Chapter 4. Water Use: From Ancient to Modern Times

This chapter covers the history of water use from ancient times to the present. We address questions such as these:

  • What role did water play in the development of civilization?
  • What technologies and approaches have societies developed to deal with water’s variability?
  • Is water management in the modern era fundamentally different from earlier periods?
  • How much water does humanity use, and how has that changed over time? 

To the right you can download resources from the book and access new resources relevant to this chapter.

Panna Meena ka Kund stepwell in Jaipur, India.

 Panna Meena ka Kund stepwell in Jaipur, India. Photo by Timothy Lytton, used with permission.

Chapter 4 Resources

Table of Contents

Highlights

Table 1: Ancient large-river civilizations

Table 2: Soft and hard paths for water management

Figure 1: Schematic of qanat

Figure 2: Water footprints from production and consumption perspectives

Figure 3: Global blue water use over time

Figure 4: Global blue water consumption by sector over time

Figure 5: US blue water withdrawal by sector over time

Supplemental Resources

For more on IWRM (integrated water resource management) within the SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals), see Indicator 6.5.1.

For a discussion of the problematic way that water-use efficiency is evaluated within the SDGs, see Indicator 6.4.1.

For a discussion of uncertainty in the water-use estimates shown in Figures 4-3 and 4-4, see here.

Chapters in Part 1