Interdisciplinary approaches to water in the Roman world

Résumé En

Water resource management refers to the process of planning, developing, and managing water resources across uses. Understanding how the Romans approached the management of water resources is crucial to our understanding of the functioning of Roman society, not least from the point of view of the agricultural economy, urban development, trade, industry, and leisure. Just as modern societies, the Romans faced numerous challenges concerning the effective and continuous distribution of water, the management of waterways for transport purposes, and, when disputes arose, how best to balance competing interests. Though much has already been written individually on these topics, there remains considerable scope for research into the Roman approach to these issues from a holistic perspective. This volume therefore introduces a series of studies from a cross-disciplinary point of view, that includes contributions by archaeologists, geomorphologists, historians, and jurists, with a view to understanding how Roman technical, social, and legal solutions worked together to produce systemic results.