 |
| Titel |
Urban metabolism and river systems: an historical perspective – Paris and the Seine, 1790-1970 |
| VerfasserIn |
S. Barles |
| Medientyp |
Artikel
|
| Sprache |
Englisch
|
| ISSN |
1027-5606
|
| Digitales Dokument |
URL |
| Erschienen |
In: Hydrology and Earth System Sciences ; 11, no. 6 ; Nr. 11, no. 6 (2007-11-15), S.1757-1769 |
| Datensatznummer |
250009539
|
| Publikation (Nr.) |
 copernicus.org/hess-11-1757-2007.pdf |
|
|
|
|
|
| Zusammenfassung |
The aim of this paper is to analyse metabolic interaction between Paris and
the Seine during the industrial era, 1790–1970, a period marked by strong
population growth, technological changes, and the absence of specific
legislation on environmental issues. The viewpoint focuses on exchanges of
waters and wastes between city and river, quantifying them and tracing their
evolution in the light of the strategies implemented by the stakeholders in
charge. The study combines industrial ecology, local history and the history
of technology.
From 1790 to 1850, waste matters, and especially excreta, were considered as
raw materials, not refuse: they generated real profits. The removal of human
excreta aimed not only at improving urban hygiene, but at producing the
fertilizers needed in rural areas. Discharging them into the river was out
of the question. But after the 1860s, several factors upset this
exploitation, notably domestic water supply: night soil became more and more
liquid, difficult to handle and to turn into fertilizer; once utilised, the
water had to be removed from the house; at the same time, the sewerage
system developed and had negative impacts on the river. Even so, Parisian
engineers continued to process sewage using techniques that would not only
ensure hygiene but also conciliate economic and agricultural interests:
combined sewerage system and sewage farms. Both of these early periods are
thus noteworthy for a relative limitation of the river's deterioration by
urban wastes. Not until the 1920s, when domestic water supply had become the
standard and excreta came to be considered as worthless waste, was the
principle of valorisation abandoned. This led to important and long-lasting
pollution of the Seine (despite the construction of a treatment plant),
aggravating the industrial pollution that had been in evidence since the
1840s.
Analysing the priorities that led to the adoption of one principle or
another in matters of urban hygiene and techniques, with the causes and
consequences of such changes, enables us to understand the complex relations
between Paris and the Seine. From raw material to waste matter, from river
to drain, the concept of quality in environment remains the underlying
theme. |
| |
|
| Teil von |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|