A tsunami is an unpredictable and rather rare event. But everyone now knows, even in light of the much talk of Climate Change that too much water (just as too little) means death and destruction.
We seem helpless in the face of the power of water but it is fair to remember that man has the skills to live happily with water cycles, especially thanks to traditional agricultural culture and architecture. Taking up the ranks of a shared secular knowledge and transforming it into a science of the future is the task that urban planners are setting themselves today.
“Water is constantly in motion, crosses borders, nourishes (and destroys) life. How can water and urban planning be considered together in a generative framework that involves economic, social and cultural growth?”. This is the question posed by Kate Orff, for six years at the helm of Water Urbanism, a Columbia University study for the redesign of the relationship between water and the metropolis of the global south. The answer is obviously complex, but it closely concerns the commitment of governments, in addition to that of private companies, and a multidisciplinary approach that also involves political scientists and economists, as well as urban planners and architects.