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Articulating The New Urban Water Paradigm
Articulating The New Urban Water Paradigm
Technology
To cite this article: Manuel Franco-Torres, Briony C. Rogers & Robin Harder (2021) Articulating
the new urban water paradigm, Critical Reviews in Environmental Science and Technology,
51:23, 2777-2823, DOI: 10.1080/10643389.2020.1803686
ABSTRACT
Urban water systems in industrial-
ized countries have underpinned
unprecedented improvements in
urban living standards through
effective drinking water supply,
sanitation and drainage. However,
conventional urban water systems
are increasingly regarded as too
rigid and not sufficiently resilient
to confront growing social,
technological and environmental complexity and uncertainty, manifested, for example,
in the maladaptation to climate change, depletion of nonrenewable resources, and
degrading urban livability. In response, a new urban water paradigm has emerged in
the last two decades within the context of a broader societal change that promotes a
more organic worldview over the classical mechanistic and technocratic understanding
of reality. This article develops and applies an analytical framework to coherently
describe the new paradigm and contrast it with the old urban water paradigm.
The framework includes a philosophical foundation and set of methodological principles
that shape the new paradigm’s approach to governance, management, and
infrastructure.
KEYWORDS Paradigm shift; new water paradigm; integrated urban water management; sustainable urban
water management; water sensitive urban design; complexity
1. Introduction
The provision of water supply, sanitation and urban drainage services to
households, businesses and communities has led to unprecedented
improvements in life expectancy, economic growth, and quality of life in
industrialized countries during the last 150 years. These services have relied
on a system of social structures and material infrastructures—referred to in
ideas risk being discarded in favor of solutions that are firmly ingrained in
the incumbent paradigm; they do not fit with established framings. See, for
example, Sofoulis’ (2015) description of the difficulty of introducing rain-
water tanks—despite their obvious advantages—in the Australian water sec-
tor, Binz et al.’s (2016) report of problems to legitimize potable water reuse
in California, or Coombes et al.’s (2016) analysis of engineering and eco-
nomic assumptions belonging to the old paradigm impeding the adoption
of governance policies toward water cycle management.
Despite this so-called lock-in, a growing number of scholars, policymakers
and practitioners recognize the need for innovative approaches that derive
from the new paradigm. Salient examples include Singapore’s integration of
the whole water cycle (Jensen & Nair, 2019; Lee & Tan, 2016), urban design
responses that are sensitive to water environments in Melbourne (Australia)
(Brown et al., 2013; Ferguson, Brown, Frantzeskaki, et al., 2013), the use of
stormwater to enhance urban livability in Copenhagen (Denmark) (Franco-
Torres et al., 2020; Ziersen et al., 2017), and collaborative planning processes
in Rotterdam (The Netherlands) (de Graaf & van der Brugge, 2010; Dunn
et al., 2017).
Thorough analysis of these successful case studies often point to key factors
that supported the local adoption of new solutions, like the work of cham-
pions, the creation of communities of practice, the diffusion of narratives, or
the creation of pilot projects. We argue, however, that a broader enactment
of the new urban water paradigm could be accelerated with a better under-
standing of the paradigm itself, and an integrated definition of its constituent
elements, which so far remain dispersed and fragmented in the literature. A
plethora of normative water management frameworks that implicitly reflect
the new paradigm (Table 1) has emerged (Esmail & Suleiman, 2020; Furlong
et al., 2015; Schoeman et al., 2014), typically focusing on particular aspects of
management, theories, and methods incorporated from other disciplines.
These frameworks tend to be ambiguous (Biswas, 2004; Furlong et al., 2015;
Molle, 2008) and “remain open to a multitude of interpretations which pose
insurmountable obstacles in finding practical ways for their implementation”
(Saurı & del Moral, 2001, p. 352). We argue that this coexistence of similar
and ill-defined frameworks and terms means they tend to compete, hindering
understanding and the development of the discipline and associated practices.
The rampant diversity of partially overlapping terms used in the subfield of
urban drainage management serves as a prime example of the reigning confu-
sion (Chocat et al., 2001; Fletcher et al., 2015).
We therefore suggest that a transition to more sustainable and adaptive
urban water management could be accelerated if scholars, policymakers
and practitioners become conscious of their cognitive framings that may
limit the consideration of alternative solutions, and of the existence of an
2780 M. FRANCO-TORRES ET AL.
alternative and coherent paradigm that can more effectively respond to pre-
sent and future water-related needs (Abson et al., 2017; Meadows, 1999).
Certainly, there have been several insightful attempts to describe this
new water paradigm (Capodaglio et al., 2016; Gleick, 2000; Grigg, 1998;
Keath & Brown, 2009; Marlow et al., 2013; Ma et al., 2015; Mitchell, 2006;
Novotny et al., 2010; Pahl-Wostl et al., 2011; Pinkham, 1999; Schoeman
et al., 2014; Zandaryaa & Tejada-Guibert, 2009). However, these have not
engaged with an in-depth explanation of what a paradigm is, tending to list
characteristics that lack connection or a clear structure. They also tend to
emphasize a particular water service—either drinking water provision,
stormwater management, wastewater treatment, or water ecology—and
have scarce reference to their common philosophical foundations.
This article therefore aims to describe a coherent framework that holis-
tically connects the multiple ideas that underpin the new urban water para-
digm and its derived social and technological structures in the water sector,
across the different water services, and with particular attention to their
shared philosophical foundations—the same foundations that underpin the
broader social paradigm now emerging.
Figure 1. Urban water paradigm framework, encompassing three main categories and seven
themes. Philosophical foundations (grey) provide the basis for methodological principles
(orange), which further supports the operational articulations of UWSs (blue).
3. Philosophical foundations
3.1. Ontology
The understanding of reality that lies behind the old urban water para-
digm—its ontology—is deeply influence by classical Newtonian physics
(Dunn et al., 2016) and more concretely by its ontological reductionism
(Biswas, 2004). This perspective describes the world as an orderly place
where the similarities among elements are highlighted—and their dissimi-
larities neglected—in order to create a limited number of discrete and
homogeneous categories. These elements are assumed to be poorly inter-
connected. Their relationships are linear—i.e. propagate change proportion-
ally—and governed by few, simple, well-defined, deterministic, and
immutable laws that provide simplicity and regularity, creating subsystems
that are independent of their context and eternally oscillate within well-
defined boundaries (Guba, 1990; Mazzocchi, 2016). All these characteristics
suggest the metaphor of the world as a deterministic clockwork machine
(Capra & Luisi, 2014; Heylighen et al., 2007; Human & Cilliers, 2013;
Morin, 2007).
In contrast, the ontology of the new urban water paradigm is as a com-
plex system (Coombes & Kuczera, 2002; Voulvoulis et al., 2017). This
emphasizes the heterogeneity of elements and their strong interdepend-
ence, recognizing a holistic system behavior rather than focusing on the
study of the individual elements in isolation (Ackoff, 1991). There is not a
CRITICAL REVIEWS IN ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 2783
3.2. Epistemology
As for ontology, the quest for knowledge about the world in the old urban
water paradigm is heavily influenced by the classical Newtonian physics,
from which it inherits an epistemological reductionism (Morin, 2007). In
the same way that one can disassemble a clockwork to understand its
mechanisms, (epistemological) reductionism attempts to explain the func-
tioning of a well-defined system by analyzing its constituent elements and
their relationships. It involves the isolation of a subsystem from its context,
its fragmentation in smaller parts, and their classification in homogenous
categories. Then, it defines the relationship among parts to finally infer the
“regular” behavior of the whole system, and predict its future state
(Kofman & Senge, 1993; Mazzocchi, 2016). Relying on reductionism, the
“apparent” complexity is never a hindrance for the acquisition of know-
ledge, as it is assumed that all systems can be reduced to simpler ones in
order to be easily understood.
However, this reduction to simplicity does not eliminate complexity, it
just makes it invisible by neglecting the particularities of the constituent
parts, their rich and dynamic relationships, and their dependence on the
context (Morin, 2007). Whereas reductionism may be an acceptable
explanatory approach to well-defined and isolated problems (like basic
water services), its utility to understand and predict complex, open, and
dynamic systems (such as the urban water services demanded by industrial-
ized societies today) is limited (Cilliers, 1998; Kofman & Senge, 1993).
Unfortunately, the distinction between simple and complex is not always
straightforward (Andersson et al., 2014; Kurtz & Snowden, 2003). From the
point of view of an observer embedded in a complex system, everything
may appear simple: its own properties, the short-range relationships with
its neighboring elements, and the extension of the system are known.
However, this same observer is usually unaware about the dependence on
its context, the feedback effects of its own actions, and the emergent phe-
nomena at the system level. A complex system is, therefore, incompressible
(Richardson & Cilliers, 2001); any model that perfectly mimics its behavior
must be at least as complex as the systems themselves, easily surpassing the
human capacity of understanding. Then uncertainty is not about external
randomness, but rather about the observer’s lack of knowledge (epistemic
uncertainty) (di Baldassarre et al., 2016). This realization has influenced the
epistemology of the new urban water paradigm, which has shifted from
reductionism to holism, highlighting the contextual, dynamic, and always
uncertain nature of knowledge.
In particular, the embracing of uncertainty is a key epistemological trans-
formation. Relying on the power of reductionism and the deterministic
nature of reality, the old paradigm is self-confident and predictive. It
CRITICAL REVIEWS IN ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 2785
Figure 2. Alternative narratives (green and brown lines) provide situated explanations of a
complex system (blue network) that do not necessarily contradict the underlying reality (the
dots represent scientific “hard” facts). This figure is inspired by Cilliers (1998, p. 130).
3.3. Axiology
In our review of ontology and epistemology we saw that the old urban
water paradigm is essentially anthropocentric; the “external reality” is
reduced to only those things that humans can observe or understand.
Complexity and an ecological perspective are largely disregarded, largely
due to the lack of the cognitive capacity (Simon, 1997) and analytical tools
(Kellert, 1994) necessary to understand them. Unsurprisingly then, the fun-
damental values that steer behavior in the old paradigm (axiology) are also
fundamentally anthropocentric; subsistence and (economic) growth. These
are translated into a few universal, independent, and easily identifiable
needs that typically include the provision of sufficient and safe drinking
water, sanitation, and drainage (de Graaf et al., 2007; Gleick, 2000; Pahl-
Wostl et al., 2011; Sofoulis, 2005), eclipsing any other “superfluous” needs.
This approach derives from an instrumental view of nature (Beck et al.,
2003), which is regarded as a neutral context that lacks any intrinsic value.
Nature is simultaneously seen as an unlimited source of resources, which
CRITICAL REVIEWS IN ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 2787
4. Methodology
Within a paradigm, a problem can be conceptualized as the factor that
opens a gap between the present state and desired (optimal or sustainable)
state where certain needs are effectively fulfilled. Building on the Merriam-
Webster dictionary definition, this conceptualization leads to an under-
standing of methodology as “a body of methods, rules, and postulates
employed by a discipline” to acquire knowledge or solve problems.
Similarly, in the case of a paradigm, we interpret a methodology as a set of
(methodological) principles, designed to modify or regulate the present state
of things, solve concrete problems, and approximate to a desired state.
These principles are shaped by the paradigm’s philosophical foundations
and used as a guide to define a regulator. From the point of view of cyber-
netics, regulators are sub-systems that locally constrain the variation of a
wider system in which it is embedded (its sociotechnical-environmental
context) within certain bounds in order to fulfill a certain set of needs
(Ackoff, 1991; Ashby, 1956).
an UWS that projects the stationarity and simplicity of its context and
problems, while the new paradigm’s methodology promotes an UWS that
mimics the complexity and dynamism of its context and problems.
greater flood risk (Castonguay, 2007; Wolsink, 2010). Instead, the new
paradigm is inclined toward the development of resilience (Folke, 2006;
Holling, 1973) as a regulative function to fulfill human and environmen-
tal needs.
Certainly, resilience has become a buzzword in academia and policy over
the last decade, receiving varied—and sometimes contraposed—interpreta-
tions (Bene et al., 2014; Davoudi, 2012; Folke, 2006). For example, engineer-
ing resilience refers to the capacity of a system to quickly recover from a
range of disturbances and maintain its ability to deliver its single intended
function (de Bruijn et al., 2017; Holling & Meffe, 1996). This interpretation
is more aligned with the old urban water paradigm, which aims to resist
change by building up a threshold capacity to buffer contextual variations
(Gleick, 2000), rigidly controlling the system and keeping it in homeostasis.
In contrast, the definition of resilience we attribute to the new paradigm,
aligned with the concept of procedural sustainability, is the so-called evolu-
tionary resilience (Davoudi, 2012). This resilience can be defined as the cap-
acity of a regulatory system to continuously adapt to changes, identify
synergies, and avoid conflicts with its environment in order to deliver a
timely and convenient set of variable functions (Berkes et al., 2008; Simmie
& Martin, 2010; Walker et al., 2004). This approach is radically opposed to
the control methodology of the old paradigm and its engineering resilience,
which seeks to force and dominate the environment to permanently yield a
concrete output. Evolutionary resilience requires then relentless efforts of
adjustment to ever changing values, knowledge and physical variables
(Darnhofer et al., 2016; Takala, 2017), without losing fundamental structures
that give continuity to the system (Herrfahrdt-Pahle & Pahl-Wostl, 2012).
The design of flood-prone neighborhoods serves as a good illustrative
example (Hale, 2016; Rode & Gralepois, 2017), where resilience is achieved
through a range of measures (e.g. elevated buildings, flow-through neighbor-
hoods, water storage, reduction of imperviousness) that reduce risks and
simultaneous support new functions that improve urban livability.
We have identified four pairs of opposite principles that contrast the
control methodology of the old paradigm and the resilience methodology
of the new paradigm: stationarity vs learning, homogenization vs variety,
fragmentation vs integration, and centralization vs distribution. Later we
will explore how these four principles, shaped by the philosophical founda-
tions of each paradigm, become reified as the operational articulations of
the UWS.
Figure 3. UWSs operate under non-stationary conditions (green line) (Milly et al., 2008). The
old paradigm assumes stationarity; based on past behavior predicts that the conditions will
remain within a certain range (blue stripe). Due to emergent phenomena (unknown unknowns
(di Baldassarre et al., 2016)) the conditions unexpectedly move out of the predefined stability
threshold. Contrarily, the new paradigm does not assume a fixed stability threshold, but con-
tinuously experiments (brown dots) to temporarily adjust to new conditions (brown verti-
cal bars).
and incorporate new ones (Burnham et al., 2016; Gunderson & Holling,
2002; Jiggins et al., 2007; Schelfaut et al., 2011; Wolsink, 2010).
In contrast to the predictive approach of the old paradigm, the new para-
digm turns to other type of learning that could be called abstract experi-
mentation (also referred as possibilistic thinking (Clarke, 2008), what-if
analysis (Brown et al., 2015), or counterfactual thought experiments (Klotz
& Horman, 2010)). This type of experimentation consists of creating a
range of hypothetical future scenarios (Ingram & Lejano, 2007; Novotny
et al., 2010; Schoonenboom, 1995), typically narratives of success (dream
scenarios) or narratives of failure (nightmare scenarios) that project back-
wards to the present, providing guidance for action.
Figure 4. Types of system configurations. Adapted from (Baran, 1964). The points indicate units
of production or consumption (differences in shape, size and color indicate their homogeneity),
while the lines indicate their links to exchange resources and information.
are not exclusively dependent on a central node and that the nodes are
geographically dispersed, but in addition it requires that the elements are
connected to exchange resources and information to (ideally) all adjacent
elements (Baran, 1964; Ryan, 2009). These “nodes” are semi-autonomous
agents, meaning that they “work” at a range of scales; they both function
autonomously, and they function as a part of a larger system generating
emergent behaviors. Distributed systems are in general terms more resilient
than both centralized and decentralized systems (C. Biggs et al., 2009;
Chanan et al., 2009). They reduce risks, increase efficiency, and are more
flexible and adaptable (Baran, 1964).
5. Operational articulations
Earlier, we conceptualized UWSs as regulators of their context that aim to
solve water-related problems and fulfill water-related needs. They include
aspects of governance, management, and infrastructures that reify some
methodological principles, which in turn are shaped by the philosophical
foundations of their corresponding paradigm.
In the old urban water paradigm, UWSs are meant to fulfill few, well-
defined, immutable and non-contested needs (like drinking water provi-
sion, sanitation, and drainage) (Pahl-Wostl et al., 2011). This means that in
order to achieve those well-defined goals, old management focuses on how
to physically control nature and keep it within optimal bounds. The UWS
of the old paradigm is therefore largely a material or technical issue (Saurı
& del Moral, 2001; Swyngedouw, 1999).
In contrast, the new urban water paradigm sees water not only as a
material issue, but also as a social issue (Zwarteveen & Boelens, 2014). It
CRITICAL REVIEWS IN ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 2795
5.1. Governance
The old paradigm assumes that it is possible to rationally design a simple
and rigid institutional framework that provides guidance toward the
optimal fulfillment of a few universal and undisputed water needs, includ-
ing a small set of formal rules that keep human behavior in check—largely
ignoring social or cultural variability (Bakker, 2010; Ioris, 2008; Pahl-
Wostl, 2008).
The design of this rational system of rules and policies is the duty of a
select group of actors with well-defined roles (the government) that are
organized in rigid, centralized, hierarchical structures. The final decision-
makers—usually politicians—are at the top, far from the resources that are
being managed (Castonguay, 2007; Chandler, 2014), and carry the ultimate
responsibility for water services (Turton & Meissner, 2002). They concen-
trate the authority, power, legitimacy, and information to rationally control
the system by imposing formal coercive rules (Bakker, 2010). These deci-
sion-makers are supported by experts (Brown, 2005)—often engineers
(Ingram & Schneider, 1998)—who have access to the “unique” truth. At
the bottom of the hierarchy are the operators and consumers, whose par-
ticipation in the policy design and rule-making is deemed as unnecessary
or even detrimental (Bagheri & Hjorth, 2007; Schoeman et al., 2014; van
Dijk, 2012), as the “right” technical decisions are already defined by
experts: the beneficiaries of urban water services are mere rule-followers
(Turton & Meissner, 2002).
However, when the old style of governance tries to engage with growing
institutional complexity, where stakeholders have conflicting values, inter-
ests, agendas and horizons, sector-specific policies and rules become
contradictory (Zandaryaa & Tejada-Guibert, 2009); governance becomes
fragmented and multiple contestations and interferences emerge (Brown &
Farrelly, 2009; Segrave et al., 2014). Governance problems become wicked.
The new paradigm fully recognizes that these problems transcend science
and technology (Funtowicz & Ravetz, 1993; Weinberg, 1972) and cannot be
optimally and permanently solved, fostering instead the coherence of local
governance with its social context (Gonzales & Ajami, 2017; Neto, 2016;
Wade, 2011) and the internal integration of policies and rules that affect
the UWS. This integration requires wide participation of all actors
2796 M. FRANCO-TORRES ET AL.
(Brandes & Kriwoken, 2006; Carr et al., 2012; Zandaryaa & Tejada-Guibert,
2009), with active engagement on the definition of problems and the design
of coherent and synergistic policies and rules across sectors (Ananda &
Proctor, 2013; Everard & McInnes, 2013; Mitchell, 2006). More concretely,
participation is deemed essential to: gather diverse resources, skills, know-
ledge, values, interests and needs (Allon & Sofoulis, 2006; Arnold, 2013;
Jameson & Baud, 2016; Rijke et al., 2013; van der Brugge, 2009; van Dijk,
2012); harness enthusiasm and commitment (Patterson et al., 2013;
Sofoulis, 2015); provide transparency, trust, and equity (Dietz et al., 2003;
Domenech et al., 2013; Hahn et al., 2006; Wolsink, 2010); and confer legit-
imacy on the selected alternatives (Hering et al., 2013; Sofoulis, 2015).
This new governance (Osborne, 2010) is distributed in clusters (also
referred to as network or polycentric governance). These clusters create part-
nerships between diverse actors through interactions to find synergies and
negotiate conflicting interests (Bos et al., 2015; Pahl-Wostl et al., 2008;
Torfing et al., 2012). For example, between public agencies specializing in
different sectors (not only for water provision, sanitation, or flood preven-
tion, but also other sectors like transport, energy, urbanism and recreation),
private actors (like technology providers, consultants or land developers),
research actors (like universities and research centers) and civil society
organizations (like NGOs and neighborhood associations). These interac-
tions are conducted not only through formal relationships, but also through
informal (shadow) networks (Bos et al., 2015).
At the same time, there is a shift from the few rigid roles in the old
paradigm to a wide variety of overlapping and flexible roles. For example,
government agencies like water utilities are not only supply developers, but
also resource custodians and information providers (Brown et al., 2009;
Pires, 2004; Prasad Pandey & Kazama, 2014). For distributed infrastruc-
tures, consumers also become producers (prosumers) (Novotny et al., 2010;
Sofoulis, 2015) of their own water supply or wastewater, and private com-
petitors also become collaborators to achieve synergistic solutions. All those
actors are dependent on each other to fulfill their duties and goals. For
example, public water utilities are often dependent on private contractors
or consultants to deliver the desired water service.
Hence, governance in the new paradigm is not the exclusive function of
the government (Gleick, 2000; van de Meene et al., 2011; van Dijk, 2012);
it is the collaborative effort of a group of actors with access to power, legit-
imacy, information, and knowledge in varying degrees, which aim to carry
out enterprises that often involve conflicting interests (Costa et al., 2012)—
water services become everybody’s responsibility (Turton & Meissner,
2002). The outcomes of this distributed governance are collaboratively cre-
ated and emergent, instead of rationally planned by an elite (Bos & Brown,
CRITICAL REVIEWS IN ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 2797
5.2. Management
The regulative function of management in the old urban water paradigm
has a clear bias toward simplification and homogenization. For example,
water is classified in binary: it is either fit or unfit for consumption, it is a
resource or a waste (Bindra et al., 2003; Partzsch, 2009; Pinkham, 1999).
Potable water, the highest water quality, is employed for all purposes (one-
size-fits-all), including drinking, irrigation and toilet flushing. After its use,
it is considered a waste and conveyed to the sewer, regardless of its quality
or new characteristics. Compare this with the new urban water paradigm,
which considers that all water is valuable, even when it is of low quality
(Listowski et al., 2009; Wilcox et al., 2016). Here, water of the highest qual-
ity is used for human consumption, while lower quality water can be used
for different non-consumptive purposes by matching it with their intended
use (fit-for-purpose) (Gikas & Tchobanoglous, 2007; Lee & Tan, 2016;
Makropoulos et al., 2018).
Another example is stormwater, which, in the old paradigm, is always
considered a nuisance that must invariably be drained away by under-
ground pipes—the only and standard structural solution. Conversely, in the
new paradigm stormwater is seen as a valuable resource that contributes to
improving urban amenity (Martin et al., 2007). Stormwater management
tools are also manifold (Chocat et al., 2001; Hale, 2016; Marsalek &
Schreier, 2009; Meinzen-Dick, 2007), including structural and technical sol-
utions (like various green infrastructures or more traditional infrastruc-
tures), economic incentives and disincentives (like markets, insurances,
innovative rate structures, taxes, rebates, or subsidies), or sociopolitical
instruments (like benchmarking systems, educational and behavioral pro-
grams, water rights, changes in routines, or even organizational reforms).
The few, simple problems and solutions considered by the old paradigm
are managed as if they were independent from other subsystems, while the
new paradigm pays attention to the linkages between multiple problems
and multiple solutions. For instance, while drinking water provision, sanita-
tion, and urban drainage have traditionally been managed as independent
subsystems in the water sector (Anderson & Iyaduri, 2003; Mukheibir
et al., 2014), the new paradigm focuses on the coordinated management of
these water services (Mitchell, 2006; Ross, 2018; Vairavamoorthy et al.,
2798 M. FRANCO-TORRES ET AL.
(Arden et al., 2019; Chocat et al., 2001; Grant et al., 2012; Ma et al., 2015;
Novotny et al., 2010), use of which saves costs, prevents pollution and
avoids the depletion of their sources (Chanan et al., 2013; Hemmes et al.,
2011; van der Hoek et al., 2016; Wallace et al., 2017).
This type of management approaches also aligns with so-called nature-
based (“green”) solutions for water (WWAP, 2018), which utilize ecosys-
tems that can potentially deliver any water-related service that humans
might require (MEA, 2005; Schuch et al., 2017)—for example, flood risk
management and natural drainage (Pappalardo et al., 2017), water purifica-
tion (Everard & McInnes, 2013), urban cooling (Norton et al., 2015;
Schmidt, 2010), support of biodiversity (Filazzola et al., 2019), or even
enhancement of physical and psychological health (Tzoulas et al., 2007)—
often with lower costs and higher efficiencies than those of the “grey” solu-
tions. Context-sensitive management requires then a local management
style that benefits from intimate knowledge of local characteristics (like
ecology, geomorphology, infrastructures, urban form, demographics, rules,
standards and cultural characteristics) seen from an integrated perspective
(Ferguson, Brown, & Deletic, 2013; Marlow et al., 2013; Mitchell, 2006;
Rygaard et al., 2014).
Finally, management planning clearly reflects an epistemological trans-
formation in shifting from the old to the new urban water paradigm. The
old paradigm relies on isolated mathematical models that are regarded as
prediction machines to find optimal solutions that unambiguously point
toward the “right” course of action. Contrast this with the management
planning of the new paradigm, which aims at producing pragmatic illustra-
tions of reality (Bach et al., 2014; Deletic et al., 2018; Schmitt & Huber,
2006) and does not dismiss predictive models but combines them in a pro-
cess of iterative and situated bricolage. It integrates their results (Brouwer
& van Ek, 2004; Croke et al., 2007; Zhou, 2014) to produce hypothetical
scenarios and narratives that improve the understanding of complex UWSs
and support—but never settle—the decision making process (Bagheri &
Hjorth, 2007; Rygaard et al., 2014; Westley et al., 2011).
5.3. Infrastructures
Infrastructures are the physical manifestation of urban water paradigms,
reflecting their understanding of reality, relationship with nature and most
important needs and values.
Considering that the old paradigm aims at physically forcing natural
processes into certain linear processes to fulfill human needs, it is not sur-
prising that in this frame, UWSs becomes a mechanical and technocratic
issue (Capodaglio et al., 2016; de Bruijn, 2004; Wolsink, 2010), with focus
2800 M. FRANCO-TORRES ET AL.
Figure 5. (a) In the old paradigm, hard infrastructures are the dominant factor, the socioeco-
nomic environment is perceived as simple, and the natural environment is reduced to a con-
tainer for the resources that need controlling and as a sink for residuals. Linear production
(one-way flow) results in the depletion of resources and the proportional creation of pollution.
The products and services produced are few and the capital costs high. Adapted from Sahely
et al. (2005). (b) In the new paradigm, infrastructures merge with the complex socioeconomic
and natural environment, supporting circular flows of resources without residuals, and generat-
ing multiple products and services. The capital compromised is low as the system is more effi-
cient and self-sustaining.
Funding
This work was supported by the Norwegian Research Council under Grant number
257267; and the Swedish Research Council for Environment, Agricultural Sciences and
Spatial Planning (Formas) under grant number 2016-00859.
ORCID
Manuel Franco-Torres http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5715-0964
Briony C. Rogers http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1780-127X
Robin Harder http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5723-1684
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