Diriyah Global Seminar 2025: Sustaining Civilizations: Oases & Continuity of Heritage

Pietro Laureano and Claudio Margottini are chairing the Panel on Oasis Restoration at the Global Seminar 2025, held in Riyadh from 9 to 12 December 2025.

The safeguarding of an oasis is a complex undertaking that requires multidisciplinary expertise, a holistic approach, and aesthetic sensitivity. An oasis encompasses the landscape, the agro-system, architecture, and living spaces. Different types of oases exist depending on natural morphology, water-supply systems, historical role, and patterns of evolution. We can distinguish traditional, monumental, and archaeological oases; oasis-cities with all the challenges of planning and managing modern urban agglomerations; and innovative urban oases that integrate archaic features with advanced adaptive solutions. IPOGEA scpl — www.ipogea.org — through more than thirty years of research, conservation of oases, and recovery of traditional water-supply systems, has developed a classification of traditional techniques collected in a dedicated database (www.tkwb.org ), as well as an appropriate methodology aimed at identifying all the components of the oasis and uncovering their deeper meaning and role within the overall ecosystem. The goal is the refunctionalization of water systems, vegetation, and architecture, ensuring environmental protection, long-term economic sustainability, and aesthetic values. The strategy is guided by an adaptive methodology based on the participation and involvement of local communities. Within this perspective, the UNESCO initiative Future Oases is being developed. It is based on the understanding that the oasis—conceived as the union of agriculture and settlement—requires all the necessary adjustments to function as a productive and livable system. While the initiative primarily concerns arid regions, and especially the Arab world, it has global relevance. In the face of climate-change challenges, the integration of nature and architecture—embodied in the concept of the urban oasis—defines a new model for creating harmonious and sustainable habitats, offering a green strategy for regenerating cities.