Water in the Making of a Modern Socio-Natural Landscape: Rome and its Surroundings, 1870-1922

In 1870, the ancient tradition of water in Rome was entering into an age of intense changes. The Renaissance water system that had organised water access, distribution and uses for centuries showed signs of infrastructure decay and a variety of social actors, such as state departments, local communities and private companies took an interest in managing water resources for a plurality of aims. The thesis explores the various elements involved in this social struggle for water access, use and distribution and its practical effects on the making of the Roman space. It analyses, within the Roman context, the projects of Italian modernity that involved water, how water was conceptualised and perceived by various members of the Italian elites, the evolution of the Italian water legislation, the impact of cholera and the medicalisation of water, the private pursuits for profits by means of water and local patterns of use. In this way, the making of the water system of the Roman area will emerge not merely as the product of science and technology and/or planning, but by contrast as the unpredictable output of a complex social struggle for water. The new water infrastructures were the result of a process of negotiation and compromise between public offices, businessmen, local communities, powerful stakeholders, and groups of users. From the early twentieth century, this new water system underpinned the creation of a mixed rural/urban landscape, which characterised the urban growth of Rome.