ДĀRAT AL-ΚAQR: HERITAGE MANAGEMENT PLAN reduction is still enormous. Potential improvements in water catchment and management are the following: • Restoration and modernisation of falaj networks will reduce water loss and allow for greater irrigated areas amplifying habitable space and productive lands as well as attract a greater number of visitors; • With modern techniques up to 100% of urban waste water can be recycled and re-used, again reducing dependence on fossil water sources.
9.3 Oasis Protection policies While the protection of the oasis lands does not fall within the immediate remit of this project it will be noted that, as already established in all previous heritage management documents on the Bāhla oasis (UNESCO, WS Atkins), here too it is emphasized that the preservation of the palm groves and agricultural land within the Sur is of absolute importance. At the current rate of urban expansion and green-zone destruction within the next 10-15 years there will not be a single palm tree standing. The most effective and sustainable strategy for the preservation of heritage is that of taking an educational approach through which one may instil the value of the architecture and traditional environments and avoid the necessity of future government involvement. This is, however, a long term solution and will therefore result in significant decay and destruction before taking root. It is therefore suggested here that the most immediate result will be achieved by creating and, above all, enforcing a comprehensive heritage protection legislation in the form of building regulations and development guidelines which protect the oasis environment and its vernacular architecture.
Without the creation and strict enforcement of these regulations no tourism industry will develop, the link with the past will be lost, and a gradual cultural decline will necessarily ensue in the oasis settlements as quality of life plummets and living standards follow. The effects of a failed heritage management practice, or lack of its implementation, have been observed in detail at locations such as Benidorm, Mexico City, Beijing, Ibiza, etc. In particular the destruction of green areas contributes substantially to the decrease in value of an urban area. Measures to be taken in the protection of the oasis environment are therefore necessary: • A moratorium on all construction within a set perimeter (buffer zone) containing land of agricultural value; • Provision of developed land for housing established outside the agricultural perimeter; • Restoration and gradual expansion of the falaj networks to re-irrigate previously abandoned areas; • Introduction of electronic water management technologies to reduce water loss and labour; • Introduction of advanced soil-preparation techniques to improve water retention and plant
Figure 9.6a,b,c Compressed Earth Block (CEB) design
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