SMALL LAKES ANDRESERVOIRS IN THEHILLS OF SICILY.MAINTAIN, SAVE ANDRECOVER RURALLANDSCAPE.

In the transition from nomadic to sedentary,people have tried - for their settlements - themost plenty of water, and the first cities werefounded, in fact, along Tigris and Euphratesrivers, extraordinary water resources in aparticular dry climate.In the most interior of Sicily, which has alwaysbeen characterized by low rainfall, the farmers- over time - have tried various expedientsfor the preservation of rain water in order toallow its survival and crop.The use of new technologies and materialshas resulted in recently hard impacts forlandscape, while construction of smalldams filled with earth, using natural soilimpluviums and the nature of the land, madeit possible to irrigate thousands of hectares ofagricultural land otherwise ready for drought.A “sustainable” technique, which resulted inthe last sixty years, a significant change in therural landscape of Sicily.In a time when the whole country seems tobe threatened - to build indiscriminately- by excessive consumption of soil, whichwill inevitably and irreversibly alter theenvironmental balance, the rediscovery of thelandscape value of crops that characterize -today - the sicilian countryside and techniquesof sustainable conservation of rainwater, itseems of great relevance for the study andprotection of soil and for the recovery of theidentity of this territory.This abstract introduce to a multidisciplinaryinvestigation yet started, which will aimto assess both technical and landscapingaspects, both economic and agronomic, andalso ecological profiles of this technique toprotect the biodiversity in these specializedfields. The investigation will aim also to givean historical perspective and an ex-postevaluation of interventions in order to leadto urban planning, landscape and spatialawareness. A further aim is the design of anetwork system which has impacts on thequality of rural tourism, which emphasizes, asan example, the interaction with the systemof bicycle routes and footpaths, greenways,that is being developed in Sicily.