stone ashlars, joined with lime mortar, with

6437-679: Is estimated between 780 and a little over 800 km, of which approximately 47 km (29 mi) were carried above ground level, on masonry supports. Most of Rome's water was carried by four of these: the Aqua Anio Vetus, the Aqua Marcia, the Aqua Claudia and the Aqua Anio Novus. Modern estimates of the city's supply, based on Frontinus' own calculations in the late 1st century, range from a high of 1,000,000 m per day to

Rec Comtal - Misplaced Pages Continue

6594-424: Is less expensive to install than a center pivot, but much more labor-intensive to operate – it does not travel automatically across the field: it applies water in a stationary strip, must be drained, and then rolled to a new strip. Most systems use 100 or 130 mm (4 or 5 inch) diameter aluminum pipe. The pipe doubles both as water transport and as an axle for rotating all the wheels. A drive system (often found near

6751-421: Is often no alternative for farmers but to use water polluted with urban waste directly to water their crops. There can be significant health hazards related to using untreated wastewater in agriculture. Municipal wastewater can contain a mixture of chemical and biological pollutants. In low-income countries, there are often high levels of pathogens from excreta. In emerging nations , where industrial development

6908-443: Is often the irrigation choice for developing nations, for low value crops and for large fields. Where water levels from the irrigation source permit, the levels are controlled by dikes ( levees ), usually plugged by soil. This is often seen in terraced rice fields (rice paddies), where the method is used to flood or control the level of water in each distinct field. In some cases, the water is pumped, or lifted by human or animal power to

7065-422: Is outpacing environmental regulation, there are increasing risks from inorganic and organic chemicals. The World Health Organization developed guidelines for safe use of wastewater in 2006, advocating a ‘multiple-barrier' approach wastewater use, for example by encouraging farmers to adopt various risk-reducing behaviors. These include ceasing irrigation a few days before harvesting to allow pathogens to die off in

7222-537: Is piped to one or more central locations within the field and distributed by overhead high-pressure water devices. Micro-irrigation is a system that distributes water under low pressure through a piped network and applies it as a small discharge to each plant. Micro-irrigation uses less pressure and water flow than sprinkler irrigation. Drip irrigation delivers water directly to the root zone of plants. Subirrigation has been used in field crops in areas with high water tables for many years. It involves artificially raising

7379-586: Is practiced in the vineyards at Lanzarote using stones to condense water. Fog collectors are also made of canvas or foil sheets. Using condensate from air conditioning units as a water source is also becoming more popular in large urban areas. As of November 2019 a Glasgow-based startup has helped a farmer in Scotland to establish edible saltmarsh crops irrigated with sea water. An acre of previously marginal land has been put under cultivation to grow samphire , sea blite , and sea aster ; these plants yield

7536-645: Is provincial Italy's Aqua Augusta . It supplied a great number of luxury coastal holiday-villas belonging to Rome's rich and powerful, several commercial fresh-water fisheries, market-gardens, vineyards and at least eight cities, including the major ports at Naples and Misenum ; sea voyages by traders and Rome's Republican and Imperial navies required copious on-board supplies of fresh water. Aqueducts were built to supply Roman military bases in Britain. The sites of permanent fortresses show traces of fountains and piped water, which were probably supplied by aqueducts from

7693-478: Is similar in principle and action to subsurface basin irrigation. Another type of subirrigation is the self-watering container, also known as a sub-irrigated planter . This consists of a planter suspended over a reservoir with some type of wicking material such as a polyester rope. The water is drawn up the wick through capillary action. A similar technique is the wicking bed ; this too uses capillary action. Modern irrigation methods are efficient enough to supply

7850-437: Is supplied at one end using a large hose. After sufficient irrigation has been applied to one strip of the field, the hose is removed, the water drained from the system, and the assembly rolled either by hand or with a purpose-built mechanism, so that the sprinklers are moved to a different position across the field. The hose is reconnected. The process is repeated in a pattern until the whole field has been irrigated. This system

8007-583: Is used for irrigation in agriculture, the nutrient (nitrogen and phosphorus) content of the treated wastewater has the benefit of acting as a fertilizer . This can make the reuse of excreta contained in sewage attractive. In developing countries , agriculture is increasingly using untreated municipal wastewater for irrigation – often in an unsafe manner. Cities provide lucrative markets for fresh produce, so they are attractive to farmers. However, because agriculture has to compete for increasingly scarce water resources with industry and municipal users, there

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8164-556: Is usually not considered as a form of irrigation. Rainwater harvesting is the collection of runoff water from roofs or unused land and the concentration of this. Irrigation with recycled municipal wastewater can also serve to fertilize plants if it contains nutrients, such as nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. There are benefits of using recycled water for irrigation, including the lower cost compared to some other sources and consistency of supply regardless of season, climatic conditions and associated water restrictions. When reclaimed water

8321-664: The Aqua Marcia , was at first legally blocked on religious grounds, under advice from the decemviri (an advisory "board of ten"). The new aqueduct was meant to supply water to the highest elevations of the city, including the Capitoline Hill , but the decemviri had consulted Rome's main written oracle, the Sibylline Books , and found there a warning against supplying water to the Capitoline. This brought

8478-580: The Capitoline Hill . As demand grew still further, more aqueducts were built, including the Aqua Tepula in 127 BC and the Aqua Julia in 33 BC. Aqueduct building programmes in the city reached a peak in the Imperial Era; political credit and responsibility for provision of public water supplies passed from mutually competitive Republican political magnates to the emperors. Augustus' reign saw

8635-802: The Pont du Gard in France and the Aqueduct of Segovia in Spain. The longest single conduit, at over 240 km, is associated with the Valens Aqueduct of Constantinople. "The known system is at least two and half times the length of the longest recorded Roman aqueducts at Carthage and Cologne, but perhaps more significantly it represents one of the most outstanding surveying achievements of any pre-industrial society". Rivalling this in terms of length and possibly equaling or exceeding it in cost and complexity,

8792-577: The United States , China , and European countries like the United Kingdom , also fund and organize some schemes within other nations. By 2021 the global land area equipped for irrigation reached 352 million ha, an increase of 22% from the 289 million ha of 2000 and more than twice the 1960s land area equipped for irrigation. The vast majority is located in Asia (70%), where irrigation

8949-489: The censor Appius Claudius Caecus . The Aqua Appia was one of two major public projects of the time; the other was a military road between Rome and Capua , the first leg of the so-called Appian Way . Both projects had significant strategic value, as the Third Samnite War had been under way for some thirty years by that point. The road allowed rapid troop movements; and by design or fortunate coincidence, most of

9106-573: The commercial greenhouse production, usually for potted plants . Water is delivered from below, absorbed by upwards, and the excess collected for recycling. Typically, a solution of water and nutrients floods a container or flows through a trough for a short period of time, 10–20 minutes, and is then pumped back into a holding tank for reuse. Sub-irrigation in greenhouses requires fairly sophisticated, expensive equipment and management. Advantages are water and nutrient conservation, and labor savings through reduced system maintenance and automation . It

9263-544: The "positively unwholesome" waters of the Aqua Alsietina were used to supply Trastevere's public fountains. The situation was finally ameliorated when the emperor Trajan built the Aqua Traiana in 109 AD, bringing clean water directly to Trastavere from aquifers around Lake Bracciano . By the late 3rd century AD, the city was supplied with water by eleven state-funded aqueducts. Their combined conduit length

9420-525: The 69 km (42.8 mile) Aqua Claudia , which gave good quality water but failed on several occasions; and the Anio Novus , highest of all Rome's aqueducts and one of the most reliable but prone to muddy, discoloured waters, particularly after rain, despite its use of settling tanks. Most of Rome's aqueducts drew on various springs in the valley and highlands of the Anio, the modern river Aniene , east of

9577-413: The Anio valley and its uplands. Spring water was fed into a stone or concrete springhouse, then entered the aqueduct conduit. Scattered springs would require several branch conduits feeding into a main channel. Some systems drew water from open, purpose-built, dammed reservoirs, such as the two (still in use) that supplied the aqueduct at the provincial city of Emerita Augusta . The territory over which

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9734-650: The Aqua Appia ran within a buried conduit, relatively secure from attack. It was fed by a spring 16.4 km from Rome, and dropped 10 m over its length to discharge approximately 75,500 m of water each day into a fountain at Rome's cattle market, the Forum Boarium , one of the city's lowest-lying public spaces. A second aqueduct, the Aqua Anio Vetus , was commissioned some forty years later, funded by treasures seized from Pyrrhus of Epirus . Its flow

9891-451: The Canon and its function was to repair the field tools of all the farmers in more than half of the plan of Barcelona. This forge must have been found, approximately, in the area where the Rec meets the so-called Riera d'Horta, and it worked with the hydraulic energy of the Rec. The mills that operated with Rec water were not only millers, as there were also drapers, which increased throughout

10048-524: The City of Rome's aqueducts, suffered at least two serious partial collapses over two centuries, one of them very soon after construction, and both probably due to a combination of shoddy workmanship, underinvestment, Imperial negligence, collateral damage through illicit outlets, natural ground tremors and damage by overwhelming seasonal floods originating upstream. Inscriptions claim that it was largely out of commission, and awaiting repair, for nine years prior to

10205-532: The Claudian period on. Permanent auxiliary forts were supplied by aqueducts from the Flavian period, possibly co-incident with the regular demand for dependable water supplies by provincial military settlements equipped with bathhouses, once these were introduced. The plans for any public or private aqueduct had to be submitted to scrutiny by civil authorities. Permission was granted only if the proposal respected

10362-760: The Nile river in Egypt and Sudan; and in the Mississippi-Missouri river basin, the Southern Great Plains, and in parts of California in the United States. Smaller irrigation areas are spread across almost all populated parts of the world. By 2012, the area of irrigated land had increased to an estimated total of 3,242,917 km (801 million acres), which is nearly the size of India. The irrigation of 20% of farming land accounts for

10519-575: The Portal Nou orchards, Sant Pere and the Favà orchards. It was not until 1703 that the canal was used as a water supply for the city and it was used until the 19th century At the point where these remains are found was the mill of Sant Andreu (mill of the Torre de Bell-lloc ), built in the 13th century, which was the last of the mills to disappear in Sant Andreu. It is difficult, even now, to locate exactly

10676-590: The Rec Comtal turns sharply to the southeast, perpendicular to the slope, in the direction of Molí del Clot located about 150 meters down slope. At another point, the Rec turns sharply to the south, perpendicular to the slope, in the direction of the Dormidor or gunpowder mill, while the Roman aqueduct maintains a more gradual descent, adapting to the documentary evidence as it passes between the path of Sant Adrià and

10833-449: The Rec canal made of irregular stone joined with mortar and brick at the top and in the arch. Only one side of the bridge is preserved. In 2004, an archaeological excavation was carried out where the remains of a section of a Roman aqueduct and structures of a medieval mill came to light, but none of this is currently visible due to the construction of a school-workshop on the lot where they were located. As an antecedent of this canal there

10990-413: The Rec is that it is a large open-air canal, with a large flow of water, which was done to be able to operate the mills that were built around it. The construction of mills went on increasing, until the 13th century a total of twenty-one flour mills are known along the Rec. This one did not only run mills, in the area of Sant Andreu, in the 12th century, a forge was also built there, which was the property of

11147-520: The Rec was within the city, where it functioned as a street - canal, becoming a partially covered structure, and often with large bridges such as the which can be seen inside the Born. Mention on the side is the great remodeling that the Rec underwent following the construction of the Ciutadella, which brought about a major change both in the Rec and its mouth to the sea. One of the features that defines

11304-506: The Roman Empire emulated this model, and funded aqueducts as objects of public interest and civic pride, "an expensive yet necessary luxury to which all could, and did, aspire". Most Roman aqueducts proved reliable and durable; some were maintained into the early modern era, and a few are still partly in use. Methods of aqueduct surveying and construction are noted by Vitruvius in his work De architectura (1st century BC). The general Frontinus gives more detail in his official report on

11461-591: The Romans throughout their history, but reliance on the water resources of a small catchment area restricted the city's potential for growth and security. The water of the River Tiber was close at hand, but would have been polluted by water-borne disease. Rome's aqueducts were not strictly Roman inventions – their engineers would have been familiar with the water-management technologies of Rome's Etruscan and Greek allies – but they proved conspicuously successful. By

11618-515: The Tiber. A complex system of aqueduct junctions, tributary feeds and distribution tanks supplied every part of the city. Trastevere, the city region west of the Tiber, was primarily served by extensions of several of the city's eastern aqueducts, carried across the river by lead pipes buried in the roadbed of the river bridges, thus forming an inverted siphon . Whenever this cross-river supply had to be shut down for routine repair and maintenance works,

11775-436: The aqueduct ran had to be carefully surveyed to ensure the water would flow at a consistent and acceptable rate for the entire distance. Roman engineers used various surveying tools to plot the course of aqueducts across the landscape. They checked horizontal levels with a chorobates , a flatbedded wooden frame some 20 feet long, fitted with both a water level and plumblines. Horizontal courses and angles could be plotted using

11932-438: The aqueduct's eventual length, and thus to its cost. On rural land, a protective "clear corridor" was marked out with boundary slabs ( cippi ) usually 15 feet each side of the channel, reducing to 5 feet each side for lead pipes and in built-up areas. The conduits, their foundations and superstructures, were property of the State or emperor. The corridors were public land, with public rights of way and clear access to

12089-417: The aqueduct, and resell the unused land to help mitigate the cost. Graves and cemeteries, temples, shrines and other sacred places had to be respected; they were protected by law, and villa and farm cemeteries were often deliberately sited very close to public roadways and boundaries. Despite careful enquiries by planners, problems regarding shared ownership or uncertain legal status might emerge only during

12246-418: The basins and carried the water to their apartments; the better-off would have sent slaves to perform the same task. The outlet's elevation was too low to offer any city household or building a direct supply; the overflow drained into Rome's main sewer, and from there into the Tiber. Most inhabitants still relied on well water and rainwater. At this time, Rome had no public baths . The first was probably built in

12403-467: The baths, in particular, became important social centres. The majority of urban Romans lived in multi-storeyed blocks of flats ( insulae ). Some blocks offered water services, but only to tenants on the more expensive, lower floors; the other tenants would have drawn their water gratis from public fountains. During the Imperial era, lead production (mostly for pipes) became an Imperial monopoly, and

12560-408: The beginning of the construction of the Rec Comtal. There are several hypotheses, the most widespread of which tells us that it was the work of Count Mir (954-966), the younger brother of Count Borrell II of Barcelona, at the beginning of the second half of the 10th century It will be throughout the 11th century when the use of the Rec is generalized, especially from the second half, as is reflected in

12717-448: The bore of pipe that led from the public water supply to their property – the wider the pipe, the greater the flow and the higher the fee. Some properties could be bought and sold with a legal right to draw water attached. Aqueduct officials could assign the right to draw overflow water ( aqua caduca , literally "fallen water") to certain persons and groups; fullers , for example, used a great deal of fresh water in their trade, in return for

12874-484: The bribery or connivance of unscrupulous aqueduct officials or workers. Archaeological evidence confirms that some users drew an illegal supply but not the likely quantity involved, nor the likely combined effect on supply to the city as a whole. The measurement of allowances was basically flawed; officially approved lead pipes carried inscriptions with information on the pipe's manufacturer, its fitter, and probably on its subscriber and their entitlement; but water allowance

13031-498: The building of the Aqua Virgo , and the short Aqua Alsietina . The latter supplied Trastevere with large quantities of non-potable water for its gardens and was used to create an artificial lake for staged sea-fights to entertain the populace. Another short Augustan aqueduct supplemented the Aqua Marcia with water of "excellent quality". The emperor Caligula added or began two aqueducts completed by his successor Claudius ;

13188-469: The center pivot. This type of system is known as LEPA (Low Energy Precision Application). Originally, most center pivots were water-powered. These were replaced by hydraulic systems ( T-L Irrigation ) and electric-motor-driven systems (Reinke, Valley, Zimmatic). Many modern pivots feature GPS devices. A series of pipes, each with a wheel of about 1.5 m diameter permanently affixed to its midpoint, and sprinklers along its length, are coupled together. Water

13345-485: The centre of the wheel line) rotates the clamped-together pipe sections as a single axle, rolling the whole wheel line. Manual adjustment of individual wheel positions may be necessary if the system becomes misaligned. Wheel line systems are limited in the amount of water they can carry, and limited in the height of crops that can be irrigated. One useful feature of a lateral move system is that it consists of sections that can be easily disconnected, adapting to field shape as

13502-562: The channel, presumably to prevent damage to the structure through erosion and water pressure. This value agrees well with the measured gradients of surviving masonry aqueducts. The gradient of the Pont du Gard is only 34 cm per km, descending only 17 m vertically in its entire length of 50 km (31 mi): it could transport up to 20,000 cubic metres a day. The gradients of temporary aqueducts used for hydraulic mining could be considerably greater, as at Dolaucothi in Wales (with

13659-433: The city, because in medieval times most of the water for drinking in the city was obtained through wells , in Barcelona there is a large amount of 'good quality ground water, which has been used throughout history. The fundamental purpose of the Rec was to move the mills located along the route, to irrigate the land, to supply new productive areas with a great need for water, such as butchers, or tanneries, etc. and, perhaps in

13816-711: The components of these irrigation systems are hidden under ground, since aesthetics are important in a landscape. A typical lawn sprinkler system will consist of one or more zones, limited in size by the capacity of the water source. Each zone will cover a designated portion of the landscape. Sections of the landscape will usually be divided by microclimate , type of plant material, and type of irrigation equipment. A landscape irrigation system may also include zones containing drip irrigation, bubblers, or other types of equipment besides sprinklers. Although manual systems are still used, most lawn sprinkler systems may be operated automatically using an irrigation controller , sometimes called

13973-417: The conduit depended on the catchment hydrology – rainfall, absorption, and runoff – the cross section of the conduit, and its gradient; most conduits ran about two-thirds full. The conduit's cross section was also determined by maintenance requirements; workmen must be able to enter and access the whole, with minimal disruption to its fabric. Vitruvius recommends a low gradient of not less than 1 in 4800 for

14130-469: The conduits for maintenance. Within the corridors, potential sources of damage to the conduits were forbidden, including new roadways that crossed over the conduit, new buildings, ploughing or planting, and living trees, unless entirely contained by a building. The harvesting of hay and grass for fodder was permitted. Regulations and restrictions necessary to the aqueduct's long-term integrity and maintenance were not always readily accepted or easily enforced at

14287-408: The crop or field requirements. Increasing the application efficiency means that the amount of crop produced per unit of water increases. Improved efficiency may either be achieved by applying less water to an existing field or by using water more wisely thereby achieving higher yields in the same area of land. In some parts of the world, farmers are charged for irrigation water hence over-application has

14444-406: The development of aqueduct technology, Romans, like most of their contemporaries in the ancient world, relied on local water sources such as springs and streams, supplemented by groundwater from privately or publicly owned wells, and by seasonal rain-water drained from rooftops into storage jars and cisterns . Such localised sources for fresh water – especially wells – were intensively exploited by

14601-536: The disuse of the Roman aqueduct, since we cannot speak of its disappearance. The Rec is the protagonist of a large number of studies, but we lack one that embraces both morphological and diachronic and territorial research. There are three basic sources for undertaking its study: physical evidence - what remains or what has been documented in archaeological interventions -, historiographical documents or writings and, finally, graphic representations - both planimetric and photographic -. The information extracted from each one

14758-456: The documentation. The mills that are supplied from the Rec begin to proliferate, from the area of Sant Andreu, specifically Finestrelles, towards the Clot and within the current Ciutat Vella, around the monastery of Sant Pere de les Puelles, in the neighborhoods of Portal Nou and Sant Pere - Santa Caterina . What is clear is that you cannot separate the processes of the construction of the Rec, with

14915-465: The early Imperial era, the city's aqueducts helped support a population of over a million, and an extravagant water supply for public amenities had become a fundamental part of Roman life. The city's aqueducts and their dates of completion were: The city's demand for water had probably long exceeded its local supplies by 312 BC, when the city's first aqueduct, the Aqua Appia , was commissioned by

15072-410: The entire field uniformly with water, so that each plant has the amount of water it needs, neither too much nor too little. Water use efficiency in the field can be determined as follows: Increased irrigation efficiency has a number of positive outcomes for the farmer, the community and the wider environment. Low application efficiency infers that the amount of water applied to the field is in excess of

15229-502: The exception of low-energy center pivot systems and surface irrigation systems, and the system can be designed for uniformity throughout a field or for precise water delivery to individual plants in a landscape containing a mix of plant species. Although it is difficult to regulate pressure on steep slopes, pressure compensating emitters are available, so the field does not have to be level. High-tech solutions involve precisely calibrated emitters located along lines of tubing that extend from

15386-513: The fraction of aqueduct water involved can only be guessed at. More certainly, the creation of municipal and city aqueducts brought a growth in the intensive and efficient suburban market-farming of fragile, perishable commodities such as flowers (for perfumes, and for festival garlands), grapes, vegetables and orchard fruits; and of small livestock such as pigs and chickens, close to the municipal and urban markets. A licensed right to use aqueduct water on farmland could lead to increased productivity,

15543-443: The granting of rights to draw water for private use from state-funded aqueducts was made an imperial privilege. The provision of free, potable water to the general public became one among many gifts to the people of Rome from their emperor, paid for by him or by the state. In 33 BC, Marcus Agrippa built or subsidised 170 public bath-houses during his aedileship . In Frontinus's time (c. 40–103 AD), around 10% of Rome's aqueduct water

15700-426: The ground surface, with inspection-and-access covers at regular intervals. Conduits above ground level were usually slab-topped. Early conduits were ashlar -built but from around the late Republican era, brick-faced concrete was often used instead. The concrete used for conduit linings was usually waterproof , with a very smooth finish. The flow of water depended on gravity alone. The volume of water transported within

15857-534: The ground. In flower beds or shrub areas, sprinklers may be mounted on above ground risers or even taller pop-up sprinklers may be used and installed flush as in a lawn area. Hose-end sprinklers are devices attached to the end of a garden hose, used for watering lawns, gardens, or plants. They come in a variety of designs and styles, allowing you to adjust the water flow, pattern, and range for efficient irrigation. Some common types of hose-end sprinklers include: Oscillating Sprinklers: These spray water back and forth in

16014-455: The growing season, but was seldom prosecuted as it helped keep food prices low; agriculture was the core of Rome's economy and wealth. Rome's first aqueduct was built in 312 BC, and supplied a water fountain at the city's cattle market. By the 3rd century AD, the city had eleven aqueducts , sustaining a population of over a million in a water-extravagant economy; most of the water supplied the city's many public baths. Cities and towns throughout

16171-521: The health of its inhabitants, were also instrumental in the spread of waterborne diseases. In his De Medicina , the encyclopaedist Celsus warned that public bathing could induce gangrene in unhealed wounds. Frontinus preferred a high rate of overflow in the aqueduct system because it led to greater cleanliness in the water supply, the sewers, and those who used them. The adverse health effects of lead on those who mined and processed it were also well known. Ceramic pipes, unlike lead, left no taint in

16328-409: The image that follows. As of 2017 most center pivot systems have drops hanging from a U-shaped pipe attached at the top of the pipe with sprinkler heads that are positioned a few feet (at most) above the crop, thus limiting evaporative losses. Drops can also be used with drag hoses or bubblers that deposit the water directly on the ground between crops. Crops are often planted in a circle to conform to

16485-490: The irrigation results in flooding or near flooding of the cultivated land. Historically, surface irrigation is the most common method of irrigating agricultural land across most parts of the world. The water application efficiency of surface irrigation is typically lower than other forms of irrigation, due in part to the lack of control of applied depths. Surface irrigation involves a significantly lower capital cost and energy requirement than pressurised irrigation systems. Hence it

16642-406: The landed elite. This may be connected to Cato's diatribe as censor against the ex-consul Lucius Furius Purpureo : "Look how much he bought the land for, where he is channeling the water!" Cato's attempted reform proved impermanent at best. Though illegal tapping could be punished by seizure of assets, including the illegally watered land and its produce, this law seems never to have been used, and

16799-596: The last term and certainly in a small amount, mouth watering. 41°23′23″N 2°10′47″E  /  41.38972°N 2.17972°E  / 41.38972; 2.17972 Roman aqueduct This is an accepted version of this page The Romans constructed aqueducts throughout their Republic and later Empire , to bring water from outside sources into cities and towns. Aqueduct water supplied public baths , latrines , fountains, and private households; it also supported mining operations, milling, farms, and gardens. Aqueducts moved water through gravity alone, along

16956-399: The level of the land. Surface irrigation is even used to water urban gardens in certain areas, for example, in and around Phoenix, Arizona . The irrigated area is surrounded by a berm and the water is delivered according to a schedule set by a local irrigation district . A special form of irrigation using surface water is spate irrigation , also called floodwater harvesting. In case of

17113-448: The life of the canal. The Rec, however, also served as an irrigation system, as its name indicates, since it operated a whole system of ditches along its route. The land near the county town was at one point known as the "orchard and vineyard", a name that comes from the crops that were around the town. In order to have a good vegetable garden you need constant watering. The Rec is born in the place known as Montcada wells, very similar to

17270-507: The likely legal conflicts arising. In 179 BC the censors used the same legal device to help justify public contracts for several important building projects, including Rome's first stone-built bridge over the Tiber and a new aqueduct to supplement the city's existing – but, by now, inadequate – supply. A wealthy landowner along the aqueduct's planned route, M. Licinius Crassus, refused it passage across his fields, and seems to have forced its abandonment. The construction of Rome's third aqueduct,

17427-441: The line is moved. They are most often used for small, rectilinear, or oddly-shaped fields, hilly or mountainous regions, or in regions where labor is inexpensive. A lawn sprinkler system is permanently installed, as opposed to a hose-end sprinkler, which is portable. Sprinkler systems are installed in residential lawns, in commercial landscapes, for churches and schools, in public parks and cemeteries, and on golf courses . Most of

17584-418: The local electorate, or by Augustus himself. The entire network relied on just two mountain springs, shared with a river that supported freshwater fish, providing a free food source for all classes. The Augusta supplied eight or nine municipalities or cities and an unknown number of farms and villas, including bathhouses, via branch lines and sub-branch lines; its extremities were the naval port of Misenum and

17741-675: The merchant port of Puteoli . Its delivery is unlikely to have been wholly reliable, adequate or free from dispute. Competition would have been inevitable. Under the emperor Claudius , the City of Rome's contingent of imperial aquarii (aqueduct workers) comprised a familia aquarum of 460, both slave and free, funded through a combination of Imperial largesse and the water fees paid by private subscribers. The familia aquarum comprised "overseers, reservoir‐keepers, line‐walkers, pavers, plasterers, and other workmen" supervised by an Imperial freedman, who held office as procurator aquarium . The curator aquarum had magisterial powers in relation to

17898-423: The mine head. The channels may have deteriorated rapidly, or become redundant as the nearby ore was exhausted. Las Medulas shows at least seven such leats, and Dolaucothi at least five. At Dolaucothi, the miners used holding reservoirs, as well as hushing tanks and sluice gates to control flow, and drop chutes were used for the diversion of water supplies. The remaining traces (see palimpsest ) of such channels allows

18055-525: The mining sequence to be inferred. A number of other sites fed by several aqueducts have not yet been thoroughly explored or excavated, such as those at Longovicium near Lanchester , south of Hadrian's wall , in which the water supplies may have been used to power trip-hammers for forging iron. Irrigation Irrigation (also referred to as watering of plants ) is the practice of applying controlled amounts of water to land to help grow crops , landscape plants , and lawns . Irrigation has been

18212-522: The most impressive surviving examples of a massive masonry multiple-piered conduit, spanned the Gardon river-valley some 48.8 m (160 ft) above the Gardon itself. Where particularly deep or lengthy depressions had to be crossed, inverted siphons could be used, instead of arcades; the conduit fed water into a header tank, which fed it into pipes. The pipes crossed the valley at lower level, supported by

18369-417: The narrowing of apertures, even slight roughening of the aqueduct's ideally smooth-mortared interior surface by travertine deposits could significantly reduce the water's velocity, and thus its rate of flow, by up to 1/4. Accretions within siphons could drastically reduce flow rates through their already narrow diameters, though some had sealed openings that might have been used as rodding eyes , possibly using

18526-411: The next century, based on precursors in neighbouring Campania ; a limited number of private baths and small, street-corner public baths would have had a private water supply, but once aqueduct water was brought to the city's higher elevations, large and well-appointed public baths and fountains were built throughout the city. Public baths and fountains became distinctive features of Roman civilization, and

18683-435: The oldest form of irrigation and has been in use for thousands of years. In surface ( furrow, flood , or level basin ) irrigation systems, water moves across the surface of agricultural lands, in order to wet it and infiltrate into the soil. Water moves by following gravity or the slope of the land. Surface irrigation can be subdivided into furrow, border strip or basin irrigation . It is often called flood irrigation when

18840-502: The origin of the Roman aqueduct. However, in the area of the Molí de Sant Andreu the route of the Rec clearly diverges from that of the Roman aqueduct, because the Rec is located perpendicular to the slope as it passes through the mill while the aqueduct, documented archaeologically, continues with a markedly straight line parallel to the slope. Likewise, very close to the current intersection of Carrer de Roger de Flor and Carrer d'Ausiàs March,

18997-436: The overarching goal of increasing self-sufficiency. Irrigation water can come from groundwater (extracted from springs or by using wells ), from surface water (withdrawn from rivers , lakes or reservoirs ) or from non-conventional sources like treated wastewater , desalinated water , drainage water , or fog collection . While floodwater harvesting belongs to the accepted irrigation methods, rainwater harvesting

19154-399: The path of Horta, and continues following the slope until it fits with the pillar of Magdalenes 25. These changes in the trajectory of the Rec were probably useful for its use by the various mill installations, since they would allow the water to descend with greater energy and, therefore, be better used by the mill. As for the Rec Comtal, its main function was not to bring drinking water to

19311-401: The penetration of conduits by tree-roots as particularly damaging. Working patrols would have cleared algal fouling, repaired accidental breaches or accessible shoddy workmanship, cleared the conduits of gravel and other loose debris, and removed accretions of calcium carbonate (also known as travertine ) in systems fed by hard water sources; modern research has found that quite apart from

19468-426: The physical construction. While surveyors could claim ancient right to use land once public, now private, for the good of the State, the land's current possessors could take out a legal counterclaim for compensation based on their long usage, productivity and improvements. They could also join forces with their neighbours to present a united legal front in seeking higher rates of compensation. Aqueduct planning "traversed

19625-569: The problems of blockage, blow-outs and venting at their lowest levels, where the pressures were greatest. Nonetheless, siphons were versatile and effective if well-built and well-maintained. A horizontal section of high-pressure siphon tubing in the Aqueduct of the Gier was ramped up on bridgework to clear a navigable river, using nine lead pipes in parallel, cased in concrete. Modern hydraulic engineers use similar techniques to enable sewers and water pipes to cross depressions. At Romano-Gallic Arles,

19782-451: The problems, uses and abuses of Imperial Rome's public water supply. Notable examples of aqueduct architecture include the supporting piers of the Aqueduct of Segovia , and the aqueduct-fed cisterns of Constantinople . "The extraordinary greatness of the Roman Empire manifests itself above all in three things: the aqueducts, the paved roads, and the construction of the drains." Dionysius of Halicarnassus , Roman Antiquities Before

19939-567: The production of 40% of food production. The scale of irrigation increased dramatically over the 20th century. In 1800, 8 million hectares globally were irrigated, in 1950, 94 million hectares, and in 1990, 235 million hectares. By 1990, 30% of the global food production came from irrigated land. Irrigation techniques across the globe includes canals redirecting surface water, groundwater pumping, and diverting water from dams. National governments lead most irrigation schemes within their borders, but private investors and other nations, especially

20096-479: The project to a standstill. Eventually, having raised the same objections in 143 and in 140, the decemviri and Senate consented, and 180,000,000 sesterces were allocated for restoration of the two existing aqueducts and completion of the third, in 144–140. The Marcia was named for the praetor Quintus Marcius Rex , who had championed its construction. Springs were by far the most common sources for aqueduct water; most of Rome's supply came from various springs in

20253-496: The public at large, including public baths and fountains. In the Republican era, aqueducts were planned, built and managed under authority of the censors , or if no censor was in office, the aediles . In the Imperial era, lifetime responsibility for water supplies passed to the emperors. Rome had no permanent central body to manage the aqueducts until Augustus created the office of water commissioner ( curator aquarum ); this

20410-475: The regions saw increases in the area equipped for irrigation, with Africa growing the fastest (+29%), followed by Asia (+25%), Oceania (+24%), the Americas (+19%) and Europe (+2%). Irrigation enables the production of more crops, especially commodity crops in areas which otherwise could not support them. Countries frequently invested in irrigation to increase wheat , rice , or cotton production, often with

20567-405: The rights to a spring and its water from his neighbour, and access rights to a corridor of intervening land, then built an aqueduct of just under 10 kilometres, connecting the springhead to his own villa. Some aqueducts supplied water to industrial sites, usually via an open channel cut into the ground, clay-lined or wood-shuttered to reduce water loss. Most such leats were designed to operate at

20724-749: The so-called "corn dole" ) and the army. Rather than seek to impose unproductive and probably unenforcable bans, the authorities issued individual water grants and licenses, and regulated water outlets though with variable success. In the 1st century AD, Pliny the Elder , like Cato, could fulminate against grain producers who continued to wax fat on profits from public water and public land. Some landholders avoided such restrictions and entanglements by buying water access rights to distant springs, not necessarily on their own land. A few, of high wealth and status, built their own aqueducts to transport such water from source to field or villa; Mumius Niger Valerius Vegetus bought

20881-400: The sprinkler arrives back at the reel the system shuts off. This type of system is known to most people as a "waterreel" traveling irrigation sprinkler and they are used extensively for dust suppression, irrigation, and land application of waste water. Other travelers use a flat rubber hose that is dragged along behind while the sprinkler platform is pulled by a cable. Center pivot irrigation

21038-567: The standard, buried conduits, inspection and access points were provided at regular intervals, so that suspected blockages or leaks could be investigated with minimal disruption of the supply. Water lost through multiple, slight leaks in buried conduit walls could be hard to detect except by its fresh taste, unlike that of the natural groundwater. The clear corridors created to protect the fabric of underground and overground conduits were regularly patrolled for unlawful ploughing, planting, roadways and buildings. In De aquaeductu , Frontinus describes

21195-595: The steep gradients that could deliver the high water volumes needed in mining operations. Water was used in hydraulic mining to strip the overburden and expose the ore by hushing , to fracture and wash away metal-bearing rock already heated and weakened by fire-setting , and to power water-wheel driven stamps and trip-hammers that crushed ore for processing. Evidence of such leats and machines has been found at Dolaucothi in south-west Wales . Mining sites, such as Dolaucothi and Las Medulas in north-west Spain , show multiple aqueducts that fed water from local rivers to

21352-493: The sunlight; applying water carefully so it does not contaminate leaves likely to be eaten raw; cleaning vegetables with disinfectant; or allowing fecal sludge used in farming to dry before being used as a human manure. Irrigation water can also come from non-conventional sources like treated wastewater , desalinated water , drainage water , or fog collection . In countries where humid air sweeps through at night, water can be obtained by condensation onto cold surfaces. This

21509-399: The supply to individual destinations, and fresh overflow water could be temporarily stored in cisterns. Aqueducts and their contents were protected by law and custom. The supply to public fountains took priority over the supply to public baths, and both took priority over supplies to wealthier, fee-paying private users. Some of the wealthiest citizens were given the right to a free supply, as

21666-434: The system in which water-demand was, for the time being, outstripping supply. The free supply of water to public basins and drinking fountains was officially prioritised over the supply to the public baths, where a very small fee was charged to every bather, on behalf of the Roman people. The supply to basins and baths was in turn prioritised over the requirements of fee-paying private users. The last were registered, along with

21823-812: The total fertile land was 2,788,000 km (689 million acres) and it was equipped with irrigation infrastructure worldwide. About 68% of this area is in Asia, 17% in the Americas, 9% in Europe, 5% in Africa and 1% in Oceania. The largest contiguous areas of high irrigation density are found in Northern and Eastern India and Pakistan along the Ganges and Indus rivers; in the Hai He, Huang He and Yangtze basins in China; along

21980-614: The water rights of other citizens. Inevitably, there would have been rancorous and interminable court cases between neighbours or local governments over competing claims to limited water supplies but on the whole, Roman communities took care to allocate shared water resources according to need. Planners preferred to build public aqueducts on public land ( ager publicus ) , and to follow the shortest, unopposed, most economical route from source to destination. State purchase of privately owned land, or re-routing of planned courses to circumvent resistant or tenanted occupation, could significantly add to

22137-405: The water source by a hose. Automatically moving wheeled systems known as traveling sprinklers may irrigate areas such as small farms, sports fields, parks, pastures, and cemeteries unattended. Most of these use a length of polyethylene tubing wound on a steel drum. As the tubing is wound on the drum powered by the irrigation water or a small gas engine, the sprinkler is pulled across the field. When

22294-413: The water supply, assisted by a team of architects, public servants, notaries and scribes, and heralds; when working outside the city, he was further entitled to two lictors to enforce his authority. Substantial fines could be imposed for even single offences against the laws relating to aqueducts: for example, 10,000 sesterces for allowing a tree to damage the conduit, and 100,000 sesterces for polluting

22451-414: The water table to allow the soil to be moistened from below the plants' root zone. Often those systems are located on permanent grasslands in lowlands or river valleys and combined with drainage infrastructure. A system of pumping stations, canals, weirs and gates allows it to increase or decrease the water level in a network of ditches and thereby control the water table. Subirrigation is also used in

22608-404: The water table to moisten the soil below the root zone of plants. Irrigation water can come from groundwater (extracted from springs or by using wells ), from surface water (withdrawn from rivers , lakes or reservoirs ) or from non-conventional sources like treated wastewater , desalinated water , drainage water , or fog collection . Irrigation can be supplementary to rainfall , which

22765-621: The water they carried, and were therefore preferred over lead for drinking water. In some parts of the Roman world, particularly in relatively isolated communities with localised water systems and limited availability of other, more costly materials, wooden pipes were commonly used; Pliny recommends water-pipes of pine and alder as particularly durable, when kept wet and buried. Examples revealed through archaeology include pipes of alder, clamped at their joints with oak, at Vindolanda fort and pipes of alder in Germany. Where lead pipes were used,

22922-429: The water within the conduit, or allowing one's slave to do the same. Rome's first aqueduct (312 BC) discharged at very low pressure and at a more-or-less constant rate in the city's main trading centre and cattle-market , probably into a low-level, cascaded series of troughs or basins; the upper for household use, the lower for watering the livestock traded there. Most Romans would have filled buckets and storage jars at

23079-424: The water's orientation from an existing northerly watershed to a southerly watershed, establishing the new gradient using a 6 km tunnel, several shorter tunnels, and arcades, one of which was supported more or less at sea level by foundations on the sea bed at Misenum. En route , it supplied several cities and many villas, using branch lines. Roman aqueducts required a comprehensive system of regular maintenance. On

23236-570: Was a Roman aqueduct , the aqueduct of Montcada, which fell into disuse from the High Middle Ages. The construction of the Rec dates back to the 10th century and was possibly commissioned by Count Mir to boost the industry that was beginning to be established around Barcelona. It had a route of more than 12 km: it was born in a lock near Montcada and flowed into the port via Pla de Palau . Along its route, it irrigated numerous orchards in Sant Andreu de Palomar, Sant Martí de Provençals,

23393-555: Was a high status, high-profile Imperial appointment. In 97 AD, Frontinus, who had already had a distinguished career as consul, general and provincial governor, served both as consul and as curator aquarum , under the emperor Nerva . Particular sections of Campania's very long, complex, costly and politically sensitive Aqua Augusta , constructed in the early days of the Augustan principate were supervised by wealthy, influential, local curatores . They were drawn from local elites by

23550-413: Was a key component of the green revolution; the Americas account for 16% and Europe for 8% of the world total. India (76 million ha) and China (75 million ha) have the largest equipped area for irrigation, far ahead of the United States o fAmerica (27 million ha). China and India also have the largest net gains in equipped area between 2000 and 2020 (+21 million ha for China and +15 million ha for India). All

23707-508: Was involved in some form of agricultural work. Water was possibly the most important variable in the agricultural economy of the Mediterranean world. Roman Italy's natural fresh-water sources – springs, streams, rivers and lakes – were abundant in some places, entirely absent in others. Rainfall was unpredictable. Water tended to be scarce when most needed during the warm, dry summer growing season. Farmers whose villas or estates were near

23864-524: Was lowest, during the winter months. The piped water supply could be selectively reduced or shut off at the castella when small or local repairs were needed, but substantial maintenance and repairs to the aqueduct conduit itself required the complete diversion of water at any point upstream, including the spring-head itself. Frontinus describes the use of temporary leaden conduits to carry the water past damaged stretches while repairs were made, with minimal loss of supply. The Aqua Claudia , most ambitious of

24021-426: Was measured in quinaria (cross-sectional area of the pipe) at the point of supply and no formula or physical device was employed to account for variations in velocity, rate of flow or actual usage. Brun, 1991, used lead pipe stamps to calculate a plausible water distribution as a percentage of the whole; 17% went to the emperor (including his gifts, grants and awards); 38% went to private individuals; and 45% went to

24178-441: Was more than twice that of the Aqua Appia, and supplied water to higher elevations of the city. By 145 BC, the city had again outgrown its combined supplies. An official commission found the aqueduct conduits decayed, their water depleted by leakage and illegal tapping. The praetor Quintus Marcius Rex restored them, and introduced a third, "more wholesome" supply, the Aqua Marcia , Rome's longest aqueduct and high enough to supply

24335-666: Was needed to produce their food. They required a third of the volume of water humans presently take from rivers. Today, the competition for water resources is much more intense, because there are now more than seven billion people on the planet, increasing the likelihood of overconsumption of food produced by water-thirsty animal agriculture and intensive farming practices. This creates increasing competition for water from industry , urbanisation and biofuel crops . Farmers will have to strive to increase productivity to meet growing demands for food , while industry and cities find ways to use water more efficiently. Successful agriculture

24492-403: Was probably impracticable; while water thefts profited farmers, they could also create food surpluses and keep food prices low. Grain shortages in particular could lead to famine and social unrest. Any practical solution must strike a balance between the water-needs of urban populations and grain producers, tax the latter's profits, and secure sufficient grain at reasonable cost for the Roman poor (

24649-427: Was used to supply 591 public fountains, among which were 39 lavishly decorative fountains that Frontinus calls munera . According to one of several much later regionaries, by the end of the 4th century AD, Rome's aqueducts within the City – 19 of them, according to the regionary – fed 11 large public baths, 965 smaller public bathhouses and 1,352 public fountains. Between 65 and 90% of the Roman Empire's population

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