[HN Gopher] Valencia's irrigation system is now a model for sust...
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Valencia's irrigation system is now a model for sustainable farming
Author : dsnr
Score : 106 points
Date : 2022-02-21 19:11 UTC (3 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.bbc.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.bbc.com)
| aunty_helen wrote:
| The author does a lot to romanticise the old traditions of a town
| that seeminly hasn't kept up with modern times.
|
| Truth is, there's 2 types of people that go to the central
| market, old people and tourists.
|
| Everyone else drives to Mercadona, a supermarket like any other,
| in their Mercedes. You can also buy fantastic veges and fruits
| there but without dealing with 5-6 merchants to get what you
| need.
| [deleted]
| [deleted]
| ed25519FUUU wrote:
| Is there any material difference from what's been described in
| the article, and the canal irrigation that happens around much of
| the western US? I have access to canal water myself and it's used
| mainly for flood irrigation in these parts.
| Mvandenbergh wrote:
| The main difference (although that is not clear from the
| article) that this system is based on fixed proportions of
| usable water volume whereas water rights in the Western US
| states are mostly setup in order of seniority and (at least
| historically) with no adjustment mechanism for usable flow.
| That means that if users with senior rights use up all the
| waters, junior rights holders and the natural river itself get
| no water.
| ROTMetro wrote:
| Only men allowed, is that a product of the colonial culture that
| created it, by chance, or a later added rule? It's interesting to
| note all the impacts of colonial rule by Muslim Arabs over Spain.
| I've always wondered how much of Spanish colonialism is an
| emulation of their colonization by Arab Muslims.
| [deleted]
| giantg2 wrote:
| "Production in La Huerta is basically intended for self-
| consumption and the local market,"
|
| No wonder it has continued throughout time. It's once we try to
| farm intensively that we see issues.
|
| So this is a model for sustainability. How does this scale to
| replace the industrial farming?
| finiteseries wrote:
| 1:1 it fundamentally can't if it ties markets to local
| production in much (most?) of the world, it's everything else
| I'd be concerned about scaling!
| arnvald wrote:
| Valencia's a cool place to visit, they did a number of
| interesting things in the last few decades:
|
| * after a devastating flood in the 1950s they "moved" the river
| out of the city and they used the original channel to build a
| 10km long park with tons of infrastructure for sports and
| recreation: https://metropolismag.com/projects/how-valencia-
| turned-crisi...
|
| * they have a network of docked city bikes with ~300 stations
| around the city. Docked bikes are not perfect, but don't cause
| the mess that dockless bikes do. It costs EUR30/year and every
| ride is free for 30min. (it's not unique, as other cities have
| similar networks, but it's really well executed)
|
| * their Ciudad de las artes y ciencias (City of arts and science)
| is a beautiful complex with a museum, cinema, oceanographic park
| and iirc there's even a night club somewhere there. Really cool
| place for tourist and local residents to hang around:
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_Arts_and_Sciences
| narag wrote:
| The city is gorgeus in general. Their hobby of burning things
| and making a big noise with gunpowder is also a plus for me...
| I hope I can go to Fallas one of these years.
| aunty_helen wrote:
| >there's even a night club
|
| There's actually 3 :D Umbracle, the one that exists open air
| under the awnings is great in the summer time air. It only runs
| during the warmer months as the locals can't stand the 20C
| night temperature.
|
| Valen-bici is super convenient, they are pretty heavy steel
| framed machines but everythings flat so it's not a great
| bother.
|
| The real gem is the extensive bike lanes that stretch upwards
| of 20km out from the city. Every main road has a bike lane.
| Electric scooters were the real ticket and I had one while I
| was there. ALmost went a year carbon free transport.
| pier25 wrote:
| > Ciudad de las artes y ciencias
|
| The Delos headquarters in Westworld were filmed there (third
| season).
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5CT0DdenVU
| WaitWaitWha wrote:
| >Invented by the region's Moorish rulers 1,200 years ago
|
| I have no problem with stating that it was built, or implemented
| by Moorish rulers. I have a problem with 'invented'.
|
| Waterways specifically for irrigation, in near-identical (and
| many better) designs have been around significantly longer than
| 1,200 years. The Romans, Egyptians, Mesopotamians, Incas, Mayans,
| and so on. Go to central Arizona in the USA to see about 700
| miles of irrigation canals built by the Hohokams. Or, check out
| the Assyrians' inverted siphon for the Nineveh Aqueducts.
| oh_sigh wrote:
| Maybe "invented" is in relation to the specific social system
| designed around the irrigation regulating water distribution
| fairness. It sounds much better than the system where I
| live(Colorado), which is "first in time, first in right",
| meaning the first person to use water from a river gets to
| claim whatever water they use as their own for eternity,
| meaning anyone else who comes along later can't have any water
| at all until the senior rights holder gets their fill.
| PaulDavisThe1st wrote:
| New Mexico has the same "first in time, first in right" law,
| sadly imposed by Americans when it became a state, and mostly
| (but not entirely) replacing the acequia system here that is
| (for obvious reasons) extremely similar to the one in TFA.
|
| The FIT/FIR system is not going to survive. Of this, I am
| certain. It's a concept based on mistaken ideas about the
| amount of water in the American southwest, in turn based on a
| particularly wet couple of decades at the turn of the 20th
| century. If the current drought continues, or at some other
| point in the future, the implicit farming-centric nature of
| FIT/FIR is going to clash with the desires of these states'
| growing populations. Farming is not going to win (by farming,
| I mean large scale industrial production, mostly for export).
| asciimov wrote:
| This kind of irrigation is terrible if you are trying to conserve
| water.
|
| As temperatures rise places that use aqueduct and flood
| irrigation will have to contend with the loss of water to
| evaporation during transport.
|
| Fortunately people out on the American plains have this figured
| out and better technologies exist. The problem is convincing
| farmers and law makers in areas that have traditionally had
| abundances of water to change their ways.
| skybrian wrote:
| Could you say more about these "better technologies?"
| winkeltripel wrote:
| Pipes?
| otikik wrote:
| Good luck to all the people in the united states. Water is a
| big problem, yes. So is the loss of soil. I hope you are able
| to fix it in time and don't get another Dust Bowl.
| freeopinion wrote:
| Perhaps towards the other extreme, some hydroponic systems
| capture any evaporated water and re-introduce it into the
| cycle. By some standards, this is "better technology."
|
| But there are different standards. Open waterways meet other
| standards of "better."
| PaulDavisThe1st wrote:
| New Mexico loses about 7% of all the precipitation that falls
| within its borders to evaporation. That's about the same amount
| as used by the residential population.
|
| So on the one hand, it's a huge problem, but on the other, it's
| not.
| aunty_helen wrote:
| Luckily, when Rio Turia gets to Valencia, there's only about
| 5km before it flows out to the Med so extracting a bit more
| won't affect those down stream.
|
| The area being serviced isn't massive and the chanels are
| narrow and quite deep.
| dzqhz wrote:
| https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/f0138c65-b4ba-46d0-9688-9720321...
| microtherion wrote:
| The BBC page also links to the intricate and fairly ancient
| irrigation system used in the Swiss mountain region of Valais.
|
| Legend has it that when God created the Valais, he asked the
| local farmers whether they wanted rain, or whether they would
| take care of their own irrigation. After a brief consultation,
| they announced that, with all due respect, irrigation was too
| serious a matter to entrust to a bloody foreigner...
| narag wrote:
| My home as a child had been a duck farm. My father converted it
| to an orange trees (and all kind of vegetables) orchard, it was
| 3k m2 (that's almost eight acres) so we had plenty of space.
|
| It was hypnotic watching the sharecropper, with just a hoe,
| directing the water from the reservoir to all the trees,
| lettuces, watermellons... I wonder if those skills were
| transmited from generation to generation for centuries. With
| modern irrigation systems, I guess they're being lost.
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