A symposium at the American Academy in Rome in collaboration with the Enel Foundation.

Water is necessary for life, and controlling it for health, sustenance, and pleasure has often been used as a means of defining and shaping a culture. To provide an abundant and reliable supply of water has demonstrated both economic and political power throughout the ages. The most obvious displays tend to occur in urban areas, but water has also been critical for the development of rural areas for agriculture and for use as a power source. Water can also be a threat: floods can cause death and damage property, stagnant water can limit agricultural production and provide breeding grounds for disease. Even in areas where water is relatively abundant, lack of infrastructure can cause water scarcity for those who need it. Struggle for control of water resources has often manifested itself in the legal codes of various societies, which in turn can provide a lens into cultural priorities. Thus the management of water in both urban and rural contexts has been central in determining the framework in which the inhabitants flourish (or not). Using Rome and central Italy as our focus, we will touch on each of these issues: the role of the law in determining who has access to water, the use of water as a power source and a sign of power, the importance of infrastructure, the problem of water disasters, and the intersection of water control, economics and shaping society.

The conference is structured around a series of six papers and a panel discussion. The papers take a historical approach and deal with the way in which the control of water has shaped culture in Rome and central Italy from the Roman Empire to the twentieth century. Then using the past as a springboard to the future, the discussion panel will address current and future opportunities in water management, especially in the United States and Italy, and brainstorm on innovative ways of confronting them. Our hope is that by looking at the past we can frame the discussion about our future.



Speakers and topics include:


• Gregory Aldrete, “Floods in Ancient Rome: The Eternal City Goes Under”
• Cynthia Bannon, “Roman Water Law: Aims and Assessments”
• 
Kathryn L. Gleason, “Opulent Waters: Landscape Architectural Displays of Water Wealth in Ancient Rome”
• Katherine Rinne, “Trickle-Down Theory in Late-Renaissance and Baroque Rome
”
• Frank Snowden, “Fascism and the Pontine Marshes”
• Paolo Squatriti, “Water Management in Medieval Italy
”

The conference will conclude with a panel discussion on water management, climate change, and landscape design, followed by a lecture by Marion Weiss and Michael Manfredi, the 2019 Mercedes T. Bass Landscape Architects in Residence at the American Academy in Rome.

The event will be held in English.