Historic Water Mills as regenerative ecosystems: Integrating technologies, community engagement and sustainable landscape management

Abstract

Watermills are not merely icons of the past: when studied through integrated and interdisciplinary approaches, they reveal an unexpected potential for addressing contemporary challenges. This paper calls for a multidisciplinary review that consolidates the diverse studies and challenges associated with watermills, to study the interplay with their surrounding environments and waterways, alongside the social and cultural dimensions of their management—both tangible and intangible—and the implications of climate change.

The research systematically explores interconnected challenges, beginning with the environmental and riverine modifications caused by centuries of watermill activity, which shaped unique cultural landscapes, largely becoming relics due to the widespread replacement with electrically powered mills in more accessible urban areas. This transition has led to the physical degradation of watermills, rural depopulation, and the loss of traditional knowledge, skills, and crafts, ultimately weakening the resilience of these ecosystems. Gathering a range of case studies and over 20 new examples of watermill regeneration from different regions in Italy, the study demonstrates the significant social and environmental benefits of regenerating watermills, revitalizing rural areas, fostering sustainability, and mitigating the impacts of flooding and sedimentation, through innovative, sustainable and community-driven solutions. The projects supported through NextGenerationEU (NGEU) funds, private or shared initiatives, and community-driven efforts, illustrate how watermill regeneration extends beyond traditional food production, incorporating hydroelectric energy generation, cultural revitalization, and tourism development. By integrating heritage conservation with environmental and economic sustainability, these initiatives contribute to broader goals like the green transition, socio-economic revitalization in rural and remote areas, and sustainable development through cultural innovation.By defining watermill-based ecosystems and fluvial management community practices, this work highlights the necessity of advancing research on the cultural-natural relationship, promoting innovative and sustainable solutions against associated risks, rediscovering traditional knowledge, and fostering strategies to protect these assets from environmental and human-induced threats.