Symposium Traditional irrigation heritage and the challenges of water and irrigation systems in the Mediterranean area :
28-29-30 of April 2025
Nice - Saint Martin Vésubie (Alpes maritimes, France)
We are very pleased to inform you that registration and abstract submission for « Symposium Traditional irrigation heritage and the challenges of water and irrigation systems in the Mediterranean area : 28-29-30 of April 2025» conference are now open. This event s organized by the Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire Récits, Cultures et Sociétés (LIRCES) UPR 3159, Université Côte d'Azur et l'association Arche de Beyla.
This event pretends to be the first of a long serial of symposium within the Mediterranean area : the university of Granada (Spain) will host the second edition in 2026, the university of Algarve (Portugal) the third in 2027, the universities of Morocco the fourth in 2027 and so on…
28th, 29th and 30th of April 2025
Maison des Sciences de l’Hommes et de la Société Sud-Est (MSHS Sud-Est, Unité d’Appui et de Recherche CNRS (UAR3566), Université Côte d’Azur, Nice, Alpes maritimes, France) and Saint Martin Vésubie, (Alpes maritimes, France).
In December 2023, the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage evaluated favorably the nomination proposed by seven European States Parties (Austria, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands and Switzerland) for inscription of their traditional irrigation systems on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity (Convention 2003). In June 2023, the French Ministry of Culture encouraged the national traditional irrigation communities to prepare a request for extension to join the communities from the original nomination. Three other States parties (Spain, Portugal and Greece) are actually in the same process of completing the required multinational nomination file which is scheduled to be submitted by France, Greece, Portugal and Spain in March 2026.
History has demonstrated that prior to the twenty-first century Mediterranean local communities have made use of these widespread traditional irrigation schemes to face past challenges such as climate change and rise in the population as well as to build the praised current Mediterranean landscapes. However, nowadays, the communities using traditional irrigation schemes are diminishing as the use of the former has been drastically and widely condemned.
If one of the mandatory criteria to be included on the Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage is to be “constantly recreated by communities and groups in response to their environment, their interaction with nature and their history .…” (article 2 - Convention 2003) and if the Committee has evaluated favorably this criteria, how does it come that the traditional irrigation struggle to find their place and function in the twenty-first century? Did all the benefits they carried disappear? Do they have not more benefits for the Mediterranean landscape heritage, biodiversity, agriculture, or communities’ quality of life?
The Convention of 2003 states further that “This intangible cultural heritage, transmitted from generation to generation, is constantly recreated by communities and groups in response to their environment, their interaction with nature and their history, and provides them with a sense of identity and continuity, thus promoting respect for cultural diversity and human creativity.” (Article 2 - Convention 2003) The symposium’s aim is to set up an environment favorable to enable both researchers all disciplines combined and practitioners to interlink two traditionally separated despite their proven complementary thinking ways, the abstract and strict scientific studies and the autochthonous knowledge and know-how based on observation, to recreate new responses to the current environment, understanding both functions and uses of the traditional irrigation schemes.
The purpose of this international meeting of researchers of any scientific field is threefold :
The symposium believes that the listed aims can be reached as a result of putting the different currently available conclusions, knowledge and know-how together.
Are traditional irrigation and its practices a tool worth to assist Mediterranean local communities to face both the climate, biodiversity and demographic challenges of this 21st century ? And if yes, in which way ? which means are needed? These are are the core questions we expect researchers and speakers to answer. Patrimonial, ecological but also legal, technical and economical considerations are welcome as long as they show innovation and help to build a constructive Thinkpad useful to decisions makers and to the stakeholders engaged in developing agriculture, economical, ecological and conservation strategies to promote the resilience of their territory and to protect or restore the richness of the unique Mediterranean landscape heritage.
The symposium welcomes researchers and PhD of all disciplines combined, practitioners, local traditional irrigation communities as well as any speaker in behalf of an institution or NGO acting in the below mentioned themes. The range of abstracts is very broad with no limit as long as the latters are related to the topics of this symposium and contributes to set up both innovative thinking processes and tools.
The scientific committee welcomes any proposal, studies or reports with innovating solutions and/or scientific conclusions related to :
Please find the PDF French version and feel free to contact us to talk about it in English;
Three présentation types are available :
The abstract proposal should explain the topic of your presentation, and describe why the material, research, practice, or policy is important to the field of traditional irrigation in a Mediterranean context.
Abstracts should include the following headings : Title, background, Rationale, Design, Results and Conclusion. For interactive workshops please provide a narrative description, including the following headings: title, background, including any collaborations, purpose or aim of the workshop, target audience, proposed activities, opportunity for interaction.
Abstract should not be longer than 400 words (excluding title) excluding references.
Please do not forget to Indicate on your abstract submission :
Please submit on or before the due date January the 30th (2025) and in the required way, electronically, either via the mail symposiumcanauxgraviataires@gmail.com or via the avaiable form in the menu submissuion of abstract
Abstract proposals will be evaluated through a blind peer review process. The review will look at the clarity of content, quality and rigor, interest, and usefulness of content to conference attendees, relationship to the symposium’s four themes and to abstracts using Mediterranean data.
You will get the notification per email on the 1st of March 2025.
If your abstract is accepted, you will be asked to submit a communication with 3000 words as well as a power point. You will then be provided with all the needed details to be able to submit your communications with the required criteria.
Once the symposium will have been completed, you will be asked to submit a brief biographical statement as well as the definitive text of your presentation for the book of published abstracts.
December 24th (2024) : Call Open
January 30th (2025) : Submission deadline
March 1st (2025) : Acceptance Notification
March 28th (2025) : submission of the poster presentation
April 24th (2025) : submission of the oral presentation
We ask you kindly to sublmit your abstracts in the required way as we would not be able otherwise to treat them in due form. We decline any liability should you prefer another way and form of sublmission whatever the reason may be. We advise you to contact us should you encounter any difficulty via our mail : : symposiumcanauxgraviataires@gmail.com
You are invited to complete the available form and to make sure that all your personal data is correct. This is your own responsability, please understand.
Sybmission deadline : January 30th (2025) at 11.59 pm (date and time on mail and form)
Les informations personnelles collectées dans ce formulaire de contact sont destinées à l'usage exclusif du Comité d'Organisation et ne sont pas divulguées à des tiers. Elle sont destinées au traitement de votre demande et seront conservées pendant 8 mois après la date du symposium.
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