Representation of ancient Delos hydrosystem operation

The objective of this dissertation is the representation of the function of the drinking water system of ancient city of Delos, the sacred island of god Apollo, which belongs to the island group of Cyclades in the Aegean sea. The water system under stydy constists of: • the rectangular reservoir of the Theatre, water capacity 405 m3, • the rectangular reservoir of Inopos, water capacity 405 m3 and • the natural reservoir of the Sacred Lake, water capacity 7000 m3. The Theatre reservoir drains the area of the Theatre constructed during the Hellinistic era. The Inopos reservoir is located in the river bed of Inopos torrent which drains a catchment area of approximately 20 hectares, starting from Kynthio hill. The Sacred Lake drains another catchment area of approximately 26 hectares at the northern part of the island The objectives of the representation, with acceptable level of credibility, are: • the estimation of the daily water demand that could be covered by this system, • the estimation of the use of this water demand by the local population • the estimation of the population that could by sustained by the particular water system. The first chapter is an introduction and presents the structure of the dissertation. The second chapter is a narration of the myths and the history of ancient Delos, the stages of its evolution and its decline. The third chapter includes a short report on the water availability and water supply on the island and the water resources which were supplying the water system. There is a detailed presentation of the 2 reservoirs and the Sacred Lake and their characteristics and calculations of the catchment area of each structure. In the forth chapter there is a presentation of the parameters and the assumptions on which the simulation of the water system is based, with emphasis on the analysis of whether data (rainfall, temperature, evapotranspiration) that were used in the model. It follows a detailed presentation of the model and how it functions with the use of simple mathematical equations. The fifth chapter presents the output data of the Delos water system model in charts and tables and the comments on these results. The sixth and last chapter summarizes the above methodology and comments on the results so as to understand the function of the water system of ancient Delos and to make an estimation on the population that could be sustained by this system.