*2.1. Aims of the Research*

The wider aim of this article is to contribute to enhancing the debate on the sustainable solutions for water management and the mitigation of climate change effect, based on the conservation and reuse of traditional systems also in urban environments. This will be achieved through a number of specific aims showing how the No-Ras qanat can become: 1. an important local and regional cultural and natural heritage; 2. a valuable economic resource; 3. an environmentally friendly system that could at least partially replace the existing polluting solution (i.e., dam and other modern infrastructures).

These can eventually contribute to meet specific SDGs, in particular, 11.4 (wider aim 1), 4 and 6 (wider aim 2) and 13 (wider aim 3). The wider aims will be achieved by applying the second stage of the methodological approach to rural landscapes, named "*Action criteria*" proposed by the ICOMOS-IFLA *Principles Concerning Rural Landscape as Heritage* [33].
