Indigenous Landscape Urbanism: Sri Lanka’s reservoir and tank system

Indigenous Landscape Urbanism: Sri Lanka’s reservoir and tank system
Kelly Shannon and Samitha Manawadu

This is quite a long article. I will not make interpretation and critical reading but just put quotations (not in the same order like it was in the original article) from it.

The article will develop an argument that the term ‘landscape urbanism’ has actually been standard practice for several millennia in various parts of the world. The productive (agricultural), reflective (religious) and engineering (flood/drought control) aspects of the tank system [in Sri Lanka] were interdependent and worked hand-in-hand with urbanization. Much of the contemporary discourse on landscape urbanism-and the projects aligned with this emerging field-focus upon the challenges posed by post-industrial urban voids. At the same time, it is arguable that such projects are more landscape architecture-as opposed to landscape urbanism. Often, the urbanism component is lacking.

This paper will develop an argument that landscape urbanism-understood as structuring landscapes to guide their occupation, use and urbanization-is not new, but has been practice for several millennia. There are a number of ancient civilizations in which water resource management significantly structured urbanity.

…civilization based on rice implies a system of sophisticated hydraulic control, which in turn requires strict civic, social and political discipline (Spate and Learmonth 1967, Hanks 1972, Bray 1986).

Productive landscapes of the region were often closely related to sacred landscapes. …the endless search for harmony between earth, heaven and man led to the creation of sacred sites and cities within the landscape. Societies of the sacred city were structured in the image of a hierarchical cosmic order, and the distribution of power and the social structure were reflected in the gradation of social prestige from the centre of periphery.

[The article explored the water management system of some indigenous settlements; see page 7 column2 – page 9 column1]

Sri-Lanka’s physical geography, topography and climate combined to produce an historic need for large-scale irrigation networks. The southwest monsoon, affecting one quadrant of the island delivers 5,000 mm of precipitation each year and defines the country’s ‘Wet Zone’; in contrast, the northern and eastern plains receive rain only from the short, northeast winter monsoon and have a relatively low annual rainfall of less than 1,000 mm- the ‘Dry Zone’.

The country’s first planned settlements date from 1000BC located in the Dry Zone. Therefore, different methods were developed to address specific problems. [Historical explanation of this system during different rulers from pre-modern religion, Buddhist period, colonial, to post-colonial/independence see page 9-15]

Sri Lanka’s water management system… is valuable in the contemporary discourse on landscape urbanism….The marriage of an agricultural/irrigation system (a productive landscape) with a settlement structure (including a sacred/Buddhist landscape) is also evident in other parts of Sri Lanka where dispersed inland settlements …and denser coastal towns colonize prime sites such as beautiful bays and or river mouth.

A fundamental lesson from Sri Lanka…that the primary morphology of the landscape can be manipulated at the infrastructural level of reasoning. In contexts where there remains a will to plan landscape, urbanism can operate at the level of (infra)structural and strategic planning. …landscape urbanism is essentially rooted in a belief in the intelligence and power of place…Elia Zenghelis’ contemporary interpretation of uncovering existing logics of reality and finding the capacity of sites by distinguishing the junk from the potentials. In a landscape urbanism strategy, the site becomes the controlling instrument of the interface between culture and nature; site phenomena are generative devices for new forms and programmes. (ami)