Thirsty Cities Research Articles

Global Rise of Thirsty Cities: Defining and Redesigning the Strategies for Water Sustainability

Global Rise of Thirsty Cities: Defining and Redesigning the Strategies for Water Sustainability

Landscape-based solutions are needed for meeting water challenges of China’s expanding and thirsty cities

Landscape-based solutions are needed for meeting water challenges of China’s expanding and thirsty cities

Making thirsty cities sustainable: A nexus approach for water provisioning in Quito, Ecuador

In view of accelerated climate change and urban demographics, balancing human and ecosystem needs for water resources is a critical environmental challenge of global significance. Since water, agriculture, health, and energy are inextricably linked, sustainable development goals (SDGs) actions in one policy area commonly have impacts on the others, as well as on the ecosystems that natural resources and human activities ultimately depend upon. Managing urban water supply systems therefore requires a nexus approach that integrates goals across sectors, reduces the risk that SDG actions will undermine one another, and ensures sustainable resource use. We developed a transdisciplinary methodological framework based on a Pareto frontier analysis to define the sustainable solutions of a multi-objective optimization among four competing criteria, water provision, water quality, energy cost, and biodiversity conservation. The study was applied to three mountainous headwater basins in the Ecuadorian Andes, which provide around 30% of Quito's total water supply. We found that an optimized management of water intake structures would meet current consumption needs while reducing the probability of emergence of water pathogens and limiting the impact on aquatic biodiversity by 30% and 9% respectively, without any increase in energy costs for pumping water from other sources. Nonetheless, under future scenarios of climate change and water demand, higher energy consumption, and therefore an increase in operating costs, would be needed to meet urban demand and preserve environmental conditions. Overall, the range of Pareto optimal water supply strategies across the water-health-energy-biodiversity nexus provides valuable information for decision makers and offers support for achieving sustainable management of water resources.

Thirsty cities? The supply, management, and perception of water in Byzantine North Africa

AbstractCities of North Africa experienced a long occupation up to the late 7th c. CE. Despite numerous studies on Late Antique urbanism, no systematic investigation of urban hydraulics has been carried out so far. This paper examines the hydraulic topography of three cities in the Byzantine period (ca. 6th c. CE): Leptis Magna (Tripolitania), Sbeitla (Byzacena), and Timgad (Numidia). This analysis assesses to what extent Late Antique societies managed the cities’ water supply by maintaining or transforming preexisting hydraulic networks. It considers the continuity of aqueducts and the reorganization of water networks, the state of hydraulic management and technology, and the perception of water resources. The hydraulic networks inherited from the Early Roman period were to some extent preserved, although greatly adapted to new concerns for security and new technical and environmental constraints, illustrating the resilience of Late Antique societies.

Making Thirsty Cities Sustainable: A Nexus Approach for Water Provisioning in Quito, Ecuador

Making Thirsty Cities Sustainable: A Nexus Approach for Water Provisioning in Quito, Ecuador

Thirsty Cities: Social Contracts and Public Goods Provision in China and India

Thirsty Cities: Social Contracts and Public Goods Provision in China and India

A Tale of Three Thirsty Cities: The Innovative Water Systems of Toledo, London and Paris in the Second Half of the Sixteenth Century by Jaime-Chaim Shulman

Reviewed by: A Tale of Three Thirsty Cities: The Innovative Water Systems of Toledo, London and Paris in the Second Half of the Sixteenth Century by Jaime-Chaim Shulman Karel Davids (bio) A Tale of Three Thirsty Cities: The Innovative Water Systems of Toledo, London and Paris in the Second Half of the Sixteenth Century By Jaime-Chaim Shulman. Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2018. Pp. 398. Water supply systems are a convenient yardstick for comparing societies’ technological capabilities. After all, no society can survive for long without effective arrangements for the regular provision of water. Jaime-Chaim Shulman has studied water supply projects in three European cities in the sixteenth century. He thus contributes both to our knowledge of building urban water supply systems in the early modern period and insight into how city authorities under different political regimes handled large-scale public works. While his focus is early modern Europe, Shulman contextualizes his subject by devoting a long introductory chapter to water-lifting devices, from Graeco-Roman times and the early Islamic world, to Italy and Germany during the Renaissance. He provides an almost exhaustive overview of aqueducts, norias, Archimedean screws, force pumps, inclined planes, and other water-raising mechanisms described in “theatres of machines” published in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. At the heart of A Tale of Three Thirsty Cities are the next three chapters [End Page 953] discussing new water supply systems built in the most populated cities of Spain, England, and France between 1560 and 1620: in Toledo Juanelo Turriano constructed the Artificio, which lifted water from the Tajo river almost one hundred meters up to Alcázar palace; in London, Peter Morris built waterworks that pumped water from the Thames under London Bridge to a network of wooden pipes for consumption in the city; and in Paris, Jean Lintlaër erected the “Samaritaine” engine, pumping water from the Seine under Pont Neuf bridge to the nearby Louvre and Tuileries palaces and gardens. One of the strengths of Shulman’s study is his meticulous reconstruction of how these engines worked, who funded them, how they functioned over time and their impact, if any, on the development of water-supply technology in general. For this purpose, in an exemplary manner the author combines written, printed, and beautifully reproduced pictorial sources. However greatly contemporaries and posterity admired these ingenious devices and the engineer-entrepreneurs who constructed them, these systems nevertheless did not quench the cities’ thirst. The machines in Toledo and Paris only served the needs of royal households, while the waterworks in London almost exclusively provided water to fee-paying citizens. For their water supply, most of the populations depended on wells, fountains, and water carriers. Still, the comparison between the three projects, as Shulman rightly points out in his conclusion, reveals the crucial importance of political and financial factors in the construction and upkeep of water supply systems. While the King in Paris and the city government in London showed an enduring commitment to support the new projects, the royal and municipal authorities in Toledo were from the very beginning at odds about who should fund and maintain the new waterworks. Ultimately, Turriano died penniless and his Artificio was in ruins by 1640. There are some puzzling aspects, however, regarding Shulman’s selection of cases and the way he contextualizes his subject. Given his aim to shed light on the attitudes of city authorities to water supply systems, why does he only compare cities in kingdoms? This choice is even harder to understand, as the engineers who designed the new supply systems were foreigners. Turriano hailed from Italy, Morris and Lintlaër came from the Low Countries. As the author reminds us, this finding underscores the vital role of human mobility in the cross-border transfer of knowledge, but it also begs the question why these specialists did not originate from Spain, England, or France. This is all the more intriguing, as the same observation applies to the experts in land reclamation, who Shulman briefly discusses by way of comparison. Yet, this issue is neither addressed in the conclusion nor in the introduction, which purports to put the development of water-lifting technology in...

Da Serra dos Cavalos ao Vale do Ipojuca (Caruaru/PE): águas e história ambiental no semiárido brasileiro

Os núcleos urbanos no semiárido brasileiro apresentam memórias, trajetórias, histórias da dramaticidade dos desafios de abastecimento de água. No agreste de Pernambuco, região de maior déficit de balanço hídrico do estado, encontra-se a sedenta cidade de Caruaru, que, no período de um século (1916-1983), vivenciou os percalços da hidratação dos projetos de expansão, inicialmente a partir do curso natural do rio Ipojuca como fonte primeira, posteriormente nos elevados das fontes na Serra dos Cavalos. As disputas com distintas concepções de soluções e os conflitos entre os diferentes usos deixaram as marcas no caminho, nas relações dos diferentes sujeitos com as águas. O artigo elaborou-se com base em registros documentais normativos da municipalidade, textos jornalísticos, de escritores locais e em diálogos com relatos de memórias de moradores por meio de entrevistas em uma abordagem na perspectiva da História Ambiental.

Thirsty Cities: Social Contracts and Public Goods Provision in China and India. By Selina Ho. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019. 306p. $105.00 cloth.

Thirsty Cities: Social Contracts and Public Goods Provision in China and India. By Selina Ho. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019. 306p. $105.00 cloth.

The water supply of early modern Amsterdam: A drop in the bucket?

It is often suggested that early modern Amsterdam was a thirsty city, in dire anticipation of the technological solutions that would finally provide it with the necessary quantities of potable water in the nineteenth century. However, a piped water system would have been technologically possible even a century before it was finally implemented, and in 1748 was even explicitly considered, but rejected as too inflexible and too vulnerable to sabotage. I consider this decision in its context, and show that while Amsterdam’s system of provisioning changed throughout the early modern era, it was nonetheless able to meet the requirements of the city’s population and its government.

A Tale of Three Thirsty Cities: The Innovative Water Supply Systems of Toledo, London and Paris in the Second Half of the Sixteenth Century. Jaime-Chaim Shulman. Technology and Change in History 14. Leiden: Brill, 2018. xiv + 398 pp. $159.

A Tale of Three Thirsty Cities: The Innovative Water Supply Systems of Toledo, London and Paris in the Second Half of the Sixteenth Century. Jaime-Chaim Shulman. Technology and Change in History 14. Leiden: Brill, 2018. xiv + 398 pp. $159. - Volume 72 Issue 4

Improbable Denver

Improbable Denver

Comparison of infiltration rates in the dry riverbed of the Colorado River Delta during environmental flows

Water has been over-allocated all over the world; natural rivers have been over-exploited and regulated to manage storage and distribute the water to thirsty cities and agricultural lands. The Colorado River is no exception to this trend. It is one of the most regulated rivers in the world; the once mighty Delta that formed from the river has become a few hectares of native trees surrounded by agriculture lands and houses. At the border between Mexico and the U.S., the last of the Colorado’s water is diverted, so that the last 160 kilometers of natural stream channel no longer carry regular flows and the river doesn’t reach the sea. Because of this, the first binational environmental water allocation between Mexico and the United States was initiated (termed Minute 319) and two environmental flows were agreed upon.Those separate flow events provided an opportunity to investigate streambed infiltration under very different hydrographs, a “base flow” and a “pulse flow”. In this work, we evaluate the infiltration process using heat as a tracer and compare these point measurements to a saturated/unsaturated 2-D numerical model of a cross-section of the river. Heat tracer analysis showed that in both events, infiltration was high at the start and then decreased over time, from a maximum of 0.60md−1 during the pulse flow and 1.60md−1 during base flow. Monte Carlo analyses for the pair of temperature sensors at each event showed that uncertainty is greater at higher vertical fluxes; therefore greater during base flow (0.4md−1) and lower at pulse flow (0.2md−1). The total volume infiltrated during 6 and 8days of the pulse and base flows (March 25–30 and September 7–14, respectively) was 151,714m3 and 307,610m3, respectively. In contrast, the 2-D numerical model showed 241,780m3 and 125,295m3 across the cross-section in a 500m longitudinal distance of the river channel, during the pulse flow and base flow, respectively. In both models, the flux was highest during the initial days of each event. These results suggest that for future environmental flows focused on longitudinally reconnecting the river in conditions similar to those presented in this study, the minimization of channel transmission losses could be achieved through lower, consistent flows. However, this would not lead to reconnection of surface water and groundwater and therefore propagation of the wetting front laterally, which benefits restoration areas.

Thirsty City: Politics, Greed, and the Making of Atlanta’s Water Crisis by Skye Borden

Reviewed by: Thirsty City: Politics, Greed, and the Making of Atlanta’s Water Crisis by Skye Borden Katie Price Thirsty City: Politics, Greed, and the Making of Atlanta’s Water Crisis Skye Borden. State University of New York Press, Albany, NY 2014. 202pp; notes, bibliog., and index. $75.00 hardcover (ISBN13: 978-1-4384-5279-1), $24.95 paper (ISBN13: 978-1-4384-5278-4). Skye Borden’s Thirsty City provides a concise, engaging historical overview of the paths by which Atlanta has reached its chronic water crisis. She weaves her narrative with a journalistic, highly readable tone and a multi-stakeholder perspective. The first several chapters of Thirsty City are captivating, as Borden details the early history of Atlanta through a lens of lack of water planning, which emerges as a central theme of the book. Atlanta’s water management has been reactive from the beginning, a non-strategy of putting out fires as they emerge, literally and figuratively. The book opens with Atlanta’s origin as the terminal point of a rail line connecting Georgian plantations to the Tennessee River. While the Atlanta metro area has now sprawled to meet the Chattahoochee and South rivers, the city center is perched on the Eastern Continental Divide and is supplied by tiny streams. [End Page 322] Prior to electrical infrastructure, fire was a major hazard in every city, but Atlanta was unique in its lack of an adequate source of water for firefighting. This insufficiency of municipal water culminated in General Sherman’s burning of Atlanta. During Reconstruction, a supply reservoir was established in the South River headwaters, which aided in fire management. Between 1870 and 1900, Atlanta’s population quadrupled to 90,000. The use of flush toilets was spreading through upper-middle class populations, but the city provided no sewer system for the waste. Through a network of ditches, effluent from indoor plumbing in the high, dry white neighborhoods was routed into low-lying slums, which were home to large communities of former slaves. Those in power rejected the relatively new concept that water-borne pathogens were a major cause of disease, and Atlanta maintained a status quo of halfhearted waste removal practices. As a result, hookworm, roundworm, influenza, diphtheria, tuberculosis, and, in particular, typhoid affected the city, disproportionately ravaging the slums. Public health issues finally spurred the city council to pay for infrastructure, improving the situation for many. However, sanitation services were still not available to black residents, who also had limited access to medical treatment. According to Borden, there was not one medical facility in Atlanta that would treat a black person with a communicable disease. While many people were outraged by the injustice, a racist gubernatorial campaign in 1905 and the Atlanta Race Riot of 1906 obviated any meaningful progress. As Borden phrases it, “the drum-beat of racism overtook the honest cries for sanitation reform, and race-oriented pseudoscience received as much attention as modern epidemiology” (p. 34). By the end of the 1920s, 80% of black households still lacked running water. The next section of the book focuses on Mayor William Hartsfield’s efforts in the 1940s to convince the federal government to provide major engineering works on the Chattahoochee River that would serve the Atlanta region’s economy. Hartsfield unsuccessfully attempted to convince the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) to convert the Chattahoochee to a navigable waterway, rendering Atlanta a port city. He then shifted tactics to ask the USACE to build a reservoir, among whose functions would be provision of municipal water supply to his growing city. This request led to Buford Dam, but Hartsfield backed out of contributing city funds to its construction, meaning municipal supply was removed from its list of authorized purposes. As Borden later details, the city would nonetheless come to rely heavily on withdrawals from the reservoir through short-term contracts with the USACE. This political maneuvering to save a million dollars at the time of the dam’s construction would eventually lead to billions of dollars of litigation and fines. Meanwhile, Atlanta’s water infrastructure was proving inadequate. As Borden colorfully claims, “the city of Atlanta had become an organism that hemorrhaged harmful toxins...

Environment and Culture: An Introduction

Even to an untrained eye, Iran’s environmental landscape appears bleak. Drying or dried up lakes, polluted rivers and brooks, thirsty cities with polluted air, sandstorms and bird-less skies, vanis...

Thirsty City: Politics, Greed, and the Making of Atlanta’s Water Crisis by Skye Borden (review)

Thirsty City: Politics, Greed, and the Making of Atlanta’s Water Crisis by Skye Borden (review)

Thirsty city: politics, greed, and the making of Atlanta's water crisis

Thirsty city: politics, greed, and the making of Atlanta's water crisis

Developing the rivers of East and West Africa: an environmental history

1. Introduction: Harnessing Africa's Waters Part One: From the river's edge 2. Unpredictable blessings: Life along the Rufiki River, Tanzania 3. Mapping a Continent: British exploration of the Niger River Part Two: Colonizing Africa's rivers 4. Greening the Fields: Agricultural development during the colonial period 5. Electrifying the Empire: Debates about power production in Africa Part Three: The changing value of rivers 6. The damming of Africa: Converting African water to hydropower 7. Thirsty cities: Urbanization and the changing values of African rivers Epilogue: Managing Africa's Rivers in the twenty-first century Historical glossary Bibliography Index

Thirsty City

Thirsty City

Discussion: Flexibly Meeting Competing Water Demands*

The Texas-based study by Ward et al. is an LP of rice production alternatives. If a pact is forged between two major players, one being a major electricity and water authority and the other being the nation's ninth largest city, an array of water-conserving activities will be more available (supposedly) to rice producers served by the authority. The main question is how much water will be saved and made available for the thirsty city. Methodologically, the work is old-school but still challenging. My issues with the article pertain mostly to underdisclosure.