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Lara Delgado successfully defends her PhD thesis on cultural landscapes in Andalucía

Last June 2, 2017 Lara Delgado successfully defended her doctoral thesis on Management, communication and social participation in the cultural landscapes of Andalusia. The case of the project MEMOLA and receives the grade of cum laude.

With the author's words:

In this PhD thesis we exposed the evolution of different fundamental aspects, from the concept of heritage to the development of Archaeology and Museology, through communication and participation strategies and finally the normative framework, in term of cultural and environmental facets. All this has served to frame the case study of the MEMOLA project in relation to the archaeological analysis of cultural landscapes and in regards to the participation of local communities and general public.

This study has focuses on the study areas of Cáñar, Lugros and Lanteira, rural villages located in the south and north faces of Sierra Nevada. The work with local stakeholders has been arranged from two different perspectives. The first, and most important, has been the recovery of historical irrigation systems. The second, that came next, focused around an archaeological site. From these approaches we have generated a wide range of different activities and resources of communication and participation.

The goal was to replicate the methodology in different municipalities, with the local communities involved in the recovery of an asset, such as irrigation ditches, to diagnose possible repeating patterns. From this perspective, we applied, as far as possible, this methodological approach to an archaeological site as well. We have had three years of field work that allowed us to compare different effects and relationships between community-heritage-territory, academy-institutions, academy-community, academia-administration-community or administration-community-territory. These accomplishments in the territory generated a wide range of activities that transcend the boundaries of the study areas, thus including adjacent municipalities and ranging from dissemination, education, socialization to public involvement and engagement with the MEMOLA project.

Geyser assoc. (form Provenza Regional Parks) visited

Yesterday the University of Córdoba, The University of Granada and Cáñar Irrigators Community organized a visit in Cáñar (Sierra Nevada) to Geyser assoc., from Provenza Regional Parks (France). They also visited a local organic cooperative growers Las Torcas.

Organically produced Kiwis of ECOCáñar

We started 2017 with the fabulous organically produced kiwis of the Organic Famers association ECOCañar, to the sale in business specialized in production ecological.

Hydrological characterization of Barjas traditional irrigation channel (Cáñar)

The University of Cordoba repited the measurements of flow and bed channel properties over Barjas traditional irrigation system to continue with the development of the circulation model implemented in the channel.

Visit the high mountain irrigation channel of Cáñar

The university of Granada, Arqueoandalusí Arqueología y Patrimonio S.L. and  UNESCO center of Andalucía visit the high mountain irrigation channel of Cáñar (Granada) with the environmental agent of Natural and Nacional Park and the Geological and Mining Institute of Spain. 

Cleaning Barjas irrigation channel

Cáñar Irrigators Community and the volunteers clean Barjas medieval irrigation channel. Its maintenace is crucial to reactivate the agrarian production.

EcoCáñar farmers sold their first organic kiwi production

EcoCáñar farmers sold their first organic kiwi production. Con-Sumo Cuidado, specialised in organic products, sold kiwis from Cáñar. They also collaborate with MEMOLA project in advice and promotion of organic production. 

Visit the traditional irrigation channel of Cáñar (Granada)

Visit the traditional irrigation channel of high mountain of Cáñar (Granada). We are working for the next restoration campaign of the traditional irrigation channel.

International Mountain Day

MEMOLA project participated in the International Mountain Day celebrations.

On 11 December it carried out an activity related to the recovery of the memory of water in a town called Cáñar in the Alpujarra (Granada-Spain). For them, 11 December served to collaborate with the Community of Irrigators of the town of Cáñar, in recovering the traditional distribution system of irrigation. This system of water management has been key to the proper functioning of the irrigation system of Cáñar for centuries, however, it has been falling into oblivion and disuse since a few decades.

This activity, of an intangible heritage and great importance, is vital for the maintenance of cultural landscape of Alpujarra and for the recovery of traditional mountain agriculture. During the activity the older farmers explained to the younger ones how the distribution of water worked, known locally as the "Office". Every night a distribution was made, during the driest months, and allowed the existing water to be shared in a controlled and fair way. This type of traditional knowledge is at the basis for a sustained dialogue that local communities have established with the mountains for centuries. The disappearance of mountains would have disastrous ecological and anthropological consequences.

How to measure rain?

Ramón, grower of Cáñar, teaches us how to measure the amount of rain with a ‪pluviometer‬. This instrument serves to gather and measure the amount of liquid precipitation over a set period of time in ‪Cáñar‬  (Granada).

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