Las ampliaciones modernas en los regadíos históricos. Jovedat y Extremal de la Real Acequia de Moncada
[EN] We propose, based on the case study "the irrigation of the Royal Acequia of Moncada (RAM)" the most important one of the "huertas" surrounding Valencia, to focus on: the process of growth in irrigated area over time, the use of water resources and the role played by political and economic elites in leading the process. The human impact on the current irrigation RAM area would go back to the beginning of the Roman colonial presence in the second century BC and the founding of the city of Valencia, with rainfed crops based on the typical Mediterranean within a parcel division based on the typical Roman land although it left few traces on the territory. From the eighth century, the consolidation of a new social group formed by Arabized Berber Islamic clans will be a commitment to a change in the model farm. With irrigation they will seek to overcome limited climate and provide more consistent production for the dietary needs of the new ethno-social group. The first option of these clans would be the use of water resources from natural springs and around them the settlement process would begin with farms as productive core housing-mark which will be the preeminent form of occupation and territorial organization for several centuries. A space that would combine the presence set of spaces inhabited and cultivated with intermediate spaces dedicated to preservation, supply of raw materials and grazing. The second option would start in the late tenth century with the construction of the bypass channel of Turia river. It was an entirely designed and built channel with successive derivations where water would get continuous and proportional to each of the farmhouses exits. The third option, up to date, started in the thirteenth century after the process of military conquest, colonization and feudalization by the Catalan-Aragonese Christian Crown and opted for continuing increasing the social option of irrigated agriculture. Space with a concentration of housing that will decrease in number and increase in size will be ...
