1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910781933403321

Autore

Karvonen Andrew <1971->

Titolo

Politics of urban runoff : nature, technology, and the sustainable city / / Andrew Karvonen

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Cambridge, Mass., : MIT Press, ©2011

ISBN

0-262-29782-5

1-283-30281-0

9786613302816

0-262-29870-8

Descrizione fisica

xiv, 288 p. : ill., map

Collana

Urban and industrial environments

Disciplina

363.72/84

Soggetti

Urban runoff

Water quality management - Political aspects

Water quality - Texas - Austin

Water quality - Washington (State) - Seattle

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

The dilemma of water in the city -- Urban runoff and the city of relations -- Saving the springs : urban expansion and water quality in Austin -- After the flood : retrofitting Austin's urban core to accommodate growth -- Metronatural : inventing and taming nature in Seattle -- Reasserting the place of nature in Seattle's urban creeks -- Politics of urban runoff : building relations through active citizenship -- Towards the relational city : imaginaries, expertise, experiments.

Sommario/riassunto

A study of urban stormwater runoff that explores the relationships among nature, technology, and society in cities. When rain falls on the city, it creates urban runoff that cause flooding, erosion, and water pollution. Municipal engineers manage a complex network of technical and natural systems to treat and remove these temporary water flows from cities as quickly as possible. Urban runoff is frequently discussed in terms of technical expertise and environmental management, but it encompasses a multitude of such nontechnical issues as land use, quality of life, governance, aesthetics, and community identity, and is central to the larger debates on creating more sustainable and livable



cities. In this book, Andrew Karvonen uses urban runoff as a lens to view the relationships among nature, technology, and society. Offering theoretical insights from urban environmental history, human geography, landscape and ecological planning, and science and technology studies as well as empirical evidence from case studies, Karvonen proposes a new relational politics of urban nature. After describing the evolution of urban runoff practices, Karvonen analyzes the urban runoff activities in Austin and Seattle--two cities known for their highly contested public debates over runoff issues and exemplary storm water management practices. The Austin case study highlights the tensions among urban development, property rights, land use planning, and citizen activism; the Seattle case study explores the city's long-standing reputation for being in harmony with nature. Drawing on these accounts, Karvonen suggests a new relational politics of urban nature that is situated, inclusive, and action-oriented to address the tensions among nature, technology, and society.