Page - (000009) - in The Power of Urban Water - Studies in premodern urbanism

AnnetteHaugandUlrichMüller 1 Introduction UrbanWater Urbanity constitutes a crucial form of settlement organization. Urban agglomerations can be described as social, economic, and cultural ‘hubs’ within dynamic networks. Today, half of humanity lives in cities and,within twodecades, nearly 60%of theworld’spopulationwill be urban dwellers.1 However, even premodern, agricultural societies often follow a ‘centralized’ modeof dwelling. The present volume takes a very specific perspective on themanifold aspects of urban ag- glomerations: It puts the aspect of urbanwater in its centre. Of theworld’s totalwater supply, over 96% is saline (seas and oceans), whereas of total freshwater, over 68% is locked up in ice and glaciers. Another 30% of freshwater is in the ground. Surface freshwater (lakes and rivers)makeuponly 1.2%of earth’swater.2 Butwater is essential to life; it is therefore hardly surprising that water is essential for the development of societies too and that amultitude of culturalpracticeshaveemergedtomanagewaterasaresource–onecouldsaythatcivilisations are built onwater.3 The importance ofwater and itsmanagement as a resource is underlined, for example, by the fact that, in 2019, the pre-modernwatermanagement systemof the city of Augsburgwas inscribedon theWorldHeritageList.4 Water thus also constitutes a central factor of urbanity. ‘Water is the only universal urban resource that in this sense is amust and that can be controlled in this strict understanding of the word’.5 Many crafts, trades and proto-industrial facilities needwater: tanners or brewers, but also blacksmiths, potters, butchers or bakers.Water, however, is not only a crucial urban resource, it affectsall aspectsofurbanity. Thehydrological conditionscreatea specific ‘embed- ding’ into a ‘natural’ environment from which arise specific health conditions, but also the availability and breeds of specific animal species and the cultivation of specific plants. These latter twoaspectsarekey to specificurbandiets. Furthermore, inmanycitieswater ismanaged by specific infrastructural measures: aqueducts/pipes, fountains or cisterns for water supply, sewer canals forwastewater, drainage systems. Besides suchmeasures ofwatermanagement, bridges andharbour installations (e.g.moles) are crucial for the infrastructural embedding of water into a built environment. Consequently, the presence or absence of rivers and the sea is key to urbanpractices and the perception and aesthetic quality of urban agglomerations. This holds true fordaily routines, for specific (e.g. religious) rituals, for specific economies,butalso for forms of trading (e.g. seafaring). As a consequence, not only the town itself, but also the surrounding countryside is dependent onwater systemsand the respective actions involved. Historyof research Thehistoryof research6 reveals thatstudiesonwaterwithinurbanagglomerationshaveusually focusedonspecific aspects–be it theanalysis of specificbuildingsor infrastructuralmeasures 1 Burdett –Rode–Groth 2018, 10. 2 <https://water.usgs.gov/edu/earthhowmuch.html> (29.09.2018). 3 See theUnitedNationsWorldWaterDevelopmentReport, publishedonayearlybasis, availableonline: <https:// www.​ unesco.​ de/kultur-und-natur/wasser-und-ozeane/wasser> (02.08.2019). 4 <https://​ whc.unesco.org/en/list/1580/> (29.08.2019). 5 Tvedt–Oestigaard 2014b, 2; see alsoKonold 2004;Brantz 2017. 6 The bibliography is endless – we only give examples. The bibliography on ancient water studies was partly compiled by Nicola Chiarenza. For medieval water, see these databases: Akademie derWissenschaften und der OpenAccess.©2020AnnetteHaugandUlrichMüller, publishedbyDeGruyter. Thiswork is licensedunder the CreativeCommonsAttribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives4.0 License. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110677065-001