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Reviews
| Water, Time, and European Cities: History Matters for the Futures. Ed. by Petri S. Juuti and Tapio S. Katko. Tampere, Finland: European Union, 2005. 253 pp., maps, illus., tables, diags., graphs, notes, bibl. Available as pdf <http://www.watertime.net/Docs/WP3/WTEC.pdf>.
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This book reports on the results of the WaterTime study funded by the European Commission between 2002 and 2005 as part of a program intended to help improve the quality of urban life with respect to energy, the environment, and sustainable development. The object of the WaterTime project, which brought together scholars from universities in Hungary, Spain, Finland, Germany, and the United Kingdom, was quite ambitious: no less than developing an understanding of historic decision-making processes for the design and organization of water supply and sewage systems in selected European cities in order to elaborate best practices and decision-making models for today. It proposed to do this by analyzing urban water utilities in 29 cities located in 15 countries, including several in Eastern European countries whose political history has until recently precluded such comparisons. A look at the new Europe is one of the benefits of the book to the North American reader.
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The results of the study include the identification of relationships between causes, effects, and players in the historical events that define each city's water utilities development. The authors use these results to suggest how future planners can build upon the foundations of past decisions. The analysis focuses on both institutional decisions (e.g., public versus private systems or the use of metering) and technical decisions (e.g., separated or connected storm and sewage systems or the use of lead pipes). Making reference to the concept of path dependence, the studies show how early decisions were often quite crucial. Martin V. Melosi demonstrated the pertinence of path dependence with respect to American utilities history in The Sanitary City, and Melosi was asked to write the foreword to this report. A path-dependence analysis suggests, for example, that those cities which built earlier systems sometimes got stuck, only being able to improve, instead of being able to start new with a later, more advanced technology. Melosi's approach also gave value to tracing the transfer of technologies, something somewhat lacking here. The book's unique analytical character comes perhaps more from the integration of histories of both water supply and sewage developments in themselves and, along with futures studies, a framework that attempts to extrapolate future developments from an interdisciplinary analysis of the past. Not unexpectedly then, one of the book's recommendations is the need for a more integrated design of water supply, treatment, and sewage systems.
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Also not surprising, however, is that the emphasis on identifying planning strategies for future water supply and sewage development probably limits interest in the book from an industrial archaeology point of view. The historic component of the case studies is generally weak in technical information, and the stories of specific sites are not elaborated on in any detail. The selection of cities is not explained, and the choices seem odd in some cases, considering how little or how much information was available. As an example, no explanation is provided as to why France is only represented by the city of Grenoble. The history of water supply in France has been examined in detail by researchers like Jean-Pierre Goubert and André Guillerme, but no reference is made to their works, which have added considerably to an understanding of the cultural meanings of the development of water-related urban technologies.
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In a book that offers perhaps one of the first English language texts on utilities history for Lodz or Timisoara, it is, on the other hand, surprising that the authors bothered to include a city like Rome, whose water supply and sewage history is so unique and so much more developed. The result is that the case of Rome comes off looking superficial (five lines for pre-1865 history). Considering available studies on Roman water supply and such texts as Frontinus's 1st-century analysis of water-supply management problems (e.g., strategies for the repair of aqueducts), the decision-making story of Ancient Rome could have been of interest for the goals of the WaterTime project. The treatment of premodern Madrid is somewhat more useful, highlighting developing problems with sources and the social structures required to sustain the dependence on fountains and water carriers. One senses as a whole that the level of detail depended on easily available information, calling into question how accurate the historical analyses can really be.
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The historic period of interest to the authors was limited to the modern period, beginning in the middle of the 19th century. That this was generally an important period of technical development and knowledge transfer across European borders is clear from each case study. Recognition that certain English or German engineers worked on developments in cities across the continent could help define common cultural roots for a European approach to utilities planning. British engineer William Lindley is named in relation to a number of systems, including Budapest, Warsaw, Lodz, and Bucharest. Without an index, these patterns are difficult to trace, and the only reference to technology transfer in the conclusions suggests that it often happened as a result of opportunity and without adequate consideration of local conditions. As a result of the lack of technical detail supplied in the case studies, the analysis of decisions in the concluding two chapters is less than convincing.
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In reviewing about a dozen of the case studies, this reviewer was left with numerous questions unanswered. Basic geographic data required to understand each city's situation, such as population growth over the period considered and sources and conditions for water or related energy supply, are often not provided. It might have been interesting, for example, to know if the patterns regarding the order of introduction of water supply, sewage, and storm drainage services varied, based on size of city or type of water source. Instead, the analysis of patterns is limited to dates, suggesting that developing technologies or varying political contexts are the main differences. The city of Leeds began piping water supply by the late-17th century for a population of 7,000, and the River Aire was too polluted to use as a source by the 1830s. However, the alternate source or technologies that must have been developed afterwards are not explained nor are any subsequent population figures provided. Despite the use of a systematic analysis in tables that consistently look at the events, causes, outcomes, stakeholders, and related organizational changes, the information available about water supply, sewerage, and water treatment "events" is unequal, and the interrelationships are hardly addressed. In some cases, much of the historical information came from secondary sources such as municipal websites.
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The book's illustrations include many charts and diagrams, a few historic engravings, and numerous photographs of historic and contemporary water and sewage installations. While the charts and diagrams are graphically heavy, and in many cases do not really add much to the text, some of the engravings and photographs are enlightening, providing anecdotal historic evidence that helps round out the chronology. Although the text only deals with developments from the mid-19th century, the Berlin chapter includes an 18th-century engraving of firefighting that clearly illustrates the use of the city's powerful military resources in early public works. In the section on Hungary, photographs of water towers in Budapest and Debrecen provide information about the early use of reinforced concrete in that country. About one-half of the Italian photographs show premodern water fountains, such as the Trevi Fountain in Rome, which actually call attention to how little historical information is covered. Finally, each chapter begins with a map of the country to situate cities and a large map situating the country in Europe. This might have been interesting if these maps were used to clarify the water bodies available to cities, but they seem unnecessary in a publication intended for European planners. As a whole, there is heaviness to the graphic-design concept, perhaps a result of desktop publishing affecting what might have been otherwise produced in a more report-like format.
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The goals of this study were important, and the resulting recommendations may be very helpful for planners, in particular where the value of local decision-making processes can benefit from a broader perspective. Establishing the historical context for adoption of an integrated approach to analysis of water supply and effluent is also clearly valuable from an environmental point of view. The attempt, however, to portray this study as historical was perhaps too ambitious. Certainly, from the point of view of developing a better understanding of the specific geographic advantages or constraints of European cities, or specific insight into the way that 19th-century technology transfer occurred in that context, this report is only a starting point. The book's strength lies in presenting the variations on public and private developments as the result of unique local social and political contexts that will continue to play an important, if evolving, role in future planning.
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| For readers mainly interested in the history of specific countries or in reviewing the recommendations, the Water, Time, and European Cities report is available on the web for download at <http://www.watertime.net/Docs/WP3/WTEC.pdf>. |
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