Ancient Rome

Ancient Roman Aqueduct called Les Ferreres, which brought water to the city of Tarraco.
(Rome Across Europe, 2015)

The colonialism 'when in Rome do as the Romans' has never had more meaning than when referring to a modern society, as all other civilisations caught up to their technological expertise. The Romans worked on the theory of being able to build a city anywhere and moving the water to the city, instead of building a city around a water source which was a common method around this time. From early on it was clear to see that by embracing the Roman water movement methods, mankind was no longer bound to places close to a water source. The Romans were well ahead of their time in both the complexities of their cultural uses of water and their water moving techniques. This method produced many advantages for them, including a lesser spread of disease in major cities as waste was being transported out while fresh water was being brought in, making contamination of drinking water reduce significantly.

Geology Of The Area

The geology of Rome is relatively simple. The earliest rock exposed is the deposit of the receding Pliocene seas.  This process was interrupted around 700 thousand years ago when there was a burst of volcanic eruptions in the north and the south causing a layer of volcanic ash. This volcanism occurred for some time and finally concluded down to minor ash eruptions up until as late as 4000 years ago. Near the end of the volcanism, modern topography was formed due to fluvial erosion cutting through the soft volcanic ash deposits (Thomas, 1989).
The topography of Rome has been highly altered by man also. This is because of refuse and rubble infill and downcutting of higher elevations (Thomas, 1989). In other words, people have constructed the topography to suit their needs. This method is expensive in Rome and tends to have lesser foundation problems because of it (Thomas, 1989). 

How The Hydrosphere Was Influenced

In ancient times groundwater and water from the Tiber River were utilised for water management purposes. It became very polluted therefore the invention of aqueducts was essential to the growth of Rome.  They built aqueducts like the top picture of figure 2 to help bring a constant, reliable water source to their cities. What the figure leaves out, however, is that once the water reached the city, it would go into reservoirs where it would be treated by either mixing it with other water sources or putting it in settling ponds. These aqueducts would transport the water from karst environments, with the hopes of improving the quality of the water. Within the aqueducts, there were settling ponds where the sediment that was collected during the travel, could float down to the bottom and get separated from the water. Even with this process, most of the water from early aqueducts were dirty as hell but usually after massive rainfall events. This dirty water was not wasted, however, and used to be used for irrigational purposes and agriculture. It wasn't until emperor Caligula began the construction of the 38 mile Aqua Claudia and the Anio Novus, did the water quality improve to the point of mostly becoming a drinkable source (Crystalinks, 12/10/16). West of the Tiber, high-quality water was only supplied when emperor Trajan built the Aqua Traiana that transported water from around Lake Bracciano (Crystalinks, 12/10/16). By late 300 AD, Rome was being supplied by 11 aqueducts (Crystalinks, 12/10/16). 

What's interesting was the fact that the Tiber was primarily used for transporting goods in and out of Rome. It also meant that the Romans could build their city further away from the coastline, which reduced the odds of successful invasions and raids (Hansen, 12/10/16). The Romans had a lot of problems with the Tiber however. Floods produced by the Tiber eventually led the Romans to built embankments along the entire length of the river in the city. Not surprising, they went with this method instead of diverting the course of the river due to its simplicity and cost-effectiveness (Aldrete, 2007).

Figure 2: Picture of basic Roman Aqueduct structure
(Crystalinks, 12/10/16)

The Effect Of Ancient Rome On Modern Hydrology

In some places, parts of these ancient aqueducts are still in use while others can be visited as historical sites. There haven't really been too many effects of ancient Rome on modern Rome as they keep updating the infrastructure. This means they will have modern structures of aqueducts such as the bottom picture in figure 2 but the principles are all the same. They also have treatment plants to purify the water which has come from the advancement in technology and our understanding of microbes.
There have also been a few implications around ancient mining as there was a big trade market around the gold, silver and lead in Rome. The silver was mainly used for money, the lead was used for making bronze and for the construction of pipes, and the gold was used for jewellery and for trading  (Facts and Details, 2012). The mining had the effect of pollution, deforestation and the general erosion of the surrounding landscape. 

REFERENCES

Aldrete, G.S., 2007, 'Floods of the Tiber in Ancient Rome', The John's Hopkins University Press, 234-238.

Crystalinks, Ancient Roman Aqueducts, viewed: 12/10/2016, http://www.crystalinks.com/romeaqueducts.html

Facts and Details, 2012, Mining and Resources in Ancient Rome, viewed: 13/10/2016, http://factsanddetails.com/world/cat56/sub369/item2050.html

Hansen, R.D., Water And Wastewater Systems In Imperial Rome, viewed: 12/10/2016, http://www.waterhistory.org/histories/rome/

Rome Across Europe, 2015, Les Ferreres Aqueduct, viewed: 13/10/2016, http://www.romeacrosseurope.com/?paged=3&m=201512#sthash.a43yOqQd.dpbs

Thomas, R.G., 1989, 'Geology of Rome, Italy', GeoScienceWorld, DOI:10.2113/gseegeosci.xxvi.4.415

Bibliography and Recommended Reading

http://eeg.geoscienceworld.org/content/xxvi/4/415

https://books.google.co.nz/books?id=vL2ntMk7j-4C&pg=PA249&lpg=PA249&dq=what+implications+has+ancient+rome+had+on+modern+rome+hydrology&source=bl&ots=caP_tosgw3&sig=RRVQX9mXpcoJdOm2nAtUmrUuff0&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiTvMagxt3PAhWKHZQKHU9CDvgQ6AEIMDAD#v=onepage&q=what%20implications%20has%20ancient%20rome%20had%20on%20modern%20rome%20hydrology&f=false

http://history.columbia.edu/faculty/PDFs/Harris-deforestation%20--offprint.pdf

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305440314002623