IRS Institut für Regionalentwicklung und Strukturplanung Infrastructure stress from negative...

IRS Institut für Regionalentwicklung und Strukturplanung

Infrastructure stress from

negative consumption

and the re-ordering of

consumer-utility relations

Timothy Moss

IRS – Institute for Regional Development

and Structural Planning, Erkner (Germany)

[email protected]

UKWIR workshop series “Traces of water: Developing the social science of domestic water consumption”, London, 9 February 2006


Structure:

1. From water stress to infrastructure stress: a shifting narrative of ‘crisis’ in the Berlin region

2. Challenging the “modern infrastructural ideal”

3. Re-ordering consumer-utility relations in practice

a) The case of cost allocation

b) The case of technological innovation

4. Questions for discussion


1. From water stress to infrastructure stress

Drivers of the water stress scenario, early 1990s :

• Anticipated population growth

• Anticipated strong regional economic development (encroaching on water protection zones)

• Anticipated increase in water consumption as living standards rise

• Planned expansion of infrastructure networks

• Recognition of limits to regional water resources (low precipitation, over-exploitation for agriculture/industry, reduced mining water extractions, …)

Responses……………


Water saving campaign:

(BWB, 1995)


Water management plan for Berlin metropolitan area:

(MUNR/SenStadtUm, 1994)


Schemes for re-directing water flows:

(Moss, 2001)


Realities of consumption……..


Water consumption in Berlin, 1960-1996


Water consumption in Eastern Germany, 1991-1998

WATER SUPPLIED BY PUBLIC WATER UTILITIES TO END-USERS

IN EASTERN GERMANY

50

60

70

80

90

100

1991 1995 1998

Pe

rce

nta

ge

Berlin

Brandenburg

Mecklenburg-WesternPomerania Saxony

Saxony-Anhalt

Thuringia

Eastern Germany


Explanations for the decline in water consumption:

• Not in response to above plans and schemes, or even to water- saving campaign, rather:

• Massive deindustrialisation >>> loss of major water consumers• Introduction of ‘full cost’ pricing in E. Berlin/Germany• Replacement of domestic and industrial appliances with

modern, water-saving versions

Additional contributory factors to over-capacity:

• Legacy of network expansion in divided Berlin• Post-reunification network expansion and upgrading in East• Substantial regional development funding focussed on

infrastructure systems in E. Germany• Municipalisation of water supply / sanitation as part of

democratisation process• Dominance of large-scale, centralised technical solutions


Novel problems of chronic over-capacity:

• Physical/technical:– Slow thro-flow threatens water quality, increases risk of pipe

corrosion, creates odours from sewers

• Physical/structural:– Reduced water consumption >>> rising groundwater levels >>>

damp/flooded cellars

• Environmental:– Water wastage through flushing (“artificial consumption”)

• Economic/financial:– Repayment of investments requires high unit costs

• Economic/social:– Affordability of spiralling prices (high fixed costs)

& challenge to underlying logics of infrastructure management …


2. Challenging the “modern infrastructural ideal”

“Modern infrastructural ideal of the integrated, networked city” (Graham/Marvin 2001) developed on 4 pillars:

1. Ideological trust in the modernising and civilising impacts of urban infrastructures

2. Theories and practices of modern urban planning: infrastructures bringing order to the fragmented form; city as ‘machine’ or ‘organism’; mastering nature

3. Infrastructures supporting new types of mass-scale production and consumption >>> parallel standardisation of technical networks

4. Nation states and municipalities supporting drive for ‘natural monopolies’ providing universal services; supply-oriented strategies of infrastructure roll-out


Problematising the “modern infrastructural ideal” (Graham/Marvin 2001)

1. The urban infrastructure ‘crisis’: deterioration of services, 1970s-

2. Changing political economies of infrastructure development: privatisation, competition, unbundling

3. Collapse of the notion of comprehensive urban planning: technocratic, ineffective, selective

4. Physical growth of metropolitan regions: scale, unevenness

5. Challenge of social movements and critiques: environmental, feminist, consumer, post-colonial


Challenges to “extend-and-supply” / “predict-and-provide” logics:

• Water consumption not following ever-upward curve to meet (extended) capacity

• Consumption levels harder to predict

• Growing spatial differentiation undermining ideal of universality

• Notion of “the consumer” under scrutiny

– the missing consumer, the non-compliant consumer, the network as consumer

• Relevance and direction of demand management in question

• Infrastructure a liability, not just an asset

– Path dependency of infrastructure systems restricting future options

Declining consumption, over-capacity and the „modern infrastructural ideal“


3. Re-ordering consumer-utility relations in practice

Initial responses of Berlin utility to over-capacity:

1. Reduce investments, limit financial risks

2. Reduce infrastructure where possible: closing STPs, WWs, re-routing flows, downscaling when retrofitting

3. Raise unit prices, introduce (higher) flat rates……….


a) The case of cost allocation

Utility passes increased unit costs of past

investments/maintenance on to consumers

Consumers reduce consumption to minimise costs

Utility sees consumers as part of the problem, not the solution “The water quantity problem here is that people are not using enough

water for our infrastructure” (engineer at Berlin Water Utility)

>>> strategy of disengagement (cf. water-saving campaigns of past)

Consumers see selves as captive customers of (now) part-privatised utility

– Weak link in the chain of beneficiaries (municipalities, environment, workforce)


Relations at crisis point in rural Brandenburg

• Higher levels of over-capacity

• Higher investment debts

• Massive population decline

• Spiralling unit costs for water/sanitation

>>> Hunger strikes

>>> Protest marches

>>> Challenging obligatory connection to local water/sanitation utility


b) The case of technological innovation

‘Soakaways’ in Berlin’s new development sites: unearthing water flows, uncovering social relations

Total new development

area

Areas of stormwater percolation

Karow-Nord 147 ha. 52 ha.

Rummelsburger Bucht

64 ha. 35 ha.

Adlershof 382 ha. 185 ha.

‘Openings’ for large-scale use of soakaways despite over-capacity:

1. Focus on water quality (stormwater run-off)

2. Resilience to new uncertainties of consumption

3. Compatibility with centralised sewer system

4. Huge cost of alternatives (underground retention basins)


How the technology affects social relations

Wider range of actors involved:

• landscape architects, property owners, developers, parks

departments, water protection agency, …

Re-negotiation of responsibilities between actors:

..... over the use of space

..... over rainwater disposal

..... over damage liability

..... over the distribution of costs


“By studying phases in which technical systems undergo radical change, we might expect to gain new insights into basic dynamics and properties of these systems”

(Summerton 1994:2)

4. Questions for discussion

1. In what ways does the issue of declining consumption and network over-capacity challenge conventional understandings of demand, consumption and the consumer?

2. Is the willingness of utilities to engage closely with consumers dependent on their perception of whether consumers can be enrolled to support their strategies?

3. How are consumption practices caught up in wider social, political and economic development issues? What does this mean for the ways water managers need to work with the often hidden interdependencies between cities and their infrastructures?

4. What does the Berlin experience tell us about the vulnerability of apparently stable and entrenched infrastructure systems to pressures for change and their ability to respond?


http://www.irs-net.de/

IRS Institut für Regionalentwicklung und Strukturplanung Infrastructure stress from negative...

Documents

Transcript of IRS Institut für Regionalentwicklung und Strukturplanung Infrastructure stress from negative...