Water & Cultural Heritage - WatCH consciousness

Climate change and the growing scarcity of water around the world made it increasingly urgent to reflect on the fundamental role of water sources, all the more so in Euro-Mediterranean countries, where historical identity is based on a constant relation with water. To focus on the importance of water, not only concerning its daily uses but also the multiple forms of cultural heritage related to it, was the fundamental aim of the European financed project Water Shapes, we coordinated during 2010-2012. The project's originality lies in having identified water as a cultural asset to be preserved and enhanced in its multiple aspects: from the architectural artefacts invented over centuries to respond to production, communication, leisure and aesthetic needs, to the settlement models that it has influenced, to the symbolic artefacts with which water is associated. The acknowledgment of the importance of this approach, on an international level and due to the urgent climatic changes, soon arrived in the ICOMOS program for 2011, which dedicated the annual International Days on Monuments and Sites to the theme: The Cultural Heritage of Water. The aim of this presentation is to illustrate the outcomes of the Water Shapes project and the initiatives of the Water & Cultural Heritage network, we promoted since 2014, while mentioning to the more recent events for policy and design of the Water and Heritage for the Future project promoted by ICOMOS Netherlands.