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Nº 61, enero - junio de 2014, pp. 17
-
38. Investigaciones Geográficas
ISSN: 0213
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4691. eISSN: 1989
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9890. Instituto Interuniversitario de Geografía
DOI: 10.14198/INGEO2014.61.02 Universidad de Alicante
Fecha de recepción: 23 de noviembre de 2013. Fecha de aceptación: 14 de enero de 2014.
EXPLORING THE URBAN HYDROSOCIAL CYCLE IN TOURIST
ENVIRONMENTS
1
Elena Ridolfi
Departament of Geography, Barcelona,
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain.
ABSTRACT
This contribution attempts to examine first how different theoretical and methodological perspectives
from Geography and environmental sciences explore water flows and their physical and social dimensions
in the city, as well as their changes in response to the emerging urban complexities and challenges. Using
in particular the framework provided by Urban Political Ecology, I look at how the physical and social
dimensions of water flows unfold and influence the urbanization process and, in turn, are influenced
by urbanization. In the second part, attention is paid to urban coastal areas of the Mediterranean as
candidate laboratories of analysis under urban political ecology since they are subject to rapid processes of
social environmental change in which water plays a fundamental part. Case studies included to examine
physical and social dimensions of water flows include heritage towns (Venice) and mass tourism resorts
(Benidorm).
Keywords: Hydrosocial cycle, water, governance, Urban Political Ecology, tourism, Mediterranean
region.
RESUMEN
Explorando el ciclo urbano hidrosocial en entornos turísticos
Esta contribución intenta examinar primero cómo diferentes perspectivas teóricas y metodológicas
de la geografía y las ciencias ambientales exploran los flujos de agua en sus dimensiones física y social en
la ciudad, así como sus modificaciones, en respuesta a las complejidades y desafíos urbanos emergentes. A
través del marco establecido por la disciplina de la Ecología Política Urbana, miro cómo las dimensiones
físicas y sociales de los flujos de agua se desarrollan e influyen en el proceso de urbanización y, a su vez, se
ven influenciada por la urbanización. En la segunda parte, se presta atención a las zonas urbanas costeras
del Mediterráneo como laboratorios candidatos de análisis en el marco de ecología política urbana, ya
que están sujetas a rápidos procesos de cambio social y ambiental en el que el agua juega un papel
fundamental. Los estudios de caso incluidos para examinar las dimensiones físicas y sociales de los flujos
de agua incluyen la ciudad cultural de Venecia y el destino turístico de masas de Benidorm.
Palabras clave: Ciclo hydrosocial, agua, gobernanza, Urban Political Ecology, turismo, región Medi-
terránea.
1 This work is the result of a preliminary research conducted for the preparation of a PhD’s thesis in Geography, Spatial Planning and Public
Policies; supported by the PhD scholarship, number FI_B 00773, of the Agency for Management of University and Research Grants of
Catalonia (AGAUR), the Comisionado para Universidades e Investigación (CUR), the Departamento de Innovación, Universidades y
Empresa (DIUE) and the European Social Fund.
An earlier version of this paper was presented to the GRATS Research Seminar in the section “Physical and social flows of urban water in
the Mediterranean: from past to present” held at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain, on 10-11 June, 2013.
Contacto: elena.ridolfi.ueir@gmail.com
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Elena Ridolfi
Investigaciones Geográficas, nº 61, pp. 17 - 38.
1. INTRODUCTION
Water remains a vital flow for the formation, growth and development of every urban settlement (UN-
HABITAT, 2011). It is considered part of the complex web of relations between society and nature (Gandy,
1997) and one medium of social relations (Linton, 2010) through which urbanization will progress,
thrive or decline (UN-HABITAT, 2011).
In coastal cities, possibly the most urbanized and populated areas around the world, water has
played, and continues to play, an important role in determining urban expansion and transformation
and sustaining the functions which depend on these trends. Tourism, one of the most growing global
economic sectors, already represents a fundamental economic strategy of urban development for many
of these cities that tends to diversity and specialize. Several western coastal cities have transformed
themselves into important tourist destinations, with new urban patterns and tourist models. As tourism
and others global forces of socio-environmental change are increasingly taking place in cities, new urban
developments to accommodate people, activities and infrastructures will be needed. These developments
will generate new urban configurations or will adapt themselves through new functions. The tapping of
new water resources or the increased use of existing ones are key elements to sustain such needs. However,
as Page and Hall (2003) have noted the scale, complexity and diversity of consumption characterizing
these new urban configurations are leading to a growing concern with regard to actual and potential
pressures on existing social and natural resources such as water. In this regard Gössling et al. (2012)
argue that although direct tourism-related urban water use will not become significant even if the sector
continues to grow, the situation may differ at regional level because tourism is concentrated in time and
space, and often in destinations where water resources may be limited. This is particularly the case of
many cities of the Mediterranean region where water is «a vital resource» but also «increasingly scarce
and limited» (UNEP/MAP-Plan Bleu, 2009). Here tourism attracts a large concentration of visitors and
is already the most important economic sector (UNWTO, 2012). It in large part influences urbanization
and new urban forms and amenities (e.g. swimming pools, golf courses) which are highly dependent
on water resources and that would be unavailable without it (Rico-Amoros et al., 2009; Gössling, 2006,
2012). Physical and social factors are therefore raising special concerns regarding new uses, production,
practices, management and control of urban water flows which are intensifying and posing major
challenges of governance in the Mediterranean region, and elsewhere.
The main task of this paper is to explore the characteristics of water flows in coastal cities, increasingly
specialized and diversified by tourism. For a long time, as the paper outlines below, flows of water have
been discussed and treated from a physical perspective. First they were represented and conceptualized
by scientists and engineers through the ‘hydrologic cycle’; a diagram tracing and explaining the process
of natural water flow and its circulation in the environment. Then, through the «urban»
- «hydrological
cycle», also called «urban water cycle» the integration between «the natural and managed pathway
that water follows in an urban ecosystem» (PAP/RAC, 2007) was sought after. This interaction was
conceptualized by observing the increasing relationships between water and urban areas, in order to
ensure water services to the urban population and to cope with emerging urban water-related problems
(UNESCO, 2006:3). Nevertheless, in the last decades, as rapid processes of global socio-environmental
changes have made the urban system more complex, social scientists have observed that physical
approaches and models of water management, have led towards a fundamental separation between the
nature of water and its social context. Therefore, it was no longer sufficient to deal with present and future
urban water challenges. From the social sciences came the idea that water in urban environment is not
just a physical entity or a quantification matter, but rather a social issue (Linton, 2010). Geographers, in
particular, have critically focused on the «socio-ecological nature of water». On the one hand, questions
have been raised attempting to address the problems of water in the environment and in urban systems.
On the other hand, the concept of «hydrosocial cycle», which incorporates newer approaches drawn
from water political ecology and social studies of science, has been adopted (Budds, 2008, 2009; Kaika,
2005; Linton, 2008, 2010; Swyngedouw, 2004). From this perspective the hydrosocial cycle is defined
as «the sum of the human and physical interrelationships pertaining to water in cities» (Keil and Young,
2001:1), attempting to show how the social, political, cultural, and economic systems govern the flow
of water through societies (see for example: Swyngedouw 2004, 2005; Bakker 2002; Swyngedouw et al.,
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Investigaciones Geográficas, nº 61, pp. 17 - 38.
Exploring the urban hydrosocial cycle in tourist environments
2002). In practice, the study of the hydrosocial cycle in urban areas involves a «big picture» «tracing the
flow of water and examining the physical and socio-political discourses surrounding it, to illuminate
the functioning of urban space in all its complexity and contradictions» (Gandy, 1997:339). While
much research on water has been conducted from a physical perspective, recently a growing number of
contributions have tended to analyze its social dimensions. As this paper will attempt to show, practical
applications of hydrosocial cycle concept on case studies selected worldwide are emerging. The review
of these cases reveal that the concept remains in theoretical and practical terms, not fully defined, and is
likely to become case dependent (Bardati, 2009; Fonstad, 2013). Furthermore, the variety of approaches
and methods can also bewilder water researchers and practitioners (Fonstad, 2013). However, new
dialectical discourses and representations of the hydrosocial cycle open new windows to scrutinize water
politics and governance. Starting from these premises, this paper asks how the concept of hydrosocial
cycle may help to analyze, trace and assess physical and social water flows and their governance in tourist
coastal cities.
After framing the co-evolving relations between water and urbanism, their complexity and new
challenges for governance, the first objective of this paper is to review the development of the hydrosocial
cycle concept largely through academic research and previously published studies. This part endeavors to
elucidate what we know about this concept and how it continues to change over time.
Second, the paper reflects how and to what extent this concept could be extended to hydrosocial
cycle in urban tourist contexts. The cases of Venice (Italy) and Benidorm (Spain) are briefly presented in
this respect as paradigmatic tourist coastal cities of the Mediterranean and very relevant to investigate the
specific applicability of this concept.
The paper concludes by stressing the main results that have emerged from this study, and the potential
to extend the hydrosocial cycle to urban tourist cities for further new ideas and representations of water
governance in tourist urban areas.
2. WATER AND URBANISM: CO-EVOLVING RELATIONS, COMPLEXITY AND NEW
GOVERNANCE CHALLENGES
«It is the interaction between these two ecosystems (water and the city) that is both complex and fascinating.»
Timmerman and White (1997)
Since ancient times water and urban environments have co-evolved continuously through complex
interrelationships that are temporally contingent, spatially variable, and shifting through nonlinear
processes and rates, giving rise to new urban and resource configurations. In recent centuries such
interrelationships have intensified significantly becoming closely interlinked since urban communities
have become even more dependent on water: first for the satisfaction of their basic needs and then for
the increase in the large scale production and consumption of water-based goods and services (Castro,
2013). According to the latest World Water Development Report (UNESCO-WWAP, 2012) as the world’s
population is growing by about 80 million people a year, freshwater demand is increasing accordingly:
about 70 percent of the world’s water is used for irrigation, 20 percent for industry, and about 10 percent
for domestic use, including new economic sectors like tourism. In the last century world water use has
increased by six times, and between 1900 and 1995 at global level, the increase has more than doubled
the rate of population growth. At the same time, urbanization and globalization process have been
accompanied by profound changes in socio-political and cultural systems, economic power, environmental
contexts, and by the development of several forms of social interaction at all levels (Goudsblom, 1992; De
Vries and Goudsblom, 2002). Cities, more than rural areas, have captured all these changes and also the
socioenvironmental problems associated (UN-Habitat, 2012).
According to the Final Report of the United Nations Human Settlements on water and urbanization (UN-
Habitat, 2011) in a rapidly changing and urbanizing world, the dimension of water has become complex.
Although the term «complexity» seems a recent feature of contemporary cities, Batty and Marshall (2012)
highlight that urban complexity was observed already in the past by different social scholars. Geddes,
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Investigaciones Geográficas, nº 61, pp. 17 - 38.
for example, one of the first town planner pioneers that dealt with urban complexity, noted that «towns
or cities are a mixture of urban elements that grew out in a complex web of causes and effects and its
interrelated parts interwoven throughout time» (Batty and Marshall, 2012: 24). Van der Brugge et al.
(2007) argue that complexity about water problems is generated by the economic, ecological and social
functions of water; and because water differs in time, place and manifestations, represents multiple values,
is characterized by different forms (e.g. rainwater, groundwater, surface water, sea water) that manifest in
different issues (e.g. water scarcity, and the alteration of the hydrological cycle). These authors argue that
water problems are deeply rooted in the new types of societal structures and institutions characterized by
significant complexity, uncertainty, and the high stakes for the wider diversity of stakeholders involved.
They also add that the complexity of the interactions of broad societal trends (characterized by significant
complex societal interactions, structures and institutions) and physical (natural) processes lead to
problems of management and governance of water. In this regard, Castro (2013) and Peña García (2007)
note how human societies have established different forms of control over water to govern, allocate and
manage this resource and political and economical decisions also have determined social relations with
water. Norman et al. (2012) state that the complex interconnections of human-environmental issues,
and more specifically the complex nature of flow resources such as water, continue to complicate and
challenge current governance systems. In this connection, all the talk about the «water crisis», of the last
decade, has been recognized as a «crisis of governance» (GWP, 2000), for the lack of proper consideration
of the social, cultural, economic, environmental and political dimensions in which water is embedded
(Rogers and Hall, 2003).
However, new recognitions about the social dimension of water are emerging and opening new per-
spectives to beyond physical issue. For instance, the UNESCO’s Third World Water Report (2009) has em-
phasized how «alongside the natural forces are the actors who make or influence broad socioeconomic
policies that affect water». This report also argues that the cycle of water begins with the interaction of
political-process actors – government, civil society and business – deciding on socio-economic develop-
ment and formulating policy and operational decisions influencing the water circulation in the society
(UNESCO–WWAP, 2009).
The next section attempts to show how in the last decade, scholars in geography and environmental
science have endeavored to conceptualize, theorize and represent these issues concerning the complex
co-evolutionary relationship between water and urban society bringing to light the nature and multiple
dimensions of water and the new challenges of governance through the concept of the hydrosocial cycle.
3. DEVELOPMENT OF THE CONCEPT OF HYDROSOCIAL CYCLE: THE LONG JOURNEY OF
WATER FLOWS THROUGH DISCOURSES AND REPRESENTATIONS
3.1. The Hydrological cycle
Since ancient times water, flowing and forming part of humankind and its surrounding environment,
has always stimulated in people and civilizations interest and questions about its nature and the way in
which it circulates on Earth. It has also become one of the central areas of interest in the discipline of
Geography since its foundation (Fonstad, 2013).
Linton (2008; 2010) explains how the need to understand the functioning of water for basic human
needs and the provision of water supply has offered a variety of observations, explanations, hypotheses,
representations and visions from the antiquity to the present. Until the seventeenth century, when the
first ideas concerning the circulation of water and its cycle were developed, water was recognized as the
«blood of the Earth» and its flow was considered a subterranean, natural, divine, spiritual and theological
affair (e.g. Tuan, 1968). The first theories were based on observations of rainfall and river flow in the
Seine basin, and on the idea of evaporation from the Mediterranean simulated by Edmond Halley (Goudie,
2000) (Figure 1).
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Exploring the urban hydrosocial cycle in tourist environments
Figure 1. The subterranean flow of water Athanasius Kircher ca. 1664
Source: Adams (1938: 437) In Linton (2008)
In time, these ideas and theories have evolved and have brought hydrologists to conceptualize water
as a physical substance (H
2
O), governed by the so-called «hydrological cycle», a concept explaining the
«continuous circulation of water through the ocean, land surfaces, water bodies and atmosphere at a variety
of geographical scales» (e.g. Jones, 1997), and «fuelled by solar energy, driven by gravity and proceeds
endlessly in the presence or absence of human activity.» (Maidment,1993). The development of this term
«hydrological cycle» (United States 1931) and the diagrammatic form by which it is typically represented
has become the most important concept in the hydrology science by conceptualizing water behaviour in
a consistent, uniform and rational manner. In the United States, in the 1930s, it was adapted to the needs
of the state planning agencies to sustain the largest program of fluvial transformation ever undertaken, for
the purposes of accounting and controlling water flows; promoting the coordination of national resource
conservation and development, and for rationalizing and centralizing water planning. Karen Bakker and
others have described this way to use the hydrological cycle as a means to guarantee water supply by the
State or, in other words, the «state-hydraulic paradigm». As Linton and others have observed, from its
conception, the «hydrologic cycle» has produced «scientific» ways of knowing and representing water, but
at the same time, it artificially abstracted water from its social, cultural, religious and ecological contexts,
reducing it to a single substance H
2
O, suitable for technical applications (Figure 2).
Figure 2. The Horton’s hydrologic cycle
Source: Horton (1931: 193) In Linton (2008)
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Elena Ridolfi
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This abstraction that Linton (2010) calls «modern water paradigm» helped to underpin the
hydrologic cycle discourse with human intervention and development needs. In the Western United
States such discourse, justified by the aridity issue, was responsible for from the mid-1930s to the mid-
1960s, thousands of dams and reservoirs that were built turning and managing every major river by the
federal government (Figure 3).
Figure 3. The hydrologic cycle adapted for dams and reservoirs
Source: National Research Council (1991, 18) In Linton (2008)
The hydrologic cycle started to be used as a tool of control, management and planning of water
resources in different ways and for different socio-environmental interests as well as according to spe-
cific historical and geographical circumstances (Linton, 2008:630). In this connection, the hydrological
framework has been central in many environmental analyses so far, from hydrological water balances
(Thornthwaite and Mather, 1955) to the characterization of hazards and risks for humans and waters-
capes (White, 1945). Much of these analyses has focused particularly on the hydrological cycle and its
influence on climate and global warming (e.g. Ohmura and Wild, 2002; Held and Soden, 2006; Oki and
Kanae, 2006; Rind et al., 1992). Mariotti et al. (2002) for example, analyzed the hydrological cycle and
its implications for climate variation in the Mediterranean region.
Although hydrologists and physical scientists consider the study of the hydrological cycle fundamental
for the knowledge of water flows, many social scientists state that it’s cyclical representation establishes
a norm at odds with the many different environmental and social contexts regarding social experiences
with water (e.g. Linton, 2008).
3.2. The hydrological cycle in urban environments
Discussion about the hydrological cycle has increased significantly in the last decades with the devel-
opment of urban phenomena. It was observed how the hydrologic cycle was becoming more complex in
urban areas because of the many anthropogenic influences and interventions (McPherson and Schneider,
1974; Brilly et al., 2006). As a consequence, the resulting «urban» and «hydrological cycle» were then
called «urban water cycle» (UWC) (figure 4).
The term «urban water cycle» has been defined as «the natural and managed pathway that water
follows in an urban ecosystem, that includes the hydrological cycle and artificial systems to support
human life and economic activities, health, hygiene, safety, recreation and amenities» (UNESCO, 2006).
In practice, it encompasses the quantification of inputs, consumption and outputs of water flows in an
urban region (UNEP-MAP, 2007). Since then, the hydrological cycle framework has incorporated the
urban social dimension leading to the development of the science of urban hydrology. Urban water cycle
analysis has been, and is still considered particularly important for urban planning (i.e., providing water
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Exploring the urban hydrosocial cycle in tourist environments
services to growing populations) for identifying problems associated with urbanization (Lee et al., 2010)
and for coping with urban water challenges as well as global environmental change (Fletcher, 2013). This
concept has put together the interdependence of urban water resources and human activities, and the
need for integrated management. In this connection, the concept of total urban water cycle management
was introduced in Australia and defined as the collective consideration of the water supply, storm water,
waste water and ground water components of urban water service. Components of a total water cycle
within urban water management include: (a) re-use of treated waste water, (b) integrated storm water,
groundwater, water supply and waste water management, and (c) water conservation approach through
reduced water demand and recycling provision (Mitchell, 2006).
Figure 4. The urban water cycle
Source: UNESCO-IHP-VI (2006)
3.3. The integrated urban water cycle
The understanding of all water flows and balances is essential for an integrated management of urban
water. For these reasons the Integrated Management of Urban Water (IWRM) has become an empirical
concept which promotes the co-ordinated development and management of water, land and related resources
2
. In
this regard, many efforts have been made, some of which have been addressed to the Mediterranean basin.
In 1997 the Regional Activity Centre for the Priority Actions Programme of the UNEP’s Mediterranean
Action Plan acknowledged coastal water resources as a priority issue, because a large part of the basin was
already experiencing water scarcity due to the rapid population growth, urbanization processes and mass
tourism. In the attempt «to support an integrated approach to water resources planning and management»
the hydrologic cycle representation was adapted to the Mediterranean coastal cities (Figure5) «to integrate
the relevant knowledge in the physical and social sciences and to create a theoretical and practical basis»
(PAP/RAC, 1997).
Despite this attempt, water problems have become more persistent due to a scant attention of the
land, sea, river basin and coastal zones interface in the context of resource management. Additionally,
as international and European institutions, agencies and several programs, activities and directives such
as the European Water Framework Directive (2000) covered only distinct parts and issues important to
the urban water cycle, new guidelines have been provided to address this gap through the integrated
framework called Integrated Urban Water System Management in a Coastal Area (IWSMCA) to promote
2 The IWRM is a concept widely accepted and defined by the Global Water Partnership. Initially, many parts of the concept were
identified during the first global water conference in Mar del Plata in 1977. After Agenda 21 and the World Summit on Sustainable
Development in 1992 in Rio the concept was extended in practice.
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the coordinated planning, development and management of water, land and related physical and human
resources in coastal urban areas (UNEP-MAP, 2007). This framework considers, besides water flows
pertinent to towns and cities along the Mediterranean coast (UNEP-MAP, 2007:19) the interactions
with factors such as culture; social groups and power relations; history; perceptions and ideologies;
political organization; urban form; economic structure and development. These guidelines intended for
engineers, urban water resource managers, urban planners, and expanded to social scientists, provided
a new representation of integrated water flows in coastal urban systems (UNEP-MAP, 2007:4). A similar
representation of the flows of water for the city of Barcelona was provided by Barracó et al. in 1999.
It included supplementary sources of water: bottled water and water-containing foods, considered of
particular importance in urban areas especially in coastal tourist cities (UNESCO, 2006:30).
Figure 5. Schematic presentation of the integrated development, management and use of coastal water resources
(Margeta, 1994)
Source: UNESCO-IHP-VI (2006)
In attempting to investigate and integrate all physical water flows in urban areas and coastal areas
to be safely used, reused and returned to nature through their management, the urban water cycle (see
figure 6 conceptualized by Vörösmarty et al. (2004) has provided important methodological and empirical
advances so far.
The use of hydrological models, quantitative assessments (e.g. in the Mediterranean, Amores et al.,
2013), and indicators to assess the sustainability of urban water cycle (Van Leeuwen et al., 2011) has then
been set up and retained «essential for understanding changes in the water cycle as a result of urbaniza-
tion and for the recovery of a comprehensive water cycle system in urban areas». In particular, the models
have been developed and applied to demonstrate their functionality in estimating and/or forecasting the
water demand in urban areas worldwide. Such models and cities include the Aquacycle model in Canber-
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ra, Australia (Mitchell et al., 2001) and in Seoul (Lee et al., 2010), the City Water Balance (CWB) model
(Last and Mackay, 2010), the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology in Alexandria, Egypt (Mahgoub,
2010), as well as the Urban Water Optioneering Tool (UWOT) (Makropoulos et al., 2008). The Alexan-
dria’s study, for example, focused on the assessment of the urban water system and provided scenarios
encompassing technical interventions, better management procedures, and generally, new solutions for
improving the systems in the future.
Figure 6. The global physical and social water system.
Source:Vörösmarty et al. (2004:509).
3.4. The integrated urban water cycle and its metabolism
In pursuing the objective of providing detailed information and expanding knowledge on water flows
in the city, models of the hydrological cycle continue to evolve. Rozos and Makropoulos (2013), for
example, have recently argued that the models mentioned previously that include the distribution system,
the consumption and the drainage of wastewater and storm water consider only a part of the urban
water cycle. For a complete study of the urban water cycle, they have redesigned the UWOT model as
an urban metabolism model «to provide a common modelling environment for the whole urban water
cycle from source to tap and back» (Rozos and Makropoulos, 2013:140). According to these authors
this holistic approach applied to the case of Athens, Greece, and integrates the basic rationale behind the
urban metabolism concept, which suggests that the relationship between the environment and an urban
system can be described by systematically recording all flows to and from the environment (Minx et al.,
2010). In this direction, a new model able to analyze every flow related to the urban metabolism is now
being developed by the EU project TRansitions to the Urban Water Services of Tomorrow – TRUST (TRUST,
2013). The latter is done by taking into account the economic, social and environmental conditions as
well as local circumstances and existing systems (natural, engineered, and socio-political) of urban water
governance.
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Investigaciones Geográficas, nº 61, pp. 17 - 38.
The concept of urban metabolism, first developed by Abel Wolman (1965) in response to the rapid
urban expansion and deterioration of air and water quality in American cities, is still recognized as
an important means to achieve sustainable urban development (Kennedy et al., 2007). In practice, it
involves the quantification of the inputs, outputs and storage of energy, water, nutrients, materials and
wastes for an urban region (Kennedy et al., 2011). Among all these components water is considered the
largest and closely linked with other components such as energy (Kennedy et al., 2007). Kennedy, et
al. (2011) has charted out a history of urban metabolism studies, including urban water issues and has
maintained that such studies have practical applications to urban designers and planners as an adaptive
approach to technological and socio-political solutions and their consequences (figure 7).
Figure 7. Water cycle into urban metabolism of Brussels, Belgium (1970s)
Source: Duvigneaud and Denaeyer-De Smet (1977)
The concept of urban metabolism has been particularly employed by the new discipline of Urban
Ecology discipline. From this perspective cities are seen as ecosystems embedded in a larger system.
According to Grimm et al. (2000) the city studied as an ecosystem allows for the analysis of flows of energy,
materials and information together with the interactions between human and non-human elements of the
system so that the complexity of urban systems can be fully captured and interpreted (Grimm et al. 2000;
Mehmood, 2010; Newman, 1999). Scholars in this field focus not just on understanding the ecology
of cities but on problem identification in the functioning of urban systems in order to develop and
address urban planning, policy and design interventions. Alberti and others (1999; 2008) have shown
how urban ecosystems consist of multiple interlinked subsystems that continually interact among each
other in which humans and their activities, rather than being external, become incorporated into these
ecosystems (Alberti, 1999; Grimm et al., 2000).
According to Rapoport (2011), in recent years the concept of urban metabolism has been employed
in a diverse range of disciplines thus expanding our knowledge about resource use in urban areas and
increasing our understanding of the relationship between urban economies and the environment and, as
it will be shown next, providing a critical perspective about the way in which the urban is produced by
the relations between social and natural processes.
3.5. The hydrosocial cycle
Hydrological sciences have made great advances in providing knowledge, techniques, system mod-
eling technology, as well as numerous international and national efforts in global and regional water re-
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Exploring the urban hydrosocial cycle in tourist environments
sources assessments and applications. In particular, over the past ten years, these advances have included
a growing awareness of the ecological and social implications of «water management».
However, as increasing types of water flows have become ever more powerfully interdependent with
the growth of world population and its economic activities of production and consumption, these views
have fallen under scrutiny from social scientists. Intellectual, political, economic and social factors have
given rise to new ways of understanding the nature of water (Linton, 2010). Contemporary complexity
of water in urban spaces has gained the attention of many scholars in particular from the geography and
social science disciplines. On the one hand, they have raised questions attempting to address the problem
of water in environment and urban systems. They wonder not just how much water there is and for what,
but who has access? Who controls and manages it? What are the power relations in the society through
which this water circulates? How do water flows influence the urbanization process and, in turn, are
influenced by urbanization? (Swingedown)
On the other hand, they have put forward the «hydrosocial cycle» concept, which incorporates newer
approaches drawn from water political ecology and social studies of science (Budds, 2008, 2009; Kaika,
2005; Linton, 2008, 2010; Swyngedouw, 2004).
The political ecology of water explicitly considers how the relations among political, social, economic
and power action, force and dimension influence current, or give place to new, water flows becoming
socials. This perspective has attempted to analyze how the flow of water may influence the urban
space and how this resource is embedded in the social dimension of the city. Therefore, the complex
relationship between water and society has been conceptualized with the emerging «hydrosocial cycle»
concept. In particular the concept has been developed by geographers working in the tradition of the
political economy and political ecology of water (see e.g. Boelens, 2013; Barnes, 2012; Wang, Otto, and
Yu, 2013; Gandy, 2008). For the last 15 years, the hydrosocial cycle concept has attracted significant
attention in the context of contemporary debates about nature-social interactions and among critical
geographers. From the political ecology perspective the hydrosocial cycle helps to disclose how flows of
water are produced by, and acting on dynamic social, political and economic power relations at various
nested and articulated geographical scales, also among actors and institutions (Cook and Swyngedouw,
2012). It encloses water’s symbolic and material dimensions (Linton, 2008) and has been used to reveal
capital accumulation and inequalities of access to water induced by water management practices as well
as the processes of water commodification and its social effects (Cook and Swyngedouw, 2012).
During the last decades the political ecology discipline has been appropriately extended to the fore-
ground of «urban» through «Urban Political Ecology» (UPE). According UPE scholars, it provides an
integrated and relational approach that helps untangle the interconnected economic, political, social and
ecological processes that together go to form and shape urban landscapes. Many studies drawn on this
approach have explored how nature and city can be viewed as a process of socio-physical metabolism
under the current capitalism, and infused by relations of power in which social actors, institutions and
scales play a fundamental role (e.g. local, regional, global). Through the notion of metabolism UPE
scholars have moved away from a society-nature dualism to seeing the city as a process of metabolically
transformed nature, even a socio-natural hybrid or a cyborg of machine and organism (Kaika & Swynge-
douw 2000, Gandy 2005).
Studies on urban political ecology have particularly focused on water resources. A relevant contribution
was provided by Erik Swyngedouw (1997) with “Power, Nature and the City. The Conquest of Water and
The Political Ecology of Urbanization in Guayaquil, Ecuador: 1880-1980”. With this study Swyngedoyw
reconstructed both theoretically and empirically, the political conditions, social and economic and power
relations that lead to the current water flows, both physical and social, in the city of Guayaquil (Ecuador).
This contribution has become an important reference in the field of Urban political ecology and continues
to many recent emerging studies, also providing new discoursers and representations of water flows in
urban areas and social environments (figure 8 and 9).
28
Elena Ridolfi
Investigaciones Geográficas, nº 61, pp. 17 - 38.
Figure 8. The Postmodern Hydrologic Cycle
Source: Kate Ely (2008) and worldview.
Figure 9. The Andean hydrocosmological cycle
Source: Boelens (2013)
The next section provides a review of works elaborated on the base of these concepts (see table 1).
3.6. Chronological review of hydrosocial cycle studies
This review shows how many studies have emerged on the basis of political ecology and urban
political ecology perspective, focusing on hydrosocial flows, opening new perspectives to understand
different urban water governance models through the hydrosocial concept.
Table 1. Cronological review of hydrosocial cycle studies
Author/s (year) City/Region of study Thematic focus
Disciplinary
Approach
Methodology
Swyngedouw
(1997; 2004)
Guayaquil - Ecuador
Urbanization; water scarcity; water circulation;
power; political-economic transformations
Urban political
ecology
Historical
analysis
Kaika (2006) Athens (Greece)
Urbanization; water scarcity; metabolism;
water circulation; power; political-economic
transformations
Political
Ecology
History
analysis;
Political
ecology
concepts
Fleury (2003)
Montreal Metropolitan
Region (Canada)
Water supply and management; urban
governance
Political
ecology
Historical
analysis
Castro (2004) Mexico Metropolitan Area
Social struggles over the access to and
improvement of water services
Political
Ecology
Political
Ecology
concepts
Bakker (2005) England and Wales
Commodification initiatives in England and
Wales; water crises; reregulation of the water
supply industry and drinking water quality
Geography;
Political
ecology
Political
Ecology
concepts
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Investigaciones Geográficas, nº 61, pp. 17 - 38.
Exploring the urban hydrosocial cycle in tourist environments
Loftus (2006)
Durban’s waterscape
(South Africa)
Water supply
Urban political
ecology
Spatial-
temporal
dynamics
of capital
accumulation
Gandy (2008)
Mumbai Metropolitan
region (India)
Social inequalities within the postcolonial
metropolis. Water and sanitation crisis;
capitalist urbanization
Political
Ecology
Political
ecology
concepts
Budds (2009)
La Ligua river basin
(Chile)
Water resources; Policy; Technocracy
Political
ecology
Groundwater
Science
Hydrology
Modelling
Policy
Bardati (2009)
St. Francis River
Watershed (Canada)
Exploration of the socio-physical dualism
inherent in a specific watershed planning
process in response to the Quebec Water Policy
(2002)
Political
ecology
Political
ecology
concepts
Kallis (2010) Athens Metropolitan area
Urbanization; water scarcity; water circulation;
power; political-economic transformations
Urban political
ecology
Historical
analysis
Zimmerer (2011)
Calicanto area
(Cochabamba, Bolivia)
Landscape technology; Irrigation;
Development; Landscape; Water resources
Agrobiodiversity
Resilience
ecology,
political
ecology, and
actor-network
theory
Political
ecology and
actor-network
theory concepts
Barnes (2012) Egypt
Drainage water reuse; Agriculture Irrigation
Hydrosocial cycle; Non-conventional source
Egypt
Hydrosocial
cycle
framework
Hydrosocial
concepts
Budds and Hinojosa
(2012)
Peru
Waterscape; Resource extraction;
Hydrosocial Governance
Political
ecology
Politics of
scale in water
governance
Clarke-Sather (2012)
Semi-arid Zuli river valley
in (China)
Food-water relationship; Hydrosocial
Governance
Political
ecology
Politics of
scale in water
governance
Norman (2012)
Salish sea, Pacific
Northwest, (Canada, US)
Transboundary water governance for
indigenous communities
Political
ecology
Politics of
scale in water
governance
Perramond (2012) New Mexico (US) Water rights; Adjudication process
Political
ecology
Politics of
scale in water
governance
Vogel (2012)
Columbia river basin
(Canada, US)
Historical environmental analysis of the
management of the Columbia river basin to
critique watershed and river basin management
Political
ecology
Politics of
scale in water
governance
Wang (2013)
Zhuolu County, Guanting
Watershed (China)
Village-level irrigation management in water
scarce northern China
Political
Ecology
Institutional
framework
Larrabeiti Rodríguez
(2013)
Alicant (Spain)
Hydrosocial cycle and urbanization; water
scarcity; Metabolism
Urban Political
Ecology;
Political
economy
UPE concepts
Mollinga (2013)
Tungabhadra Left Bank
Canal, (India)
How human agency transform hybrid and
multi-scale water control system
Geography
of the
hydrological
cycle
Hydrological
cycle concepts
Banister (2013)
northwest Mexico’s
RíoMayo Valley
Account of irrigation politics, the flows of
matter, and nonlinear dynamics in northwest
Mexico’s Río Mayo Valley
Political
geography;
Ontology
of flow
Geophilosop.
Political
ecology
concepts
Boelens (2013) Mollepata (Peru)
Socionatures; Water management; Cultural
politics; Cosmology
Political
Ecology;
hydrosocial
cycle
hydrosocial
cycle
analysis
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Elena Ridolfi
Investigaciones Geográficas, nº 61, pp. 17 - 38.
Bury (2013)
Santa River Watershed
(Peru)
How ecological change and societal forces
shape the future of water resources and water
governance in the region
Political
Ecology
Coupled
historical
analysis
Bouleau (2013)
Rhône and the Seine river
basin (France)
Hydrosocial cycle to account for the way in
which the course of water and that of human
affairs were intertwined in the Rhône and the
Seine river basins
Political
ecology; Social
studies of
science
Political
ecology
concepts
Bourblanc &
Blanchon (2013)
Catchment areas (South
Africa)
Construction of interbasin transfers;
power struggles
Geography
and political
science
Hydrosocial
cycle as
framework;
Institution
analysis
Fernandez (2013)
Garonne watershed
(Southwestern France)
How technologies
of government, practices, devices and
discursive regimes contribute to shape
specific hydrosocial cycles; water scarsity
Political
Ecology
Historical
Analysis; Actor
analysis
Source: Own elaboration.
5. EXTENDING THE URBAN HYDRO-SOCIAL CYCLE FRAMEWORK TO TOURIST COASTAL
CITIES
5.1. Mediterranean basin as laboratory of analysis
The Mediterranean basin is considered by many scholars an interesting laboratory for exploring
current processes of socio-environmental change (see e.g. Gössling and Hall, 2006; Carraro, 2009)for,
among other reasons, centuries of transformations creating a very complex socio-environmental mosaic.
Natural resources needed for settlement, first among all water, have influenced most human-induced
changes in the basin. The evolution of this landscape has been governed by major interaction of water
flowing across the land with human social actions (Bratina-Jurkovi, 2011; Barton et al., 2010). Coastal
areas are the space where this interaction has taken place and where water also represents the most
vulnerable resource. This laboratory may, therefore, be particularly interesting for exploring how these
interactions continue to shape the hydrosocial cycles in coastal cities.
The Mediterranean is generally identified as a unique entity, where physical, cultural and social
processes are rich, complex and uniform. However, Violi and Lorusso (2011) point out that as soon as we
start investigating this supposed unity, it breaks down into a thousand different entities, images and local
realities recognizable from the outside, but also extremely differentiated from the inside.
Indeed the basin is a space that contains substantial differences. The Western Mediterranean is the
most urbanized area and is characterized by the strong development of tourism (Unep/Map, 2012). While
over a half of the world population is considered urbanized, in the Mediterranean countries, two out
of three inhabitants already live in urban areas mostly located near the coasts (UNEP/MAP, 2012) and
expected to grow significantly by 2025 (UN/MAP/BP/RAC, 2009). Rising demand of water is the result
of growing urban populations and visitors to tourist destinations. Tourism is a vital economic activity
for many of these countries. 12 percent of the Spanish GDP, for instance, is generated by tourist related
activities. Drawing upon their geographical location and characteristics, Mediterranean destinations
are by far the largest global tourism destinations, attracting almost a third of the world’s international
tourists, and generating more than a quarter of international tourism receipts (UNWTO, 2012). In
parallel, the compact traditional form, typical of the many Mediterranean cities, has experienced
profound transformations resulting in more dispersed form. This so-called «urban sprawl» phenomenon
has become a very a remarkable characteristic of urban development in North America and then in
Europe, and it is now expanding in the Mediterranean. Initially, it was caused mainly by changes in socio-
economic and political systems, and the incapacity of planning in the South to control urban expansion
(Gaspar, 1984; Munoz, 2003). Urban sprawl and scattered development in the vicinity of urban hubs are
still today encouraged by current socio-economic change processes and especially by the growth in the so-
called residential tourism. In particular, sprawl raises concern about its potential negative and irreversible
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Exploring the urban hydrosocial cycle in tourist environments
effects for urban sustainability (PB/CAR, 2003; European Commission Joint Research Centre, 2002; EEA,
2006). Studies have demonstrated that dispersed forms generally produce wider environmental impacts
than compact urban forms, including land and fresh water (Rico-Amoros et al., 2009). Further, in rapidly
developing urban areas water system infrastructures may suffer losses in the distribution network, often
exceeding 30 percent of the distribution input (UNEP-MAP, 2007).
Tourism has also facilitated the process of urbanization and urban sprawl. Some authors explain
how tourism urbanization has produced a particular urban form in the Mediterranean (Gössling and
Hall, 2006) with the increase in comfort requirements and the development of facilities to diversify
leisure activities (swimming pools, golf courses, etc.). Therefore tourist activity takes the traits of a true
«regional brand» influencing and being influenced by the global scale (Ashworth and Page, 2011).
In the Mediterranean basin, water consumption from tourism is relatively low compared to other
sectors such as agriculture. However, according to existing estimates (WTM, 2007, Blue Plan, 2008)
water for tourism is a critical resource that is expected to experience the largest increases in demand by
2025. As observed (see e.g. Rico-Amoros et al., 2009; Hofa and Schmitt, 2011) water availability, demand
and consumption vary according to the type of urban and tourist settlement, and the water requirements
of future expansions will probably depend on these forms strategically chosen for development (Kent et
al., 2002) which are also likely to increase and intensify the hydrosocial flows. Seasonality is a particular
feature of tourism in Mediterranean coastal areas, intensifying water problems such as shortages and
conflicts of use with other sectors during the summer months.
Moreover, global climate predictions point at an increase of aridity conditions in the Mediterranean
areas as well as sea level rise in the Eastern Mediterranean. These trends may affect direct physical water
availability requiring substantial changes in the sources of supply. In Spain desalination plants have often
been often chosen as a solution to produce and ensure fresh water, but this and other solutions such as
dams or transfers also have important environmental impacts (UNEP-MAP, 2007).
Finally, but most importantly, decisions, management, power and social control of flows of water, as
well as different water governance models, for example private or public, may substantially influence or
be influenced by, the urban hydrosocial cycles. Hydrosocial cycles will vary therefore according to wheth-
er urban water flows are controlled by public or by private interests and the history and recent changes
in this control.
Therefore, as anticipated earlier, different configurations may emerge according to the considered
context. In this regard, the heritage town of Venice and the mass tourism resort of Benidorm differ pro-
foundly from many other coastal cities of the Mediterranean region. Their unique urban evolution and
their relations with water flows characterize today these two cities as paradigmatic examples of coastal
tourist models.
5.1.1. Venice
The historic city of Venice, in the Veneto Region of Northeast Italy, is considered one of the most
important tourist destinations worldwide with a flow of about 22 million tourists per year. Today the
current urban model of the city is characterized by historical urban parts coexisting with other parts
constructed and transformed more recently for tourist purposes. Venice spreads over 118 tiny islands
that were consolidated and organized in a unique urban system characterized by canals, and a network
of small streams that are the veritable arteries of this city. Venice is therefore the result of a dynamic
process of interaction between people and water within a particular and complex natural ecosystem.
The spectacular evolution of this city draws on secular people’s struggle against a hostile nature and the
continuous power and social control exerted over the management and the governance of land and water
resources, including the lagoon. Today, tourism represents the major challenge for the city in physical
and social terms.
Although population growth is a phenomenon occurring in many cities today, over the last fifty years,
Venice has experienced a continued population loss and now stands at less than 60 000 inhabitants. This
process has been mainly attributed to tourism.
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Investigaciones Geográficas, nº 61, pp. 17 - 38.
In the last decade the high tourism pressure on the city of Venice has resulted in a partial functional
transformation. Therefore, the city has continued to grow in the mainland producing an uncontrolled
process of urban sprawl in the nearby Veneto region. These current social and environmental processes
of change are influencing the flows of water of this city of which the provision for tourists is the main
component.
The model of water governance in Venice is public and water supply coverage attains 100 percent of
the city. However, wastewater treatment (sewage) coverage is only 70 percent. Thus part of the sewage
in the city remains untreated and flows directly into the Venice Lagoon, which receives an organic and
pathogen loading equivalent to more than 400 000 people during the tourist season. The city is also affec-
ted by extreme flooding caused by climatic events with short-term implications (including the reduction
of tourism-related income) and long-term implications (notably damage to the city’s building fabric and
architectural heritage).
Water is today a critical resource for Venice. It is fairly abundant but water quality (resources and
drinking water) is an ongoing challenge. Additionally, more water resources will be needed to sustain this
economic sector which is vital for the city.
5.1.2. Benidorm
Benidorm, located in the Eastern Spain, is a typical example of the mass tourism resorts that emerged
along the Mediterranean coast in the 1960s and has become one of the most famous holiday destinations
in Europe. Its urban form is characterized by concentrated tourist settlements with very high densities
and vertical growth as a result of a profound process of urbanization influenced by the tourism sector.
Tourism is therefore strategic for Benidorm which currently receives 6 million visitors annually well
distributed throughout the year. Characterized by very dry summers and long droughts, the city is based
on a «sun and beach» tourist model currently expanding in order to attract other kinds of tourists (e.g.
business conventions). Its urban model is considered environmentally efficient in regard to energy, water
and land use, and less dependent on private transport. Most importantly, part of the wastewater from
urban and tourism uses may be used by farmers through an interesting exchange of waters of different
qualities.
However new urban forms and tourist amenities in the vicinity of Benidorm are emerging such as golf
courses, aquatic parks, swimming pools etc and taking a much more sprawled form. Contrary to Venice,
Benidorm may experience occasional problems of supply (although not in the last decade) but wastewater
treatment services cover 100 per cent of the flows. Moreover, the hydrosocial cycle of Benidorm shows an
important presence of private interests, especially regarding supply.
6. CONCLUDING REMARKS
This study has attempted to explore different approaches to the analysis of water in urban environments
particularly those in which tourism is the main activity.
Co-evolutionary relations, complexity and new governance challenges related to water resources in
these contemporary urban environments have been discussed in the first part of the study. Then, the
paper has moved to present several categorizations of the flow of water in cycles, beginning with the
hydrological cycle and continuing with the urban water cycle, urban water metabolism and finally the
hydrosocial cycle. In each of these categorizations, the social and political components of water flows
are increasingly made more evident. In this sense, the paper has emphasized the importance to explore
hydrosocial cycles under the framework provided by the Urban Political Ecology, particularly in cities
characterized by urbanization and tourism, extending therefore, the analysis to physical (hydrological)
and social (human activities and economical and cultural conditions of power and control) flows of water.
In light of the urban hydrosocial concept the cases of cities like Venice and Benidorm, may reveal how
these physical and social flows are engaged in shaping and reproducing new urban and tourist hydro-
social configurations (Swyngedouw, 2004, 2012). Moreover, these flows may disclose how they are or
have been influenced by different models (private and public) water governance. Its evaluation may also
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Investigaciones Geográficas, nº 61, pp. 17 - 38.
Exploring the urban hydrosocial cycle in tourist environments
help to shed light on how water resources in these urban environments may be governed and managed
in the present and future years.
Overall, this combined analysis can provide new insights for geographers, planners and those
working in urban water studies and related disciplines interested in the interactions between water and
governance both locally and globally.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I would like to express sincere thanks to David Sauri, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona; Erik
Swyngedouw, University of Manchester; and Giorgos Kallis, Institute for Environmental Science and
Technology, for their helpful comments on the preliminary version of this work and to expand and deepen
the arguments of this paper.
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