Amman- 22 October 2020
Professor Nizar Abu-Jaber, Director of the Center for the Study of Natural and Cultural Heritage (CSNACH) at the German Jordanian University (GJU), delivered a Webinar titled “Flood Control and Water Management in Nabatean Petra” on Monday, October 19, 2020.
This event was organized by the Jordanian Embassy in Japan and the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies of Japan (GRIPS) as part of their Seminar on water and disasters-learning from history program.
Professor Kenzo Hiroki of GRIPS moderated the event and introduced the speaker. Her Excellency Lina Ennab, Jordan’s Ambassador to Japan introduced the topic, emphasizing the richness of Jordan’s cultural heritage, and pointing out the importance and utility of learning from ancient technologies to solve modern problems.
Professor Abu-Jaber discussed the philosophy of GJU and CSNACH, pointing out its applied nature and desire to solve local problems using modern approaches and technologies in collaboration with local communities. He then discussed the natural setting of Petra and how this setting provides serious water management and flooding issues. He also discussed how the Nabateans managed these problems.
Finally, he presented the work that is currently being conducted to understand the hydrology as well as the ancient technologies used at the site, and how attempts are being made to utilize these new data and insights to mitigate the problem of flooding in Petra through the rehabilitation of the ancient flood control systems. This was followed by a question and answer session.
Students and faculty from GRIPS as well as from the Institute for Disaster Management and Reconstruction (IDMR) Sichuan University in Chengdu (China) attended the event as well as a large number of interested parties in Jordan and the Arab world. The attendance reached the maximum capacity of the platform of 100 attendees.
Meeting Recording Click Here