WATER SCARCITY PARADOXES TOWARDS SUSTAINABLE LANDSCAPE CONSTRUCTION. Overlapping strategies: Venice-Marseille

The Mediterranean cities of Venice and
Marseille were established in areas with limited
access to freshwater, yet both are located
within regions where the presence of the Alps
enabled its abundant extraction. While these
territories share certain characteristics, they
also exhibit contrasting relationships with
water, often framed by paradoxes. There are
similarities between the two forms of water
rationale: centuries-long self-sufficiency based
on rainwater wells (Venice) and on
groundwater resources (Marseille) has been
obliterated since the XIX century through the
construction of modern water infrastructure. At
the same time, the surrounding territories have
followed a very different development in
relation to the use of water. A comprehensive
understanding of these dynamics requires
analysing both anthropic and non-anthropic
systems, transcending the natural versus
cultural duality. Water emerges as a critical
element shaping and keeping alive landscapes
and ecologies, as a fundamental matter of the
Mediterranean earth-soil-biosphere
assemblage.