Paper short abstract:

This paper discusses imaginations of water futures and climate change in Berlin-Brandenburg and how people refer to either knowledge about technical fixes or to nature conservation. It looks at every-day human-water interaction, co-production of knowledge and negotiations on future living together.

Paper long abstract:

Shaped by networks of rivers and lakes, Berlin-Brandenburg is the region with the most waters in Germany, but at the same time the one with the least water. Since this ‘water world’ is recently marked by extreme shortages of precipitation, climate change is politically discussed in the context of increased droughts. The hydro-social spaces are the result of a collaboration of human actors, hydrological infrastructure and water and they are constantly subject of political negotiations. The existing water infrastructures have been and are formed by anthropogenic activities such as water extraction for individual or agricultural use or the flooding of lignite mines. Climate change and the increasing demand for water in the metropolitan area adds to the pressure on water-generating rural areas. Searching for adaptive measures opens ontological spaces, where hydrological knowledge is discussed by several experts: scientists, political representatives and an engaged public.

In this paper I will discuss the different imaginations of water futures, and how they are accompanied by requests of knowledge about technical fixes and anthropogenic alterations of the environment on the one hand, and withdrawal of human influence through nature conservation on the other hand. I look at human-water interaction and the co-production of climate change knowledge in the context of negotiations on possible ways to transform the living together of human and more-than-human actors.