The necessity for societies to collect, maintain,
and distribute water safely and efficiently is
imperative, and is not an issue limited to contemporary
societies; archeologists have long recognized
the importance of water management and the role
that this has played in the rise and fall of complex
societies. Among the first of modern social scientists
to recognize the importance of water management
was Karl Wittfogel who identified the causal
role irrigation played in the development of complex
societies