A platform for research: civil engineering, architecture and urbanism
A platform for research: civil engineering, architecture and urbanism
Water infrastructure is essential for the functioning of modern cities. This paper analyses conventional models of water infrastructure provision and emerging alternatives in order to identify points of reform and resistance in the relationship between people, technology and water in cities. It begins with a review of recent academic contributions to understanding the relationships between people, technology and nature in cities through the analysis of urban infrastructure. The work of Andrew Feenberg, a critical philosopher of technology, is presented as the basis for analysing both the technical and discursive elements of infrastructure. Feenberg's concept of ‘the technical code’ is used to synthesise key insights from the analysis of urban infrastructure and technology, to devise a series of critical categories for comparing changes currently underway in urban water infrastructure provision. This ‘technical discourse of water infrastructure’ is used to analyse developments in desalination, wastewater reuse, decentralised non-potable supply, domestic water efficiency, water sensitive urban design and ecological sanitation. Planners, designers and policy makers concerned about sustainability should be wary of the technical inevitability of desalination, potable recycling and other systems which reinstate conventional codes of domination and control of nature and separation of public concern from technical rationality. Decentralised water systems embody assumptions about the limits to water resources, but can also be problematic as high users of energy and reinforcing a private right to water. Improving the efficiency of domestic water using technologies and appliances is unarguably important in achieving sustainability. Moving beyond water efficiency to open up discussions about water using practices and cultural norms holds greater potential for transforming water consumption. Water Sensitive Urban Design is widely championed by designers and planners as exemplifying a sustainable approach to urban nature, ...
Water infrastructure is essential for the functioning of modern cities. This paper analyses conventional models of water infrastructure provision and emerging alternatives in order to identify points of reform and resistance in the relationship between people, technology and water in cities. It begins with a review of recent academic contributions to understanding the relationships between people, technology and nature in cities through the analysis of urban infrastructure. The work of Andrew Feenberg, a critical philosopher of technology, is presented as the basis for analysing both the technical and discursive elements of infrastructure. Feenberg's concept of ‘the technical code’ is used to synthesise key insights from the analysis of urban infrastructure and technology, to devise a series of critical categories for comparing changes currently underway in urban water infrastructure provision. This ‘technical discourse of water infrastructure’ is used to analyse developments in desalination, wastewater reuse, decentralised non-potable supply, domestic water efficiency, water sensitive urban design and ecological sanitation. Planners, designers and policy makers concerned about sustainability should be wary of the technical inevitability of desalination, potable recycling and other systems which reinstate conventional codes of domination and control of nature and separation of public concern from technical rationality. Decentralised water systems embody assumptions about the limits to water resources, but can also be problematic as high users of energy and reinforcing a private right to water. Improving the efficiency of domestic water using technologies and appliances is unarguably important in achieving sustainability. Moving beyond water efficiency to open up discussions about water using practices and cultural norms holds greater potential for transforming water consumption. Water Sensitive Urban Design is widely championed by designers and planners as exemplifying a sustainable approach to urban nature, ...
Renegotiating urban water
Bell, S (author)
2015-02-01
Progress in Planning , 96 pp. 1-28. (2015)
Article (Journal)
Electronic Resource
English
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