[HN Gopher] Valencia's irrigation system is now a model for sust... ___________________________________________________________________ Valencia's irrigation system is now a model for sustainable farming Author : dsnr Score : 106 points Date : 2022-02-21 19:11 UTC (3 hours ago) (HTM) web link (www.bbc.com) (TXT) w3m dump (www.bbc.com) | aunty_helen wrote: | The author does a lot to romanticise the old traditions of a town | that seeminly hasn't kept up with modern times. | | Truth is, there's 2 types of people that go to the central | market, old people and tourists. | | Everyone else drives to Mercadona, a supermarket like any other, | in their Mercedes. You can also buy fantastic veges and fruits | there but without dealing with 5-6 merchants to get what you | need. | [deleted] | [deleted] | ed25519FUUU wrote: | Is there any material difference from what's been described in | the article, and the canal irrigation that happens around much of | the western US? I have access to canal water myself and it's used | mainly for flood irrigation in these parts. | Mvandenbergh wrote: | The main difference (although that is not clear from the | article) that this system is based on fixed proportions of | usable water volume whereas water rights in the Western US | states are mostly setup in order of seniority and (at least | historically) with no adjustment mechanism for usable flow. | That means that if users with senior rights use up all the | waters, junior rights holders and the natural river itself get | no water. | ROTMetro wrote: | Only men allowed, is that a product of the colonial culture that | created it, by chance, or a later added rule? It's interesting to | note all the impacts of colonial rule by Muslim Arabs over Spain. | I've always wondered how much of Spanish colonialism is an | emulation of their colonization by Arab Muslims. | [deleted] | giantg2 wrote: | "Production in La Huerta is basically intended for self- | consumption and the local market," | | No wonder it has continued throughout time. It's once we try to | farm intensively that we see issues. | | So this is a model for sustainability. How does this scale to | replace the industrial farming? | finiteseries wrote: | 1:1 it fundamentally can't if it ties markets to local | production in much (most?) of the world, it's everything else | I'd be concerned about scaling! | arnvald wrote: | Valencia's a cool place to visit, they did a number of | interesting things in the last few decades: | | * after a devastating flood in the 1950s they "moved" the river | out of the city and they used the original channel to build a | 10km long park with tons of infrastructure for sports and | recreation: https://metropolismag.com/projects/how-valencia- | turned-crisi... | | * they have a network of docked city bikes with ~300 stations | around the city. Docked bikes are not perfect, but don't cause | the mess that dockless bikes do. It costs EUR30/year and every | ride is free for 30min. (it's not unique, as other cities have | similar networks, but it's really well executed) | | * their Ciudad de las artes y ciencias (City of arts and science) | is a beautiful complex with a museum, cinema, oceanographic park | and iirc there's even a night club somewhere there. Really cool | place for tourist and local residents to hang around: | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_Arts_and_Sciences | narag wrote: | The city is gorgeus in general. Their hobby of burning things | and making a big noise with gunpowder is also a plus for me... | I hope I can go to Fallas one of these years. | aunty_helen wrote: | >there's even a night club | | There's actually 3 :D Umbracle, the one that exists open air | under the awnings is great in the summer time air. It only runs | during the warmer months as the locals can't stand the 20C | night temperature. | | Valen-bici is super convenient, they are pretty heavy steel | framed machines but everythings flat so it's not a great | bother. | | The real gem is the extensive bike lanes that stretch upwards | of 20km out from the city. Every main road has a bike lane. | Electric scooters were the real ticket and I had one while I | was there. ALmost went a year carbon free transport. | pier25 wrote: | > Ciudad de las artes y ciencias | | The Delos headquarters in Westworld were filmed there (third | season). | | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5CT0DdenVU | WaitWaitWha wrote: | >Invented by the region's Moorish rulers 1,200 years ago | | I have no problem with stating that it was built, or implemented | by Moorish rulers. I have a problem with 'invented'. | | Waterways specifically for irrigation, in near-identical (and | many better) designs have been around significantly longer than | 1,200 years. The Romans, Egyptians, Mesopotamians, Incas, Mayans, | and so on. Go to central Arizona in the USA to see about 700 | miles of irrigation canals built by the Hohokams. Or, check out | the Assyrians' inverted siphon for the Nineveh Aqueducts. | oh_sigh wrote: | Maybe "invented" is in relation to the specific social system | designed around the irrigation regulating water distribution | fairness. It sounds much better than the system where I | live(Colorado), which is "first in time, first in right", | meaning the first person to use water from a river gets to | claim whatever water they use as their own for eternity, | meaning anyone else who comes along later can't have any water | at all until the senior rights holder gets their fill. | PaulDavisThe1st wrote: | New Mexico has the same "first in time, first in right" law, | sadly imposed by Americans when it became a state, and mostly | (but not entirely) replacing the acequia system here that is | (for obvious reasons) extremely similar to the one in TFA. | | The FIT/FIR system is not going to survive. Of this, I am | certain. It's a concept based on mistaken ideas about the | amount of water in the American southwest, in turn based on a | particularly wet couple of decades at the turn of the 20th | century. If the current drought continues, or at some other | point in the future, the implicit farming-centric nature of | FIT/FIR is going to clash with the desires of these states' | growing populations. Farming is not going to win (by farming, | I mean large scale industrial production, mostly for export). | asciimov wrote: | This kind of irrigation is terrible if you are trying to conserve | water. | | As temperatures rise places that use aqueduct and flood | irrigation will have to contend with the loss of water to | evaporation during transport. | | Fortunately people out on the American plains have this figured | out and better technologies exist. The problem is convincing | farmers and law makers in areas that have traditionally had | abundances of water to change their ways. | skybrian wrote: | Could you say more about these "better technologies?" | winkeltripel wrote: | Pipes? | otikik wrote: | Good luck to all the people in the united states. Water is a | big problem, yes. So is the loss of soil. I hope you are able | to fix it in time and don't get another Dust Bowl. | freeopinion wrote: | Perhaps towards the other extreme, some hydroponic systems | capture any evaporated water and re-introduce it into the | cycle. By some standards, this is "better technology." | | But there are different standards. Open waterways meet other | standards of "better." | PaulDavisThe1st wrote: | New Mexico loses about 7% of all the precipitation that falls | within its borders to evaporation. That's about the same amount | as used by the residential population. | | So on the one hand, it's a huge problem, but on the other, it's | not. | aunty_helen wrote: | Luckily, when Rio Turia gets to Valencia, there's only about | 5km before it flows out to the Med so extracting a bit more | won't affect those down stream. | | The area being serviced isn't massive and the chanels are | narrow and quite deep. | dzqhz wrote: | https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/f0138c65-b4ba-46d0-9688-9720321... | microtherion wrote: | The BBC page also links to the intricate and fairly ancient | irrigation system used in the Swiss mountain region of Valais. | | Legend has it that when God created the Valais, he asked the | local farmers whether they wanted rain, or whether they would | take care of their own irrigation. After a brief consultation, | they announced that, with all due respect, irrigation was too | serious a matter to entrust to a bloody foreigner... | narag wrote: | My home as a child had been a duck farm. My father converted it | to an orange trees (and all kind of vegetables) orchard, it was | 3k m2 (that's almost eight acres) so we had plenty of space. | | It was hypnotic watching the sharecropper, with just a hoe, | directing the water from the reservoir to all the trees, | lettuces, watermellons... I wonder if those skills were | transmited from generation to generation for centuries. With | modern irrigation systems, I guess they're being lost. ___________________________________________________________________ (page generated 2022-02-21 23:00 UTC)