What lies behind domestic water use? : a review essay on the drivers of domestic water consumption

Water constitutes and essential flow for the reproduction of urban environments. However and differently than other essential flows such as energy, money or materials, water is essentially bounded to local or regional environments for direct uses. Water stressed urban environments (such those in Mediterranean areas) are prone to suffer water scarcity both due to physical variables but also to human and social factors. Thus, understanding which factors lay behind urban water consumption is critical both in theory terms and also in technical and policy related matters. While the economic and technical literature has paid a great deal of attention to the role of price and other socio-economic drivers, the present work reviews other types of research carried out in the field of domestic water consumption drivers, and highlights the potential contributions of studying territorial, demographic and cultural factors, all of them of great interest for Geography

Flujos de capital y flujos de agua : la industria textil y la privatización del suministro de agua en la ciudad de Sabadell durante la segunda mitad del siglo XX

El artículo aborda la historia del suministro de agua en la ciudad de Sabadell durante el s. XX y muy particularmente el proceso de privatización del servicio que culminó en 1949 con la creación de la compañía CASSA. El principal argumento teórico que sustenta la explica¬ción del desarrollo de este proceso es la estrecha relación existente entre agua y urbanización o, en otras palabras, entre el control de servicios básicos por parte de intereses privados y el crecimiento urbano. Así, hacia finales del s. XX, cuando el sector textil que había sustentado el desarrollo económico de Sabadell durante los decenios precedentes entra en crisis, una nueva actividad conformada alrededor del ciclo del agua permite ganar nuevos ámbitos de negocio para las élites de la ciudad. La empresa CASSA constituye un ejemplo más, por otra parte, del tránsito de Sabadell desde una fuerte vocación industrial hasta la actual ciudad especializada en servicios como la banca, las finanzas o el propio suministro de bienes básicos como el agua

Stakeholder perceptions of the socio-ecological role of nature-based solutions in the Les Glòries Park, Barcelona

Altres ajuts: acords transformatius de la UABThe ongoing effects of the climate emergency and the recognition of the need to redesign cities to cope with future socio-environmental changes and increase the quality of life of urban inhabitants has pushed many cities to embrace the 're-naturalization' of public space through Nature-based Solutions (NbS). Les Glòries park (Barcelona) is an ongoing massive urban transformation project that incorporates NbS as a multifunctional tool. It attempts to respond to complex environmental, social, and economic urban problems while at the same time mitigating and adapting to hazards, such as floods and droughts, both predicted to increase in the Mediterranean region due to climate change. While NbS are also expected to improve environmental quality, not much attention has been given to how those strategies would intersect with citizens' expectations and visions of public space and the uneven socio-environmental relations they can enforce. Through a case of urban development of a new large green area in Barcelona, this article aims to discern different perceptions by the local community and planners on the socio-ecological role of NbS and the implications this has for sustainable urban transitions. In-depth interviews were held with 25 key stakeholders and users, complemented by the analysis of secondary data from the town council of Barcelona about the perception of the space by residents living in the surrounding neighborhoods of the park. The results of this paper show that perceptions around NbS are strongly divided into three groups: the believers, the opposers and the skepticals. These results contribute to nuance NbS, as they do not provide universal benefits, neither for nature nor for society, and that they are subject to urban tensions derived from inequities, conflicts, tradeoffs, and particularly from divided visions of what the 're-naturalization' of cities should look like

Community involvement in the implementation of sustainable urban drainage systems (SUDSs) : the case of Bon pastor, Barcelona

The persistence of urban floods and the inability of aging sewage infrastructure to deal with stormwater make sustainable urban drainage systems (SUDSs) one of the emerging paradigms in urban water management, in which stormwater is no longer a hazard but a resource. Although most of the global research has been done on the technical aspects of SUDSs, their social impacts are not always taken into consideration. The neighborhood scale that characterizes SUDSs creates a different governance system-compared to the old structures of flood risk management-characterized by decentralization practices and where communities gain a better position of negotiation and new responsibilities. The objective of this research is to recognize how the diverse stakeholders involved in SUDSs interact with each other and to look into the different levels of understanding SUDSs as a new alternative of stormwater infrastructure. In order to accomplish this task, the paper introduces the case of the neighborhood of Bon Pastor (Barcelona, Spain), which has gone through urban transformations over the past years, promoting the development of SUDSs in 2012. Empirical evidence was obtained from 10 semi-structured interviews with government, technicians, social organizations, and local community citizens as well as revision of existing policy documents and grey literature on SUDSs and historical documents on the development of the neighborhood. The results show how active the community was during the design process and afterward, as sustainability gradually became one of the main topics in the neighborhood to be incorporated in new developments. However, it also unveiled several issues related to maintenance and the ambiguity of the term SUDS for the different stakeholders involved

Tap water, bottled water or in-home water treatment systems : Insights on household perceptions and choices

This article addresses household strategies for coping with perceived tap water quality issues. By using a household survey (n = 581) in Catalonia (Spain) and three models, this article analyses the drivers and motivations behind the installation of in-home water treatment systems, and the use of bottled water for drinking and cooking. The main explanatory factors of the higher consumption of bottled water were the perception of poor tap water quality, the lack of in-home treatment systems, and the presence of children at home. Income did not appear as a significant variable explaining the use of bottled water, unlike in other studies. The presence of in-home treatment systems is related to factors, such as perceived bad water quality, larger households, and single-family housing. Income and housing tenure appeared as explanatory variables only when considering systems requiring some kind of installation: lower incomes or renting a multi-family house reduce the probability of having an in-home water treatment that required installation because of important investments and operating costs, and the space needed in the housing units. In-house water treatment systems may become a solid alternative to bottled water when tap water raises problematic perceptions related to bad taste, odor, or lime presence

La regulació de la navegació comercial per mar en temps de guerra. L 'Ordinació de Pere III de 1356

The royal ordinances that regulated the commercial sea navigation, published in war times, both example of the commercial activity during these exceptional periods and prolongation of the organization of the war itself, were subject, both in its dictation and in its fulfillment, to a series of determining factors. These determining factors, related to the royal prerogatives but also to the rights and the necessities of the ones to whom its fulfillments will be demanded, will lead to constant modifications and adaptation amendments with political, social and economical implications. The Ordinance of 1356, up to now unpublished, and its attached documentation are a proof of that.[fr] Les ordonnances royales, qui régissaient la navigation commerciale maritime publiées en temps de guerre —exemple de l'activité commerciale dans ces périodes exceptionnelles en même temps qu'exemple de la suite de l'organisation propre à la guerre— étaient soumises aussi bien dans leur dictée que dans leur accomplissement à une série de conditions. Ces conditions, en rapport aussi bien avec les prérrogatives royales qu'avec les droits et les besoins de ceux qui devront les accomplir, conduiront à des modificacions et corrections constantes d'adéquation avec des implications politiques, sociales et économiques. L'Ordonnance de 1356, jusqu'à nos jours inédite, et sa documentation annexe en sont un échantillon