Intersecting Technologies and Ecology: Towards a Theoretical Framework for Analyzing the Spatial Impacts of Water Reservoir Policies.

Water reservoirs, used for flood control, industrial, agricultural and energy production purposes, have returned to the forefront of the debate on water infrastructures. Proposed as solutions for managing floods, mitigating drought periods and serving as energy storage systems for decarbonization, water reservoirs are relevant in both the global north and south, shaped by the socio-natural dynamics of the territories that host or could host them. In these contexts, reservoirs become the focal point of co-evolutionary relationships between society and nature, influencing territorial reorganization through the socio-metabolic processes described by Urban Political Ecology. However, technological choices and policies related to the construction of new reservoirs or the repowering of existing ones have spatial and social impacts that often exacerbate marginalization and the monofunctionalization of "resource regions" within broader regional scales.

This contribution aims to establish a theoretical framework, grounded in empirical research, to analyze the spatial impacts of public policies on existing or under-construction reservoirs. In doing so, it examines the emergence of envirotechnical systems, highlighting the role of technology and the co-evolution between nature (or second nature) and technological artifacts supported by envirotechnical regimes - power systems that support the emergence and implementation of these infrastructures. The analysis of socio-technical regimes goes beyond observing the network "in action", drawing on feminist technoscience insights to examine the structural context in which power coalitions form. These socio-technical networks, which include both human and non-human actors, are analyzed through a historical perspective influenced by historical-materialist approaches.

The contribution also provides an opportunity to discuss the initial findings of empirical research conducted in the Canton of Valais, Switzerland, where federal projects aim to transform the canton into a large "battery of the Alps".