Small urban waters and environmental pressure before industrialization: The case of Hungary

Abstract

Before the birth of modern infrastructures, towns in Europe kept experiencing difficulties in providing water and a healthy environment for their inhabitants. Freshwater was not only essential for basic hygiene and drinking but water resources, especially urban streams played a key role in local economies. The article addresses the pressure the increasingly diverse utilization of water put on such streams by comparing six urban centers – Sopron, Pápa, Zagreb, Miskolc, Felhévíz, and Kőszeg – in premodern Hungary. Using GIS, the paper attempts to find out about the topographical patterns – similarities and differences – in the relationship between urban facilities and the respective streams, to understand whether there was a conscious policy to keep certain parts of the water systems from potential polluters. In doing so, it focuses on the spatial arrangement of industrial and other facilities in the vicinity of urban streams.