The Waalweg (irrigation channel) trails
The Waale – many kilometres of watercourses that have been cut into the earth or have been cut into the rocks using long pipes made of metal or wood – have been used for hundreds or thousands of years to water meadows and fields. Easy-to-walk trails run alongside these watercourses – the Waalweg trails.
Because of increases in population and the expansion of agriculturally-used areas, the farmers had to construct ever-longer and increasingly-ramified irrigation networks. This necessity arose in Vinschgau due to the aridity that occurs particularly in late spring and early summer, at the time when plants should be growing and developing their fruits. It is the geographic and climatic characteristics which forced the building of this sophisticated irrigation system: the Vinschgau is a longitudinal Alpine valley between the high mountain chains of the Ortler group in the south and the Ötztal Alps in the north. These mountains create a natural barrier for the heavy clouds which deposit their moisture on the flanks in the north and the south. At greater heights, the rain falls as snow, glaciers form there and become enormous water reservoirs. In the warm and dry seasons streams are fed from these, the streams from which the people then diverted water for the irrigation of farmland.
Because of increases in population and the expansion of agriculturally-used areas, the farmers had to construct ever-longer and increasingly-ramified irrigation networks. This necessity arose in Vinschgau due to the aridity that occurs particularly in late spring and early summer, at the time when plants should be growing and developing their fruits. It is the geographic and climatic characteristics which forced the building of this sophisticated irrigation system: the Vinschgau is a longitudinal Alpine valley between the high mountain chains of the Ortler group in the south and the Ötztal Alps in the north. These mountains create a natural barrier for the heavy clouds which deposit their moisture on the flanks in the north and the south. At greater heights, the rain falls as snow, glaciers form there and become enormous water reservoirs. In the warm and dry seasons streams are fed from these, the streams from which the people then diverted water for the irrigation of farmland.
