1244 | 709 | Urban socionatures and the metabolism of water in the industrial city

Nature is a fundamental part in the development of industrial cities and there is the need to go beyond the dichotomy between urban and natural. Using the approach of urban political ecology this proposal deals with this issue, analysing the metabolism and democracy in the processes of urbanization of natures, specifically investigates the urbanization as a result of socio-ecological interconnections characterized by the production of various socionatures._x000D_
The water is the element that allows us to follow the relationships produced by the industrial urban metabolism with nature in northern Italy, where the water is a fundamental component for the development of the socioecological metabolism of industrial cities. The water comes from the Alps, where it is used for producing energy, flows inside the plants and takes out its pollutants throughout the streams. The uses of this water in urban industrial areas produced some conflicts, between industrial and agricultural activities, but also with the citizens that use the water in their houses, in some cases with a health risk._x000D_
We use an interesting case study for reconstructing the different socionatures produced in the industrial cities. The Caffaro Industries (name derived from a local river) and its contaminated site located in the city of Brescia, interesting from different point of views: historical, ecological or medical, is studied with a geographical and political ecological approach. The analysis is based on documents produced by the authorities, the participant observation with the citizenship and the environmental associations, the literature produced by other fields of studies. The issues of the presentation, through UPE, are to retrace the urban industrial metabolism of water, go beyond the city limits with an interscalar approach, identify the different socionatures produced._x000D_

Marco Tononi
University of Bergamo

ID Abstract: 709