Abstract

It is the aim of this contribution to widen the perspective on urban water. Beyond the archaeological traces of water management related to towns, we need to take the ecological consequences of urbanisation into account. On the one hand, the urban infrastructure with water regulations, channels and sewers had direct consequences on the local hydrology; on the other hand, urbanisation had indirect consequences on the hydrology in more distant rural areas, too. These indirect consequences were probably a major factor of late medieval landscape changes, which were at the basis of the late medieval crisis. The article uses the situation in Southern Germany in order to sketch possible interrelations and demonstrate the perspective of human ecology.