Political ecological perspectives on an indicator-based urban water framework

Abstract

Water security is a key challenge in the 21st century. Consequently, several indicator-based frameworks exist to evaluate this issue along with water management. We use a political ecological perspective to identify if the City Blueprint Approach (CBA) integrates aspects of hydrosociality to assess urban water security. Aiming to critically examine the CBA through the lens of political ecology and different concepts of hydrosociality, we identify three problems -hybridity, spatial scale and power structures -hindering the representation of hydrosocial relations within the CBA. Finally, the benefits of integrating hydrosocial and political ecological conceptualizations into quantitative urban water frameworks are discussed.

Place of Social, Cultural, and Ecological Water Values for Promoting Water Security in Delhi, India

“…For example, the values of efficiency and commoditization lead to the potential to make water a commodity which can be bought and sold freely in the marketplace, restricting access to potable water to only those who can pay [2][3][4][5][6][7]. The current scholarship is full of political economy and political ecology perspectives on water [8][9][10][11][12]. The socialization of water provisioning is inclusive, which makes access to water affordable and universal [13,14].…”