A City of Water: Mantua Lakes Through the Lens of Socio-Spatial Relations

The city of Mantua, in northern Italy at the intersection between Lombardy, Veneto and Emilia-Romagna, was founded on one of the widest wetlands of Italy. Water has been at the heart of the development of the city and its population for centuries, making the lakes and the city what has been described as a global environmental artefact (Galliani & Cozza, 2017). While research on water landscapes has long highlighted the interrelatedness of water technology, nature and society (Boelens et al., 2016), the recent literature focuses mainly on big cities. When considering small towns, several other ambivalences emerge from a recent history in which inland waters have been marginalised (loss of meaning for goods transport) or roughly exploited (heavy industry). The case of the small town of Mantua is emblematic of old and new tensions on inland waters. It has been analysed through a theoretical framework based on socio-spatial combinations or formations (Osti, 2020). The goal has been to uncover the hydro-social processes characterising this small town and how these are perceived by the different actors concerned with water.