Editing Irrigation (section)

=== Ancient history ===
[[File:David Roberts ancient fountain.jpg|thumb|upright|Animal-powered irrigation, Upper Egypt, ca. 1846]]

Archaeological investigation has found evidence of irrigation in areas lacking sufficient natural [[rainfall]] to support crops for [[rainfed agriculture]]. Some of the earliest known use of the technology dates to the 6th millennium BCE in [[Khuzestan Province|Khuzistan]] in the south-west of [[Iran]].<ref name="Transaction Publishers">{{cite book |last1=Flannery |first1=Kent V. |title=The Domestication and Exploitation of Plants and Animals |publisher=Transaction Publishers |year=1969 |isbn=9780202365572 |editor1-last=Ucko |editor1-first=Peter John |editor1-link=Peter John Ucko |location=New Brunswick, New Jersey |publication-date=2007 |page=89 |chapter=Origins and ecological effects of early domestication in Iran and the Near East |author-link1=Kent V. Flannery |access-date=2019-01-12 |editor2-last=Dimbleby |editor2-first=G. W. |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6lY9Q4vnrCEC}}</ref><ref>
{{cite book |last1=Lawton |first1=H. W. |title=Agriculture in Semi-Arid Environments |last2=Wilke |first2=P. J. |publisher=Springer Science & Business Media |year=1979 |isbn=9783642673283 |editor1-last=Hall |editor1-first=A. E. |edition=reprint |series=Ecological Studies |volume=34 |location=Berlin |publication-date=2012 |page=13 |chapter=Ancient Agricultural Systems in Dry Regions of the Old World |access-date=2019-01-12 |editor2-last=Cannell |editor2-first=G. H. |editor3-last=Lawton |editor3-first=H.W. |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=e67tCAAAQBAJ}}
</ref> The site of [[Choga Mami]], in present-day Iraq on the border with Iran, is believed to be the earliest to show the first canal irrigation in operation at about 6000 BCE.<ref>Alexander R. Thomas, Gregory M. Fulkerson (2021), [https://books.google.com/books?id=KcUyEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA137 City and Country: The Historical Evolution of Urban-Rural Systems.] Rowman & Littlefield. p.137</ref>

Irrigation was used as a means of manipulation of water in the alluvial plains of the [[Indus valley civilization]], the application of which is estimated to have begun around 4500 BCE and drastically increased the size and prosperity of their agricultural settlements.<ref name="basis">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JI65-MygMm0C |title=The Basis of Civilization--water Science? |date=2004 |publisher=International Association of Hydrological Science |isbn=9781901502572 |editor1-last=Rodda |editor1-first=J. C. |language=en |editor2-last=Ubertini |editor2-first=Lucio}}</ref> The Indus Valley Civilization developed sophisticated irrigation and water-storage systems, including artificial [[reservoir]]s at [[Girnar]] dated to 3000 BCE, and an early [[canal]] irrigation system from {{circa}} 2600 BCE. Large-scale agriculture was practiced, with an extensive network of canals used for the purpose of irrigation.<ref name="basis" /><ref>{{cite web |title=Ancient India Indus Valley Civilization |url=http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/prehistory/india/indus/elements.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070205113936/http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/prehistory/india/indus/elements.html |archive-date=2007-02-05 |access-date=2007-01-10 |publisher=Minnesota State University "e-museum"}}</ref>

Farmers in the [[Mesopotamia]]n plain used irrigation from at least the third-millennium BCE.<ref>
{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4SKYAAAAQBAJ |title=The Sumerian World |publisher=Routledge |year=2013 |isbn=9781136219115 |editor1-last=Crawford |editor1-first=Harriet |editor-link=Harriet Crawford |series=Routledge Worlds |location=Abingdon, Oxfordshire |publication-date=2013 |access-date=2019-01-12}}
</ref>
They developed ''perennial irrigation'', regularly watering crops throughout the [[growing season]] by coaxing water through a matrix of small channels formed in the field.<ref>
{{cite book |last1=Hill |first1=Donald |title=A History of Engineering in Classical and Medieval Times |publisher=Routledge |year=1984 |isbn=9781317761570 |edition=reprint |location=London |publication-date=2013 |page=18 |chapter=2: Irrigation and Water supply |author-link1=Donald Hill |access-date=2019-01-12 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oMceAgAAQBAJ}}
</ref>
[[Ancient Egyptians]] practiced ''basin irrigation'' using the [[flooding of the Nile]] to inundate land plots which had been surrounded by [[Levee|dikes]]. The flood water remained until the fertile sediment had settled before the engineers returned the surplus to the [[watercourse]].<ref name="p19">''p19'' Hill, A History of Engineering in Classical and Medieval Times</ref> There is evidence of the ancient Egyptian [[pharaoh]] [[Amenemhet III]] in the [[Twelfth dynasty of Egypt|twelfth dynasty]] (about 1800 [[Common era|BCE]]) using the natural lake of the [[Faiyum Oasis]] as a reservoir to store surpluses of water for use during dry seasons. The lake swelled annually from the flooding of the [[Nile]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Amenemhet III |url=http://concise.britannica.com/ebc/article-9006076/Amenemhet-III |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070510203748/http://concise.britannica.com/ebc/article-9006076/Amenemhet-III |archive-date=2007-05-10 |access-date=2007-01-10 |publisher=Britannica Concise}}</ref>
[[File:Scene at Bhimgoda near Haridwar , February 1847.jpg|thumb|Young [[engineer]]s restoring and developing the old [[Mughal Empire|Mughal]] irrigation system in 1847 during the reign of the [[Mughal Emperor]] [[Bahadur Shah II]] in Indian subcontinent]]
The [[Nubia|Ancient Nubians]] developed a form of irrigation by using a [[waterwheel]]-like device called a ''[[sakia]]''. Irrigation began in Nubia between the third and second millennia BCE.<ref>{{cite book |author=G. Mokhtar |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gB6DcMU94GUC&q=ancient+irrigation+Africa&pg=PA309 |title=Ancient civilizations of Africa |date=1981-01-01 |publisher=Unesco. International Scientific Committee for the Drafting of a General History of Africa |isbn=9780435948054 |page=309 |access-date=2012-06-19 |via=Books.google.com}}</ref> It largely depended upon the flood waters that would flow through the [[Nile River]] and other rivers in what is now the Sudan.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Bulliet |first1=Richard |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=niqhizFDhKUC&q=irrigation+Nubia+BCE&pg=PA53 |title=The Earth and Its Peoples, Volume I: A Global History, to 1550 |last2=Crossley |first2=Pamela Kyle |last3=Headrick |first3=Daniel |last4=Hirsch |first4=Steven |date=2008-06-18 |isbn=978-0618992386 |pages=53–56|publisher=Wadsworth }}</ref>

In [[sub-Saharan Africa]], irrigation reached the [[Niger River]] region cultures and civilizations by the first or second millennium BCE and was based on wet-season flooding and water harvesting.<ref>{{cite web |title=Traditional technologies |url=http://www.fao.org/docrep/004/y0969e/y0969e03.htm |access-date=2012-06-19 |publisher=Fao.org}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Africa, Emerging Civilizations In Sub-Sahara Africa. Various Authors; Edited By: R. A. Guisepi |url=http://history-world.org/africa.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100612221652/http://history-world.org/africa.htm |archive-date=2010-06-12 |access-date=2012-06-19 |publisher=History-world.org}}</ref>

Evidence of ''terrace irrigation'' occurs in pre-Columbian America, early Syria, India, and China.<ref name="p19" /> In the Zana Valley of the [[Andes Mountains]] in [[Peru]], archaeologists have found remains of three irrigation [[canal]]s [[Radiocarbon dating|radiocarbon-dated]] from the [[4th millennium BCE]], the 3rd millennium BCE and the 9th century [[Common era|CE]]. These canals provide the earliest record of irrigation in the [[New World]]. Traces of a canal possibly dating from the [[5th millennium BCE]] were found under the 4th-millennium canal.<ref name="Dillehay, 2005" />

[[Ancient Persia]] (modern-day [[Iran]]) used irrigation as far back as the [[6th millennium BCE]] to grow barley in areas with insufficient natural rainfall.<ref>{{cite book |title=The History of Technology&nbsp;– Irrigation |publisher=Encyclopædia Britannica, 1994 edition}}</ref><ref name="Transaction Publishers" /> The [[Qanat]]s, developed in ancient [[Persia]] about 800 BCE, are among the oldest known irrigation methods still in use today. They are now found in Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa. The system comprises a network of vertical wells and gently sloping tunnels driven into the sides of cliffs and steep hills to tap groundwater.<ref>{{cite web |title=Qanat Irrigation Systems and Homegardens (Iran) |url=http://www.fao.org/sd/giahs/other_iran1_desc.asp |access-date=2007-01-10 |work=Globally Important Agriculture Heritage Systems |publisher=UN Food and Agriculture Organization |archive-date=June 24, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080624023533/http://www.fao.org/sd/giahs/other_iran1_desc.asp |url-status=dead }}</ref> The [[noria]], a water wheel with clay pots around the rim powered by the flow of the stream (or by animals where the water source was still), first came into use at about this time among [[Roman Republic|Roman]] settlers in North Africa. By 150 BCE, the pots were fitted with valves to allow smoother filling as they were forced into the water.<ref>''Encyclopædia Britannica'', 1911 and 1989 editions</ref>

====Sri Lanka====
{{Main|Sri Lankan irrigation network}}

The irrigation works of ancient [[Sri Lanka]], the earliest dating from about 300 BCE in the reign of King [[Pandukabhaya]], and under continuous development for the next thousand years, were one of the most complex irrigation systems of the ancient world. In addition to underground canals, the [[Sinhalese people|Sinhalese]] were the first to build completely artificial reservoirs to store water.{{citation needed|date=January 2019}} These reservoirs and canal systems were used primarily to irrigate [[paddy field]]s, which require a lot of water to cultivate. Most of these irrigation systems still exist undamaged up to now, in [[Anuradhapura]] and [[Polonnaruwa]], because of the advanced and precise engineering. The system was extensively restored and further extended during the reign of King [[Parakrama Bahu]] (1153–1186 [[Common era|CE]]).<ref>{{cite web |last=de Silva |first=Sena |year=1998 |title=Reservoirs of Sri Lanka and their fisheries |url=http://www.fao.org/docrep/003/T0028E/T0028E03.htm |access-date=2007-01-10 |publisher=UN Food and Agriculture Organization}}</ref>

==== China ====
[[File:Turpan-karez-museo-d02.jpg|thumb|Inside a [[Turfan water system|karez]] tunnel at [[Turpan]], Xinjiang, China]]
The oldest known [[hydraulic]] engineers of [[China]] were [[Sunshu Ao]] (6th century BCE) of the [[Spring and Autumn period]] and [[Ximen Bao]] (5th century BCE) of the [[Warring States]] period, both of whom worked on large irrigation [[project]]s. In the [[Sichuan]] region belonging to the [[Qin (state)|state of Qin]] of ancient China, the [[Dujiangyan Irrigation System]] devised by the Qin Chinese hydrologist and irrigation engineer [[Li Bing (Qin)|Li Bing]] was built in 256 BCE to irrigate a vast area of farmland that today still supplies water.<ref>{{cite book |title=China&nbsp;– history |publisher=Encyclopædia Britannica, 1994 edition}}</ref> By the 2nd century CE, during the [[Han dynasty]], the Chinese also used [[chain pump]]s which lifted water from a lower elevation to a higher one.<ref name="needham volume 4 part 2 344 346">Needham, Joseph (1986). ''Science and Civilization in China: Volume 4, Physics and Physical Technology, Part 2, Mechanical Engineering''. Taipei: Caves Books Ltd. Pages 344–346.</ref> These were powered by manual foot-pedal, hydraulic [[waterwheel]]s, or rotating mechanical wheels pulled by [[oxen]].<ref name="needham volume 4 part 2 340 343">Needham, Volume 4, Part 2, 340–343.</ref> The water was used for [[public works]], providing water for urban residential quarters and palace gardens, but mostly for irrigation of [[arable land|farmland]] canals and channels in the fields.<ref name="needham volume 4 part 2 33 110">Needham, Volume 4, Part 2, 33, 110.</ref>

==== Korea ====
[[Joseon|Korea]], [[Jang Yeong-sil]], a Korean engineer of the [[Joseon dynasty]], under the active direction of the king, [[Sejong the Great]], invented the world's first [[rain gauge]], ''uryanggye'' ({{Korean|hangul=우량계}}) in 1441. It was installed in irrigation tanks as part of a nationwide system to measure and collect rainfall for agricultural applications. Planners and farmers could better use the information gathered in the{{which|date=January 2019}} survey with this instrument.<ref>{{cite book |last=Baek Seok-gi 백석기 |title=Jang Yeong-sil 장영실 |publisher=Woongjin Wiin Jeon-gi 웅진위인전기 11. Woongjin Publishing Co., Ltd |year=1987}}</ref>

==== North America ====
{{Main|Hohokam}}
[[File:Jang_Yeong-sil_Science_Garden-Rain_Gauges_13-11789_Busan,_South_Korea_03.JPG|thumb|356x356px|A [[Cheugugi]] at Jang Yeong-sil Science Garden in [[Busan]]]]
The earliest agricultural irrigation canal system known in the area of the present-day [[United States of America|United States]] dates to between 1200 BCE and 800 BCE and was discovered by Desert Archaeology, Inc. in Marana, Arizona (adjacent to Tucson) in 2009.<ref>{{cite web |title=Earliest Canals in America – Archaeology Magazine Archive |url=http://archive.archaeology.org/0909/trenches/canals.html}}</ref> The irrigation-canal system predates the Hohokam culture by two thousand years and belongs to an unidentified culture. In North America, the Hohokam were the only culture known to rely on irrigation canals to water their crops, and their irrigation systems supported the largest population in the Southwest by CE 1300. The Hohokam constructed various simple canals combined with [[weirs]] in their various agricultural pursuits. Between the 7th and 14th centuries, they built and maintained extensive irrigation networks along the lower [[Salt River (Arizona)|Salt]] and middle [[Gila River]]s that rivaled the complexity of those used in the ancient Near East, Egypt, and China. These were constructed using relatively simple excavation tools, without the benefit of advanced engineering technologies, and achieved drops of a few feet per mile, balancing erosion and siltation. The Hohokam cultivated cotton, tobacco, maize, beans, and squash varieties and harvested an assortment of wild plants. Late in the Hohokam Chronological Sequence, they used extensive dry-farming systems, primarily to grow [[Agave murpheyi|agave]] for food and fiber. Their reliance on agricultural strategies based on canal irrigation, vital in their less-than-hospitable desert environment and arid climate, provided the basis for the aggregation of rural populations into stable urban centers.<ref>
James M. Bayman, "The Hohokam of Southwest North America." ''Journal of World Prehistory'' 15.3 (2001): 257–311.
</ref>

====South America====
{{see also|Zaña Valley}}

The oldest known irrigation canals in the Americas are in the desert of northern Peru in the Zaña Valley near the hamlet of [[Nanchoc District|Nanchoc]]. The canals have been [[radiocarbon]] dated to at least 3400 BCE and possibly as old as 4700 BCE. The canals at that time irrigated crops such as [[peanut]]s, [[Cucurbita|squash]], [[manioc]], [[chenopodium|chenopods]], a relative of [[Quinoa]], and later [[maize]].<ref name="Dillehay, 2005">{{cite journal |last1=Dillehay |first1=Tom D. |last2=Eling |first2=Herbert H. Jr. |last3=Rossen |first3=Jack |year=2005 |title=Preceramic irrigation canals in the Peruvian Andes |url=https://www.pnas.org/content/pnas/102/47/17241.full.pdf |url-status=live |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America |publisher=National Academy of Science |volume=102 |issue=47 |pages=17241–17244 |bibcode=2005PNAS..10217241D |doi=10.1073/pnas.0508583102 |pmc=1288011 |pmid=16284247 |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://www.pnas.org/content/pnas/102/47/17241.full.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |access-date=20 November 2020 |doi-access=free}}</ref>