Scales of intervention in city water infrastructures: tracing the new policy example

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to examine and present both theoretical and empirical approaches and practices in the management of urban water resources. Moreover, the paper explores the key parameters of innovative intervention forms towards an integrated urban water policy by tracing the emerging policy examples. In this context, the argument draws on modern approaches of 'urban political ecology', which constitutes the general theoretical and methodological framework of this article. Particular emphasis is given to the discussion for the development of new management practices on urban water resources and their integrated management systems and environmental practices that adopt alternative technologies, distributed management models and decentralized solutions and practices. The paper concludes with the presentation of components of a multivalent, and basically heuristic, model for the foresight of a new policy for urban water with reference to specific scenarios, implementation procedures and complementary activities. The aim of this paper is to contribute to the general scientific dialogue in shaping a multi-level mechanism to establish an integrated management system for urban water resources; in that prism, the paper investigates the major design and implementation preconditions of an innovative and integrated urban water policy.