Daniel Florentin: “Shrinking networks”: adapting large-scale urban infrastructure networks (water, district heating) to the challenges of demographic and energy transition in Europe.

Europe’s major urban infrastructure networks – whether water or district heating networks – face a twofold challenge: adapting to a general demographic decline that limits the number of users, and a overall reduction in individual consumption. My PhD project seeks to gain an insider’s understanding of the adaptation strategies implemented by the companies managing these networks, in order to better identify their functional transformation and assess its effects on the areas they serve. The aim is to examine this transformation through a critical analysis of Marvin and Graham’s theory of ‘splintering urbanism’.