Explaining Sustainable Water Resources Management System with Emphasis on the Hidden Values of Historic Hydraulic Structures (Case Study of Yazd Desert City)

Water supply is considered as water democracy. Sustainable water resources management has been manifested in response to growing pressures from population growth, socio-economic development, climate change, and ecological degradation. Despite the long history of water structure engineering in Iran, there is always a lack of sustainable water resources management framework, and recreation of hidden values ​​of historic hydraulic structures. The purpose of this study was to compare the characteristics of the historic hydraulic structures of desert cities with water resources’sustainable management criteria and the importance of restoration, protection and recreation of this historical heritage. This is an inferential-comparative study. Information gathering tools were library studies, review of written literature, and documents. Study of the structure, performance and management system of the historical hydraulic structures of Yazd Desert City indicated that despite the weaknesses of traditional systems, these structures have been in great harmony with the sustainable management framework for water resources. Therefore, modeling and recreating the values ​​and systems governing the structure and functioning of these structures as the most fundamental factors in explaining the thought and practice of social and ecological life can provide the basis for sustainability in all its dimensions.