Research article A change in landscape: Lessons learned from abandonment of ancient Wari agricultural terraces in Southern Peru Ana C. Londo ~ no a, * , Patrick Ryan Williams b , Megan L. Hart c a Department of Earth Sciences, Lindenwood University, 209 S. Kingshighway, St. Charles, MO 63301, USA b Department of Anthropology, Field Museum of Natural History, 1400 S. Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, IL 60605, USA c Department of Civil and Mechanical Engineering, University of Missouri Kansas City, 5110 Rockhill Road, Kansas City, MO 64110, USA article info Article history: Received 2 July 2016 Received in revised form 2 January 2017 Accepted 6 January 2017 Available online 13 January 2017 Keywords: Peru Wari Terraces Erosion Resilience Sustainability abstract Ancient agricultural terrace practices have survived for millennia, sustaining populations through extreme climatic shifts and political regime changes. In arid regions with abrupt relief such as Southern Peru, agricultural terracing is undergoing a resurgence, as has seen revitalization of once abandoned terrace and hydraulic systems. Wari terraces at Cerro Baul provide clues to past cultural practices. They also document sustainable farming practices by using resilient land management techniques which can help combat desertification and degradation of arable lands. Three abandoned Wari terrace systems were mapped using microtopographic methods, the erosion patterns examined, the states of preservation compared, and then the design contrasted with modern terracing practices in the Moquegua Valley. In order to negate the harmful effects of desertification, rehabilitation and reconstruction of these terraces using ancient knowledge and techniques may be necessary. Rehabilitation must be conducted with consideration for preservation of cultural patrimony that may be encountered within the terrace treads or riser structures. With future climatic shifts impacting vulnerable dryland areas more than others, the ability to resiliently respond to these changes may be found in the lessons learned from ancient farming techniques such as the Wari. © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Abandoned agricultural terraces hold the key to understanding the cultural, environmental, and agricultural practices of ancient civilizations. In Southern Peru abandoned Wari agricultural ter- races are found in the Moquegua Valley, mostly on the western slopes of Cerro Baul (2200 m a.s.l.) and on the south slopes of Cerro Mejia (2250 m a.s.l.) (Fig. 1A). In order to understand the causes of abandonment of Wari terraces, analysis and exploration of the relic features is necessary. The arid environment, limited vegetative cover, and known original configuration or morphology make these abandoned terraces ideal for determining the causes and the rates of degradation of these once productive lands. Understanding these aspects of land management provides hints at how the Wari resiliently negotiated local and global climatic shifts and environ- mental changes. This study examines the ancient use of abandoned Wari agricultural terraces, the causes of abandonment, the current state of preservation, and examines how management of these terraces may impact current farming and land management techniques. Patterns of erosion are derived from detailed ground surveys and intensive three dimensional terrestrial laser scanning, basin anal- ysis, isochronology, and soil characterization. This Wari agricultural system was abandoned around 1000 AD. Abandonment may possibly be due to changing climatic conditions including droughts, flash flooding and landslide events due to increased precipitation, and the political collapse of the Wari colony that destroyed the labor organization mechanisms needed to maintain the intervalley canal and terrace systems it supported (Williams, 2002). Since these terrace systems required extensive and labor intensive maintenance, and the slopes on which they were located were prone to be highly unstable, especially in times of intense precip- itation, they were inherently vulnerable to climate shifts and hu- man labor availability (Williams et al., 2005). 2. Study area The agricultural systems in this study are located in the slopes of * Corresponding author. E-mail address: ana_cristinal@hotmail.com (A.C. Londo~ no). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Environmental Management journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jenvman http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2017.01.012 0301-4797/© 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Journal of Environmental Management 202 (2017) 532e542