Research Highlights


What was the role of rainfall in the demise of the ancient Maya civilisation? Mathematical models that link water and society can help us understand the past - and give insight into our own future.


The ancient Maya were a flourishing advanced society, but their population peaked around AD800 and then rapidly decreased. Large and well established cities were abandoned. There remains much debate about what caused this population collapse. Climate change that led to drought could be one reason. To explore this theory, Linda Kuil developed a mathematical model that couples rainfall, construction of water reservoirs, food availability and population. Mathematical interrelationships between food availability, birth rate, awareness to water scarcity and the capacity to build storage reservoirs were established. The model simulations, using estimates of rainfall data from the ancient Maya period, show how the reservoirs that the Maya built to cope with water scarcity, »More