Abstract
This chapter explores how water has been put to use to serve communities. Among the myriad uses that water has served, irrigation was certainly one of the earliest and most important, particularly to communities in arid regions. Indeed, the long-term viability of these communities depended on maintaining irrigation systems in the face of multiple factors, including climate change. Canals too were relatively early interventions on the landscape helping develop inter-regional trade, and later beginning with the Industrial Revolution, connecting sources of supply with manufacturing centers, and facilitating trade. In a variety of locations around the world, water was also manipulated to turn gears that ground grain and served other production purposes. During the twentieth century, multi-purpose water development projects served multiple purposes, including flood control, transportation, irrigation, and the generation of electricity.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Further Reading
Edward Ackerman and Andrew Loff, Technology in American Water Development (Routledge, 2013).
David Billington, et al., The History of Large Federal Dams: Planning, Design, and Construction (Government Printing Office, 2005).
Anthony Burton, The Canal Builders: The Men Who Constructed Britain’s Canals 3rd edition (M.& M. Baldwin, 1993).
P. Christensen, The Decline of Iranshahr: Irrigation and Environments in the History of the Middle East (I.B. Taurus, 2016).
Barbara Cummings, “Dam the Rivers; Damn the People: Hydroelectric Development and Resistance in Amazonian Brazil,” GeoJournal 35:2 (1995), 151–160.
Peter Debaere, “The Global Economics of Water: Is Water a Source of Comparative Advantage?,” American Economic Journal: Applied Economics 6(2) (April 2014), 32–48.
Maurits Ertsen, “Colonial Irrigation: Myths of Emptiness,” Landscape Research 31:2 (2006), 147–167.
Joshua Benjamin Freeman, Behemoth: A History of the Factory and the Making of the Modern World (W.W. Norton, 2019).
Harold S. Gladwin, et al., Excavations at Snaketown: Material Culture, reprinted for the Arizona State Museum by the University of Arizona Press, 1965. Originally printed in 1937 Gila Pueblo Archaeological Foundation, Medallion Papers, No. 25.
Peter Gleick, Changing Water Paradigm: A Look at Twenty-First Century Water Resource Development, Water International, 25:1 (2000), 127–138.
Thomas Hech, Principles of Water Resources: History, Development, Management, and Policy 3rd Edition (Wiley, 2009).
James Hornell, Water Transport: Origins and Early Evolution (Cambridge University Press, 1970).
“Inauguration of Volta Power” (Address by Osagyefo the President and other Speeches and Messages Delivered at the Inauguration of the Volta Power), June 22, 1966, http://www.vra.com/kmportal/learning/non-tech/Inauguration%20of%20Volta%20river%20Authority.pdf.
International Water Management Institute (IWMI), Comprehensive Assessment of Water Management in Agriculture. Water for Food, Water for Life: A Comprehensive Assessment of Water Management in Agriculture (Earthscan and IWMI, 2007).
N.M. Judd, “Arizona’s Prehistoric Canals from the Air,” Explorations and Fieldwork of the Smithsonian Institution in 1930 (Smithsonian Institute, 1931), 157–66.
David Lilienthal, TVA: Democracy on the March (Harper and Brothers), 1953.
Pierre Loous-Viollet, “A Century of Fluid Mechanics,” Comptes Rendus Mécanique 345:8 (August 2017), 570–580.
Adam Robert Lucas, “Industrial Milling in the Ancient and Medieval Worlds: A Survey of the Evidence for an Industrial Revolution in Medieval Europe,” Technology and Culture 46:1 (January 2005), 1–30.
Chandra Mukerji, “The New Rome: Infrastructure and National Identity on the Canal du Midi,” Osiris 24:1 (2009), 15–32.
M. Nelson, “Fifty Years of Hydroelectric Development in Chile: A History of Unlearned Lessons,” Water Alternatives 6:2 (2013), 195–206.
Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Sustainable Management of Water Resources in Agriculture (OECD, 2010).
Clifford Russel and Duane Bauman, The Evolution of Water Resource Planning and Decision Making (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2009).
Kate Showers, “Electrifying Africa: An Environmental History with Policy Implications,” Geografiska Annaler: Series B (2011), 193–221.
J. Smeaton, “An Experimental Enquiry concerning the Natural Powers of Water and Wind to Turn Mills, and Other Machines, Depending on a Circular Motion,” Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society 51 (1759): 100–174. Made available in the public domain by the Internet Archive, https://archive.org/details/philtrans04492943/mode/2up.
Ludwik A. Teclaff, “Multipurpose Uses and Basin-Wide Development,” in Ludwik A. Teclaff, The River Basin in History and Law (Martinus Nijhoff, 1967), 113–179.
G. Turnbull, “Canals, Coal and Regional Growth During the Industrial Revolution,” The Economic History Review 40:4 (November, 1987), 537–560.
Terje Tvedt, Why England and not China and India? Water systems and the History of the Industrial Revolution, Journal of Global History 5:1 (March 2010), 29–50.
United States Department of the Treasury, “Report of the Secretary of the Treasury, On the Subject of Public Roads and Canals Made in Pursuance of a Resolution of Senate, of March 2, 1807,” (Washington, DC: The Senate, 1808).
The World Bank, Reengaging in Agricultural Water: Challenges and Options (The World Bank: 2006).
World Commission on Dams, “Dams and Development: A New Framework for Decision-Making,” 2000, https://pubs.iied.org/pdfs/9126IIED.pdf.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2021 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Pietz, D.A., Zeisler-Vralsted, D. (2021). Water and Production. In: Water and Human Societies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-67692-6_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-67692-6_3
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-67694-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-67692-6
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)