New uses for old waterways

Surface freshwaters system management can be considered as one of the most relevant issues affecting the quality of lived spaces in the western world. Growing water pollution and consumption, alongside with the opposing intensity of sudden floods and the long-lasting drought are exacerbated by the remarkable spread of both urban sprawl phenomenon and intensification of agribusiness. This lead to irreversible loss of the main support underpinning the basic eco-systems, with special regards to the dynamic of the hydro-geological system. Water levels in academic scholarship have been rising recently; everywhere you look, there are studies of various forms of water, in wide-ranging environments and societies, across the spectrum of the arts and sciences (Daniels 2018). A range of topics from modernity to citizenship, once largely inland matters, are now on the waterfront, materially and imaginatively. Certain social developments contribute to this new aquatic scholarly sensibility, especially when considering the crisis of water supply in expanding cities of the global south, and the rediscovery and gentrification of formerly working water fronts, from docklands to canals, in the global north. Rising sea levels associated with global warming seep into the urban imagination. The minor rivers and small canals offer a great opportunity to analyze and develop new studies and approach about specific contexts (Vallerani & Visentin 2018). The main goal of our contribution is thereby to develop a new paradigm of water management to secure more sustainable water uses, through a far-sighted combination of digital technologies with innovative models of heritage planning. Starting from the Euwather achieved results, we will try to demonstrate how minor rivers and historical canals as cultural corridors allow societies to take advantage of the positive connections between cultural and environmental dimensions, between landscape and heritage and between local attitudes and global changes. Freshwater general dwindling could be coped through a better management of inland hydrography as recovered cultural heritage thanks to the increased demand of river tourism.