Blue Papers: Water & Heritage for Sustainable Development - 2023/1 (Blue Papers, 2023/1)

The biannual peer-reviewed journal Blue Papers explores the complex relationship between water, culture and heritage to assess lessons from the past, to protect heritage sites, to make use of water heritage and to contribute to the development of inclusive and sustainable future water systems. The past can help build a new platform for awareness of water and heritage, which involves shared methodologies and terminologies, policies and tools that bridge disparate fields and disciplines. To achieve this, we also need to rethink the role of water in the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Water is not fully captured in Goal 6: Ensure access to water and sanitation for all; it is also an integral and inseparable key to all SDGs that carry us forward to a more sustainable future.

All issues of the journal will be loosely based on themes that link to water, culture and heritage, including (but not limited to):

• Transcending the nature-culture divide;
• Tangible and intangible aspects;
• Integrated discourses and practices;
• Capacity building for holistic systems;
• Long-term (living) history perspectives for comprehensive understanding;
• Preservation, protection and reuse of water-related (living) heritage;
• Human and non-human stakeholders;
• New practices and rituals for water awareness and engagement;
• Strategies for inclusive sustainable development, including those drawing on heritage.