Politics of Urban Runoff: Nature, Technology, and the Sustainable City

摘要

As the title suggests, this book is about the politics of urban runoff and the management of water in the urban landscape. It is a hybrid inquiry, both an empirical study of how urban runoff has been handled in two American cities, Austin and Seattle, and an argument for a particular style of environmental politics. The bulk and ballast of the book lie in the central chapters, three to six, in which Karvonen provides a fascinating and detailed discussion of the history of water runoff management in the two cities, as well as analysis of a number of particular water projects. These chapters illustrate the engineering challenges brought about by population growth, the introduction of water-hungry indoor plumbing, and the increase of impermeable surfaces in modern cities. Chapters one and two offer brief historical insights into the history of water management in modern cities since the nineteenth century, as well as hints of the theoretical argument the author wishes to make about environmental politics. Chapters seven and eight take up again the more theoretical concerns, while extending, to some degree, the empirical discussions of Austin and Seattle.