Water architecture – and the associated concept water engineering[1]​ – is the set of works and studies related to the various hydraulic infrastructures, their management and development.[2]​ Although the concept and its materialization were already evident in Ancient Age, the terminology and its dissemination as science and industry appear at the end of the century.[3]​ In addition to the historical or cultural aspects of the concept,[4]​ in its scientific aspect, the so-called water architecture can appear associated with the management of water resources and all types of hydrotechnologies.[5]​.

As a guide, the fields of water conduction (aqueducts, canals and water travel), hydraulic exploitation (hydraulic mills, water parks and reservoirs), consumption (fountains, pools, cisterns and chultuns), urban planning and landscaping (Islamic model gardens) and natural architecture (waterfalls, underground rivers, caves and grottoes, etc.), in addition to the plots related to the handling of river accidents, can be mentioned. lacustrine or marine (lagoons, marshes and deltas, salt flats and channeled estuaries) and the most recent growth in proposals derived from ecological tourism.[6]​.

The Spanish anthropologist Pedro Antón Cantero, in a study dedicated to the Architecture of water, proposes for the institutional study of this large plot of cultural assets of a region, country, etc., or field work on it, the following essential inventory:[7]​.

Apart from the set of recognitions that UNESCO has proposed in the World Heritage List, they can be cited here for a global description of the monumental spaces related to water architecture.

Contenido

Resultaría interminable el registro o exposición de ejemplos para un marco tan amplio y diverso como el que categoriza y contiene el concepto arquitectura del agua,[2]​ aplicable desde la estructura de una simple acequia de riego hasta los sistemas de cimentación de una ciudad lacustre como Venecia, o desde un molino hidráulico o el mecanismo biela-manivela de las primitivas serrerías romanas,[8]​ hasta la ingeniería de polders en el IJsselmeer de Flandes en Europa.[9]​ No obstante –y como galería documental– puede resultar interesante reseñar algunos ingenios y estructuras relacionados con las industrias del agua, su gestión y desarrollo.[10]​[4]​.

Documentary iconography

From the varied album of drawings, engravings and other artistic manifestations related to the documentary compendium of water architecture, for example these plates on the evolution of the water wheel can be noted: