Metabolic Urbanism and Environmental Justice: The Water Conundrum in Bangalore, India

The authors use domestic household water consumption in Bangalore to argue that urban hydrology is essentially 'social hydrology,' where the unequal distribution of piped water infrastructure acts as the primary driver of groundwater patterns, outweighing biophysical factors.

• The authors propose that urban accounts are incomplete if they do not consider the inequities in the metabolic flows of energy and matter that sustain a city.
• In Bangalore, human-driven factors have a greater impact on groundwater hydrology than natural biophysical drivers.
• The primary driver of groundwater hydrology in Bangalore is the unequal spatial distribution of piped water infrastructure, leading the authors to hypothesize that all urban hydrology is social hydrology.

APA

Stockholm Environment Institute (2014). Metabolic Urbanism and Environmental Justice: The Water Conundrum in Bangalore, India. https://www.sei.org/publications/metabolic-urbanism-and-environmental-justice-the-water-conundrum-in-bangalore-india/

Chicago

Stockholm Environment Institute. Metabolic Urbanism and Environmental Justice: The Water Conundrum in Bangalore, India. 2014. https://www.sei.org/publications/metabolic-urbanism-and-environmental-justice-the-water-conundrum-in-bangalore-india/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Stockholm Environment Institute |title=Metabolic Urbanism and Environmental Justice: The Water Conundrum in Bangalore, India |date=22 October 2014 |url=https://www.sei.org/publications/metabolic-urbanism-and-environmental-justice-the-water-conundrum-in-bangalore-india/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{stockholmenvironmentinstitute2014metabolic, author = {{Stockholm Environment Institute}}, title = {{Metabolic Urbanism and Environmental Justice: The Water Conundrum in Bangalore, India}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2014}, month = oct, url = {https://www.sei.org/publications/metabolic-urbanism-and-environmental-justice-the-water-conundrum-in-bangalore-india/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }