The water-sensitive city from the urban metabolism and space production analysis perspective

The present work is based on the premise that the urban sensitivity in relation to water resources can be increased by the understanding of urban metabolism. Two related urban space analyses are proposed: the former is related to the hydrological performance, in which water diversification potentials are raised by developing quantitative indicators and by the generation of possible scenarios for diversification; the latter refers to the space production, in which a historical survey of the access conditions to water is studied. The space production proceeding is verified, and the impact of its process on the water resources. In more details, the correlations between agents and spatial transformations are observed, aiming to identify the associations that command these transformations. This methodological propose is applied in the city of Campina Grande, Paraiba, choosing a specific neighborhood that has undergone significant spatial transformations in the last 20 years. Results showed a potential of 243% for diversification by using rainwater, and 69% by reusing wastewater. Through the combination of possibilities for water diversification, the supply system, which is currently fully centralized, could have this centralization reduced to up to 57%. The urban dynamics analysis reveals the need for public intervention in the adoption of control measures of soil occupation. Currently, real-estate developers and entrepreneurs lead the space production process, which makes it difficult to improve urban hydrological performance.