Water
Urban water is a cycle the city broke: it is brought from far away, used once, discarded through the sewer and ignored when it falls from the sky. Rivers were culverted, wetlands filled. Restoring the cycle —capturing, infiltrating, reusing, uncovering— is now one of the axes of climate planning.
Karen Bakker studied water privatisation and governance; daylighting projects return buried rivers to the surface, like Seoul's Cheonggyecheon (2005). Scarcity, meanwhile, is no longer only a Global South problem: Cape Town approached day zero in 2018 and Barcelona rationed in 2024.
Videos on this term (12)
- Housing
Mike Davis: Risk Is Not Natural but a Construct of Power
Mike Davis argued that urban disasters are built before the emergency through segregation, speculation and unequal…
Mike Davis 3 min read - Urban ecology
Water, a Resource Not Everyone Can Enjoy Equally
Who runs out of water first is decided by leaks, planning and distribution, not the climate. Cape Town's Day Zero.…
3 min read - Climate change
Shade in Extreme Heat: A Divisive Privilege and an Urban Right
Shade is survival infrastructure distributed unequally: redlined neighbourhoods are hotter, awnings are cut as…
3 min read - Climate change
David Simon and Resilient Cities in the Global South
David Simon studies how Global South cities adapt to climate change with informality and few resources.
David Simon 3 min read - Infrastructure
Urban Infrastructure, Power and Inclusion: Star and Larkin Explained
Urban infrastructure decides who belongs to the city. What Susan Leigh Star and Brian Larkin propose, Graham and…
3 min read - Urban ecology
City of Flows by Maria Kaika: The City and Its Invisible Flows
City of Flows (2005) by Maria Kaika shows how the modern city domesticated nature and hid its flows of water and…
Maria Kaika 3 min read - Urban ecology
Right to Water and Environmental Justice: Swyngedouw and Davis
The right to water, recognised by the UN in 2010, is contested in the city. What Erik Swyngedouw and Mike Davis…
3 min read - Urban geopolitics
Forced Displacement in the Global South: A Growing Urban Crisis
Forced displacement in Global South cities grows through development, violence and climate. What Mike Davis and…
3 min read - Urban psychology
Urban Public Health: Policies for Healthier and Fairer Cities
Urban public health policies decide air, water, housing and transport. What David Satterthwaite and Julian Agyeman…
2 min read - Urban ecology
Liquid Power by Erik Swyngedouw: Water, Power and Modernisation
Liquid Power (2015) by Erik Swyngedouw explains how dams, transfers and irrigation were the instrument of power…
Erik Swyngedouw 3 min read - Housing
Planet of Slums by Mike Davis: The Global Urban Crisis Explained
Planet of Slums (2006) by Mike Davis explains why more than a billion people live in informal settlements and which…
Mike Davis 3 min read - Urban ecology
Water and Power: Urban Water per Swyngedouw, Kaika and Bakker
Water management in cities decides who gets water, at what price and who suffers droughts and floods. What Erik…
3 min read
