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.