Irrigation – rediscovered heritage, its documentation and popularisation

Targeted adjustments of soil moisture regimes, adapted to the needs of agriculture or forestry, are solved within the field of hydromelioration, mainly by irrigation and drainage. Recently, irrigation has come to the fore in response to climate change. As early as around 1590, Bohemian fruit growers were mentioned as experts in irrigation construction. One of the more comprehensive publications for farmers was published in 1870 by F. Václavík: Melioration, or the improvement of land for artificial flooding and the care of meadows, fields and forests.

The irrigation systems built in the past, now often non-functional and tortuously preserved, became the focus of a project that sought to capture the historical development of this specific water management field and the part of the industry associated with the development, design and implementation of irrigation. The research also included defining appropriate procedures for identifying irrigation objects and systems in the landscape using modern methods and technical tools. In a broader context, the project and its outputs, including the exhibition itself, should raise awareness of the history of irrigation in the Czech lands and the transfer of this heritage to the present.

The authors intend to capture individual topics in a visually attractive form, favouring maps, reconstructions and pictorial material. The exhibition was supplemented by presentations of institutions developing irrigation to reach the general public. The exhibition is accompanied by a peer-reviewed catalogue, which creates the individual themes and sites of historical irrigation on the exhibition panels and summarises the results of the research project supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic within the programme to support applied research and experimental development of national and cultural identity NAKI II.