Research Information System
Ataöv Demirkan A., Peker E. (Executive)
Project Supported by Public Organizations in Other Countries, 2021 - 2023
Water is a vital resource for human societies, from drinking to sanitation to food production. Changing social,
economic and environmental conditions significantly affect the availability and quality of water, thus affecting
people’s health, wellbeing and access to food. Dry regions, where some of the poorest people in the world live,
are most vulnerable to changes. This project focuses on the Konya Plain (Turkey) to evaluate how these
changes have taken place over the last 500 years, and what is likely to occur over the next decades. The
excellent archival and archaeological records there will enable us to reconstruct past water use and
management with an unparalleled level of detail. We will use a comparative understanding of what sustainable
water management is and how it has occurred at various times and places to make suggestions of how to
mitigate future water risk, both for the study area and more generally.