Abstract
In this chapter, we take a close look at 19th century Vienna and discuss the sociometabolic transition from an agrarian to an industrial sociometabolic regime in a local urban context. We identify the challenges this rapid transformation of the city posed for the existing disposal infrastructure, and we investigate how city officials responded to these challenges and what type of legacies for present river-city-relations were created. In the second half of the 19th century, Vienna was transforming to an industrial city. Population numbers were rising rapidly, and widespread urbanization took place. With the increase in urban metabolism, output flows multiplied. The older disposal system was incapable of coping with this increased amount of waste and wastewater, which placed enormous pressure on the urban waterscape. After years of intense debate about the optimal disposal system, urban authorities decided to construct a water-borne sewage system. The many small streams intersecting the urban area were vaulted and integrated into the sewage system. A disposal system was created that constantly needed a certain amount of water input and regular maintenance to fulfill its functions. The disposal system created structures of river-city relations that persist to the present day. The aim of this chapter is to shed new light on how large-scale processes such as changes in urban metabolism, urbanization, industrialization and the transition of the energy system are realized at the local level and in an urban context.
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Notes
- 1.
An intercepting sewer collects the wastewater from the smaller sewers that are connected to the houses and transports the collected sewage to the place where it is discharged.
- 2.
Including the suburbs incorporated in 1890/92.
- 3.
Retrieved from http://www.wien.gv.at/kultur/kulturgut/plaene/generalstadtplan.html [Accessed: April 6, 2013].
- 4.
Numbers refer to the city of Vienna in its changing boundaries.
- 5.
In a combined sewage system, rainwater and wastewater from household and industry are discharged together. In a separated sewage system, rainwater is discharged separately from wastewater.
- 6.
In the Liernur system, named after a Dutch military engineer, rainwater and wastewater were disposed of separately. The wastewater was drained pneumatically via pipes and was collected for agricultural reuse (Buiter 2006).
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Gierlinger, S., Neundlinger, M. (2016). Cleaning a Metropolis: The History of Vienna’s Sewage System. In: Haberl, H., Fischer-Kowalski, M., Krausmann, F., Winiwarter, V. (eds) Social Ecology. Human-Environment Interactions, vol 5. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-33326-7_24
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