Imprints: the history of water management and canals in Piacenza, Italy

Urban History ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 188-207
Author(s):  
CHERYL BRADBEE
Keyword(s):  
Water Management ◽  
Political Ecology ◽  
Water System ◽  
Water Systems ◽  
The Political ◽  
Urban Water ◽  
Yield Information ◽  
History Of ◽  
The City

ABSTRACTThe political ecology of historical urban water systems can yield information on the long-term, social organization of resource infrastructure and its management. In this article, the water system of Piacenza, Italy, is examined through its history and the documents of the Congregazione sopra l'ornato, the committee in charge of water management in the city, under the Farnese dukes, from 1545 to 1736. The documents include letters from residents, responses and orders from the committee, tax documents and engineering reports. These records tell a story of a water system and its relationship to the city residents.

scholarly journals Parchedness, politics, and power: the state hydraulic in Yemen

2011 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 38 ◽  
Author(s):  
Scott Moore
Keyword(s):  
Water Management ◽  
Political Ecology ◽  
Development Strategy ◽  
Developmental State ◽  
Water Systems ◽  
Groundwater Depletion ◽  
The Political ◽  
Urban Water ◽  
Groundwater Abstraction ◽  
The Arab Spring

Historically, Yemen was noted for its sustainable, locally-adapted system of water management. Today, however, it faces one of the world's most acute shortages of water, driven chiefly by unsustainable rates of groundwater depletion. This article seeks to explain Yemen's present water crisis as the result of a political ecology dominated both by an expansionist Yemeni state and rural elites. By adopting intensive groundwater abstraction as a key development strategy, Yemen has produced an unsustainable basis for future economic and social development. The Yemeni case confirms both the importance of states and elites in the political ecology of water systems, and indicates that rural as well as urban water systems are characterized by patterns of exclusion and marginalization. As Yemen attempts to reap the fruits of the Arab Spring, it must adopt reform of its broken system of water management as one of its most pressing national objectives.Key Words: Yemen, groundwater depletion, developmental state, hydraulic civilization, water scarcity

The City in a Glass of Water: Circulating Water, Circulating Power

2004 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erik Swyngedouw
Keyword(s):  
Political Ecology ◽  
Hydrological Cycle ◽  
Urban Sustainability ◽  
The Political ◽  
Urban Water ◽  
Urbanization Process ◽  
Ecological Processes ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Ecological Criteria ◽  
The City

In recent years, an impressive body of work has emerged in the wake of the resurgence of the environmental question on the political agenda, addressing the environmental implications of urban change or issues related to urban sustainability (Haughton and Hunter 1994; Satterthwaite 1999). In many, if not all, of these cases, the environment is defined in terms of a set of ecological criteria pertaining to the physical milieu. Both urban sustainability and the environmental impacts of the urban process are primarily understood in terms of physical environmental conditions and characteristics. We start from a different position. As explored in Chapter 1, urban water circulation and the urban hydrosocial cycle are the vantage points from which the urbanization process will be analysed in this book. In this Chapter, a glass of water will be my symbolic and material entry point into an—admittedly somewhat sketchy—attempt to excavate the political ecology of the urbanization process. If I were to capture some urban water in a glass, retrace the networks that brought it there and follow Ariadne’s thread through the water, ‘I would pass with continuity from the local to the global, from the human to the nonhuman’ (Latour 1993: 121). These flows would narrate many interrelated tales: of social and political actors and the powerful socio-ecological processes that produce urban and regional spaces; of participation and exclusion; of rats and bankers; of water-borne disease and speculation in water industry related futures and options; of chemical, physical, and biological reactions and transformations; of the global hydrological cycle and global warming; of uneven geographical development; of the political lobbying and investment strategies of dam builders; of urban land developers; of the knowledge of engineers; of the passage from river to urban reservoir. In sum, my glass of water embodies multiple tales of the ‘city as a hybrid’. The rhizome of underground and surface water flows, of streams, pipes and networks is a powerful metaphor for processes that are both social and ecological (Kaïka and Swyngedouw 2000). Water is a ‘hybrid’ thing that captures and embodies processes that are simultaneously material, discursive, and symbolic.

Stochastic stress-testing approach for assessing resilience of urban water systems from source to tap

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dionysios Nikolopoulos ◽  
Panagiotis Kossieris ◽  
Christos Makropoulos
Keyword(s):  
Stress Testing ◽  
Water Cycle ◽  
Spatial Scales ◽  
Water System ◽  
Water Systems ◽  
Distribution Model ◽  
Generation Model ◽  
Urban Water ◽  
Urban Water Systems

<p>Urban water systems are designed with the goal of delivering their service for several decades.  The infrastructure will inevitably face long-term uncertainty in a multitude of parameters from the hydroclimatic and socioeconomic realms (e.g., climate change, limited supply of water in terms quantity and acceptable quality, population growth, shifting demand patterns, industrialization), as well as from the conceptual realm of the decision maker (e.g., changes in policy, system maintenance incentives, investment rate, expansion plans). Because urban water systems are overly complex, a holistic analysis involves the use of various models that individually pertain to a smaller sub-system and a variety of metrics to assess performance, whereas the analysis is accomplished at different temporal and spatial scales for each sub-system. In this work, we integrate a water resources management model with a water distribution model and a water demand generation model at smaller (household and district) scale, allowing us to simulate urban water systems “from source to tap”, covering the entire water cycle. We also couple a stochastic simulation module that supports the representation of uncertainty throughout the water cycle. The performance of the integrated system under long term uncertainty is assessed with the novel measure of system’s resilience i.e. the degree to which a water system continues to perform under progressively increasing disturbance. This evaluation is essentially a framework of systematic stress-testing, where the disturbance is described via stochastically changing parameters in an ensemble of scenarios that represent future world views. The framework is showcased through a synthesized case study of a medium-sized urban water system.</p><p><strong>Acknowledgement</strong></p><p>This research is carried out / funded in the context of the project “A resilience assessment framework for water supply infrastructure under long-term uncertainty: A Source-to-Tap methodology integrating state of the art computational tools” (MIS 5049174) under the call for proposals “Researchers' support with an emphasis on young researchers- 2nd Cycle”. The project is co-financed by Greece and the European Union (European Social Fund- ESF) by the Operational Programme Human Resources Development, Education and Lifelong Learning 2014-2020.”</p>

Receptivity to transformative change in the Dutch urban water management sector

2009 ◽  
Vol 60 (2) ◽  
pp. 311-320 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. E. de Graaf ◽  
R. J. Dahm ◽  
J. Icke ◽  
R. W. Goetgeluk ◽  
S. J. T. Jansen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Water Management ◽  
Water System ◽  
Water Systems ◽  
Management Policy ◽  
Urban Water ◽  
Transformative Change ◽  
Urban Water Management ◽  
Urban Water System ◽  
Urban Water Systems

Worldwide, the need for transformative change in urban water management is acknowledged by scientists and policy makers. The effects of climate change and developments such as urbanization, the European Water Framework Directive, and societal concerns about the sustainability of urban water system force the sector to adapt. In The Netherlands, a shift towards integration of spatial planning and water management can be observed. Despite major changes in water management policy and approach, changes in the physical urban water management infrastructure remain limited to incremental solutions and demonstration projects. Policy studies show that institutional factors and professional perceptions are important factors for application of innovations in urban water management. An online survey among Dutch urban water management professionals demonstrates that according to most respondents, optimization of the current system is sufficient to achieve both European and national objectives for sustainable urban water management. The respondents are most concerned with the effects of climate change on urban water systems. In contrast to current policy of the national government, priority factors that should be addressed to achieve a more sustainable urban water system are improving knowledge of local urban water systems, capacity building, developing trust between stakeholders, and improving involvement of elected officials and citizens.

scholarly journals SUSTAINABLE LAKE/SITU MANAGEMENT

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 79-91
Author(s):  
Andi Setyo Pambudi
Keyword(s):  
Rapid Development ◽  
Water System ◽  
Water Systems ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
Natural Disturbances ◽  
Urban Water ◽  
Medium Term ◽  
Surrounding Areas ◽  
The City

The increasingly advanced developmentnin the city of Bogor has an impact on the carrying capacity of the environment. One that is rarely in the spotlight is about the decreasing number of lakes in Bogor. In urb an areas such as Bogor City, local people refer to the lakes as situ or setu. The existence of these “Situ” affects the water system, both in this city and in the surrounding areas. Although “Situ” play a vital role in maintaining the balance of urban water systems, they have not received sufficient attention in the planning documents for the City of Bogor, both annual and medium-term documents. The rapid development of the city affects thequantity and quality of urban lake water in the city of Bogor. These “Situ continue to experience physical and ecological degradation which increases the threat to the health of the population of the city of Bogor. This situation shows that the site has not been managed and functioningnproperly. Human and natural disturbances such as encroachment, garbage disposal, and untreated waste have polluted “Situ” water and reduced its volume capacity. Most of the lakes in the city of Bogor experience disturbances in damaged environmental conditions. This paper seeks to examine th e condition of the “Situ” in Bogor City and its problems based on literature studies from previous researchers. The results of the research will provide recommendations based on scientific theories and existing regulations, both national regional regulations and regional regulations in Bogor City

scholarly journals Power, Nature, and the City. The Conquest of Water and the Political Ecology of Urbanization in Guayaquil, Ecuador: 1880–1990

1997 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 311-332 ◽  
Author(s):  
E Swyngedouw
Keyword(s):  
Political Ecology ◽  
Social Power ◽  
The Political ◽  
Water Control ◽  
Urbanization Process ◽  
Supply Condition ◽  
History Of ◽  
Political Economic ◽  
Relations Of Power ◽  
The City

In this paper, I seek to explore how the circulation of water is embedded in the political ecology of power, through which the urbanization process unfolds. I attempt to reconstruct the urbanization process as simultaneously a political-economic and ecological process. This will be discussed through the exploration of the history of the urbanization of water in Guayaquil, Ecuador. As approximately 36% of its two million inhabitants has no access to piped potable water, water becomes subject to an intense social struggle for control and/or access. Mechanisms of exclusion from and access to water, particularly in cities which have a problematic water-supply condition, lay bare how both the transformation of nature and the urbanization process are organized in and through mechanisms of social power. In order to unravel the relations of power that are inscribed in the way the urbanization of nature unfolded I document and analyze the historical geography of water control in the context of the political ecology of Guayaquil's urbanization. In short, Guayaquil's urbanization process is written from the perspective of the drive to urbanize and domesticate nature's water and the parallel necessity to push the ecological frontier outward as the city expands. I show how this political ecology of urbanization takes place through deeply exclusive and marginalizing processes that structure relations of access to and exclusion from access to nature's water.

Iranian Cities: Settlements and Water Management from Antiquity to the Islamic Period

2018 ◽  
Vol 16 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 39-76
Author(s):  
Rocco Rante
Keyword(s):  
Late Antiquity ◽  
The Political ◽  
Archaeological Research ◽  
Iranian Plateau ◽  
Islamic Period ◽  
History Of ◽  
The City ◽  
Early Islamic ◽  
Geomorphological Features

AbstractThis article attempts a long-term perspective on cities and water from Late Antiquity to the early Islamic centuries (until ca. 1000 CE). It focuses on the question of how cities and their agricultural hinterland were supplied with water. The topography of the site, its geomorphological features, are shown to influence both the setup and subsequent history of the cities. The article uses two sets of examples, one chosen from the Iranian plateau where qanāt irrigation predominates, and the other one from Persianate Central Asia (Transoxiana), where water is derived from larger and medium-sized rivers. The type of irrigation influences the ways in which the city grows, and more generally, the layout of the city is also determined by the water supply. Cities tend to grow towards the source of water, and it can also be observed that in many cases, the political and administrative centre is located where the best water is available. One of the major questions is whether imperial will was behind the construction of irrigation systems or whether local players such as landlords were the decisive factor.The article combines archaeological research and the study of textual sources but is mostly based on recent archaeological fieldwork.

Why England and not China and India? Water systems and the history of the Industrial Revolution

2010 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-50 ◽  
Author(s):  
Terje Tvedt
Keyword(s):  
Industrial Revolution ◽  
Water System ◽  
Water Systems ◽  
Trade Relations ◽  
The World ◽  
Long Time ◽  
History Of ◽  
Investment Capital ◽  
System Factor ◽  
Historical Accounts

AbstractGlobal history has centred for a long time on the comparative economic successes and failures of different parts of the world, most often European versus Asian regions. There is general agreement that the balance changed definitively in the latter part of the eighteenth century, when in continental Europe and England a transformation began that revolutionized the power relations of the world and brought an end to the dominance of agrarian civilization. However, there is still widespread debate over why Europe and England industrialized first, rather than Asia. This article will propose an explanation that will shed new light on Europe’s and England’s triumph, by showing that the ‘water system’ factor is a crucial piece missing in existing historical accounts of the Industrial Revolution. It is argued that this great transformation was not only about modernizing elites, investment capital, technological innovation, and unequal trade relations, but that a balanced, inclusive explanation also needs to consider similarities and differences in how countries and regions related to their particular water systems, and in how they could exploit them for transport and the production of power for machines.

scholarly journals Colonial Values and Asylum Care in Brazil: Reclaiming the Streets Through Carnival in Rio de Janeiro

2020 ◽  
pp. 155-161
Author(s):  
Julia Evangelista ◽  
William A. Fulford
Keyword(s):  
Local Community ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Colonial History ◽  
Self Confidence ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Mental Well Being ◽  
The City

AbstractThis chapter shows how carnival has been used to counter the impact of Brazil’s colonial history on its asylums and perceptions of madness. Colonisation of Brazil by Portugal in the nineteenth century led to a process of Europeanisation that was associated with dismissal of non-European customs and values as “mad” and sequestration of the poor from the streets into asylums. Bringing together the work of the two authors, the chapter describes through a case study how a carnival project, Loucura Suburbana (Suburban Madness), in which patients in both long- and short-term asylum care play leading roles, has enabled them to “reclaim the streets,” and re-establish their right to the city as valid producers of culture on their own terms. In the process, entrenched stigmas associated with having a history of mental illness in a local community are challenged, and sense of identity and self-confidence can be rebuilt, thus contributing to long-term improvements in mental well-being. Further illustrative materials are available including photographs and video clips.

scholarly journals SANITARY GUARDIANS IN PRE-REVOLUTIONARY RUSSIA

2021 ◽  
Vol 70 (1) ◽  
pp. 30-38
Author(s):  
Anna B. Agafonova ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Social Participation ◽  
Russian Empire ◽  
Local Authorities ◽  
City Community ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Russian Empire ◽  
The City ◽  
Public Oversight

The article describes the history of creation and activities of sanitary guardians in the cities of the Russian Empire. The study aims to identify organizational and social contradictions in guardianships’ activities, which hindered citizens from involvement in solving local sanitary problems. Boards of sanitary guardians were established by order of local authorities to involve the population in the fight against epidemics and conducting sanitary measures. The sanitary guardians’ activities consisted of timely notification of local authorities about the emergence of epidemics, participation in sanitary inspections of households, and conducting preventive conversations with homeowners about their compliance with public health and urban improvement regulations. The practice of citizens social participation in monitoring the urban area’s cleanliness was intended to level out the contradictions between homeowners and temporary doctors and sanitary executive commissions “alien” to the city community. Still, it often provoked conflicts between sanitary guardians and homeowners who defended the rights to inviolability of their property. In general, public oversight conducted by sanitary guardians has proven ineffective in the long term.

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