A Study on the Autonomous Restoration of Waterscapes in Humid Asia through Indigenous Knowledge and Local Cultural Practices

Wet Asian aquatic landscapes, with their rich ecosystems and material culture, are today the focus of diverse efforts to maintain them, while large-scale development is making it increasingly difficult to maintain them at the local or village level. In a previous study on water landscapes in the region, the representative of this project found that customary knowledge and practices such as rituals and rites, in addition to social ties related to ecosystem management and livelihoods, play a role in maintaining ecosystems and landscapes, but the potential for their utilization in the future has not been fully explored. While analyzing development impacts on aquatic landscapes in a multilayered, multisided, and microscopic manner, this study will examine how intangible cultural elements of aquatic societies can be useful in an interdisciplinary manner in several societies in major river basins in Wet Asia. In the latter half of the research period, we will examine alternative and self-regenerative methods of the aquatic landscape, including the verification of the possibility of utilizing intangible culture, in aquatic societies while introducing speculative design in which residents proactively predict the future, and draw up a Wet Asia-style self-regenerative method for unique landscapes.