The Decline of Semnan’s Water Supply Network, From a Landscape Infrastructure to a Forgotten Element in the Urban Landscape

One of the constant challenges of the cities of the central plateau of Iran has been to deal with the problem of water shortage in all eras a challenge that has led to the emergence of the ingenuity of the inhabitants of this territory in the ways of using water. Among these methods that have been used in the desert city of Semnan has been extracting water, directing and collecting it in water storage pools, and then dividing it between agricultural lands. According to the historical and existing evidence, this water supply structure was the main infrastructure of the city’s formation and the author’s studies show that this infrastructure has been prominent, alive, and dynamic as a scenic infrastructure in all eras. The various functional, identity, and aesthetic dimensions in different physical, semantic, cultural, and social fields that can be identified in the knowledge of this structure introduce it as a scenic infrastructure that undoubtedly played a fundamental role in shaping the landscape of the old city. The role that, with the arrival of modern urban infrastructure, including the modern water supply network, not only has no role in the emergence of the new city landscape but is losing its color in today’s city landscape. This is despite the fact that keeping such an infrastructure alive can not only respond to the aesthetic and physical aspects of Semnan’s urban landscape but due to the various layers of meaning loaded on it, it can also cover the social and public gaps in the field of urban planning.