Assessing the role of cultural heritage in water management and land adaptation facing climate change: Pantelleria's case study.

For communities to adapt, effective water management and governance strategies are necessary due to climate change's pressing challenges. Specifically, the proposed study examines the role of traditional water management systems in supporting land adaptation to harsh climate conditions on Pantelleria, a volcanic island in the Sicilian Channel.

On the island of Pantelleria, there is a rich cultural heritage of water management, exemplifying a complex interaction between desertification, climate change, biodiversity, ecosystem services and land adaptation. As a result of Pantelleria's traditional water management, the landscape mosaic has been able to adapt and remain resilient to climate change impacts. Considering its successful application over time, the ingenious rainwater accumulation, storage, and distribution system demonstrates that this heritage serves not only as a legacy of the past, but as a critical organizing principle for the present. From a social-ecological perspective, preserving cultural heritage shifts the paradigm from innovating traditional knowledge toward reclaiming traditional water management methods that already contribute to the sustainability of local and environmental communities and incorporating them into a perspective of land adaptation to climate change.

This study combines scientific research on desertification and land degradation in Southern Italy with interviews with local stakeholders in an effort to emphasize the importance of cultural heritage knowledge along with bottom-up actions by citizens, and advocates for the systemic vision of rural landscapes by mapping the distribution and abundance of traditional water systems in order to assess their functions in preserving and enhancing ecosystem services in an environment of constant land changing.

Pantelleria serves as a model to demonstrate how similar regions experiencing water-related issues may benefit from its solutions and this study examines the barriers to integrating traditional and modern water management systems based on political, cultural, and institutional factors in order to improve water management and governance in similar harsh environments.