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Contemporary society is an “informational” or “networked” society, actualized by individuals engaging in communication processes that take place in online social networks. While interpreting “traces” as “documents in archives (which) for the most part come from witnesses in spite of themselves” ((Ricoeur, Memory, history, forgetting. University of Chicago Press, 2009: 171), we will explore how the users of virtual communities consider and use these traces in different ways than originally intended, thus acquiring different meanings. In specific, we will focus on two research questions in this chapter: (1) What are the features of the information that are left unintentionally by the users of virtual communities? and (2) What is the role of such unintentional information in virtual communities? In order to answer these research questions, we use data gathered by means of 49 semi-structured qualitative interviews (see Agostini & Mechant, International Journal Of Electrical, Electronics And Data Communication (IJEEDC) 3:19–23, 2015). Results show how the members of virtual communities play an active role in decoding “traces” as they rely on their own social contexts and are capable of changing messages themselves through collective action. We also demonstrate that sense of community is mediated by community awareness and that the regular exchange of information has a positive effect on the different dimensions that support sense of community.

Water is a vital asset used in public and private activities, both with domestic and productive targets. As freshwater is unevenly and irregularly scattered, some regions of the world acutely suffer from water scarcity. Limited access to safe drinking water and lack of adequate sanitation facilities in most devel- oping countries, as the rapid urbanization, have caused serious water scarcity and water pollution problems. Then, the global warming caused by burning of fossil fuels has negative impacts on the hydrological cycle and consequently unfavorable changes in water quality. In the Mediterranean basin, some regions, as the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), are encountering sever social, economic and environmental issues related to water management. As the UN Agenda 2030 Sustainable Development Goal 6 points out it's irreversible to ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all. Finally, it is possible to make the growing urban areas more sustainable (Goal 11), assuming water not more as a losing item for the MENA Region development, but as a strategic tool for facing persistent imbalances and for riding the overwhelming changes.