Barcelona, Spain

Spain has a rich and textured history whose changes have shaped different water policies over the centuries—not always for the best. Situated in close proximity to freshwater resources, Barcelona’s water infrastructure has evolved over diverse eras of technological capability and political control. This study discusses the climatological variability between floods and droughts, and the related generation of hydrologic adaptations to growing population and worsening climate hazards. It examines the water policies of the Francoist regime, including extensive water transfers for vast irrigation projects, along with the spread of water-vulnerable shantytowns, and also examines the way water issues fostered the social movements that ultimately brought down the Franco regime. In addition to municipalization, Barcelonans contribute to the participatory creation of blue-green infrastructure such as sustainable drainage systems throughout the city. While these projects help increase shade cover, improve soil condition, add wildlife, and control pests, they also bring up difficult issues of spatial inequality of income distribution and green spaces. The concern over what activists call “green gentrification” feeds into suspicions that reforms under the aegis of climate adaptation will only increasingly entrench the spatial inequalities of rich and poor in the city.