The hydraulicspace of the Conca d'Oro of Palermo as a paradigm for the Mediterranean water sensitive city.

The hydraulic space of the Conca d'Oro of Palermo as a paradigm of the Mediterranean water sensitive city. This paper submit an analytical reading on gradens Traditional Agricutlural Landscape (TAL) of Conca d’Oro and, in wider terms, on Conca d’Oro landscape in light of the Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD) new paradigm. Orchards TAL architectures of Palermo periurban country it follows the arab conception of hydraulic space. Hydraulic space concept combines several technologies to achieve the best use of water resources by differentiating agricultural productions in time and space and by connecting differents functions ( hydraulic, energetic, climatic and aesthetic) in a homogeneous system also (Barbera, 2004). This conception of space extends to the whole Conca d’Oro from the countryside toward the heart of the historic town until the intimate domestic space. In the Norman age the Zisa source refreshes and embellished the interior to slide towards the gardens; inside Fawara-Maredolce lake “citrus fruits were smiling fish” as well as in the other agdal; and quanat supplying water to the old town. Wherever the water was the fundamental matrix also the systemic element underlies to the whole landscape design. Equally for the new emerging paradigm, management of the urban water cycle it is a higher-level element, superordinate and trasversal compared to all the processes of planning and design of urban areas. WSUD is a land planning and engineering design approach which integrates the urban water cycle, including stormwater, groundwater and wastewater management and water supply, into urban design to minimise environmental degradation and improve aesthetic and recreational appeal (Wong, Lloyd et al.). Today there are many aspects that make the Arab Norman Palermo a case study of precursive water sensitive city. Likewise there are many reasons to assume its landscape of citrus gardens as a reference device model for the Mediterranean environment. Mostly PAT of Mediterranean garden PAT, with his continuous flow of water chains through terraces, gebbie, vattali e saje (dialectal arabisms) can be taken as emblematic paradigm of aesthetic and perceptual WSUD instances. This discipline aims to bring tho the surface water that urban planning has hidden underground. WSUD wants to emphasize the water presence, alienated and hidden underground from urbanism integrating water in landscape projects that maximize the aesthetic aspects, games and recreational activities (Carlsson et al., 2003: Wong, Lloyd et al.)