In this illustrated work, the author shares with us the fruits of more than a quarter of careful observation of traditional knowledge and techniques applied to urban settlements and landscape resources management in all regions of the world.

The book introduces us to very sophisticated, thousand-year-old, capacities developed by local communities and civilizations around the world, amongst which water harvesting techniques, recycling of organic wastes and used waters for soil fertility conservation or, in more general terms, the ecosystem approach to town planning, are anything but new!

The volume is also the most convincing illustration of the fact that, whereas modern technological solutions rely on separation and specilialization and for most of the time imply the mobilization of external resources, traditional knowledge, which by its very nature applies the principle of integration and uses internal renewable inputs, has proved over time to be effective in the daily struggle of civilizations against adverse environments and, more recently, againts desertification.

Table of content:

1. The cycle of life
2. Hunter-Gatherers
3. Farmer-Breeders
4. Metal-using Agro-Pastoralists
5. Oases
6. Urban ecosystems
7. Water techniques and landscape building
8. The water crisis and the decline of the civilisations
9. Traditional knowledge for a new technological paradigm