History of the irrigated land. Mendoza’s Irrigation ditch, Argentina

Abstract

The water system of the present Metropolitan Area of Mendoza, fourth in importance and population of the Argentine Republic, goes back to the pre-Hispanic time. Its birth, consolidation and development made possible a culture of oasis organized on the base of the primitive system of channels, trenches and irrigation ditches inherited of the natives. Many Latin American cities also had a system of urban and rural irrigation ditch, but the urban drains were progressively replaced, so these irrigation ditches were conserved for the agricultural irrigation only in rural sectors. Mendoza developed by necessity, and with intelligence, a system of settling and productive with rigorous respect to the topography of the region and that has maintained its use and made it last until the present time. Its study of case is highly enlightening for its effectiveness like culture of oasis and its incidence in the conformation of the environmental, urban and rural landscape, of the territory of the present Mendoza.