Ancient Water Systems

Civil Engineering infrastructure such as water and waste water systems and transport networks is expensive, and its value to society stretches over many generations. There is no more striking example of this than some of the projects undertaken in ancient times: the Roman aqueducts serving Constantinople were built from the 2nd century onwards, and with various repairs and modifications, continued in use for a millennium, only becoming completely unusable sometime in the 12th century.

We are using modern engineering systems thinking to try and understand these ancient water networks: how they worked, how they were designed, how they were managed and repaired, with the ultimate aim of better explaining their value to society over a very long time and how this should contribute to our planning and design of major modern projects.

For more information and postgraduate opportunities, please contact Professor Martin Crapper.