Atlantic Gardens in Mediterranean Climates: Understanding the Production of Suburban Natures in Barcelona MARC PARÉS, HUG MARCH and DAVID SAURÍ Abstract While the city of Barcelona is being held up worldwide as an example of a compact and sustainable urban settlement, its metropolitan region has been suburbanized with low-density housing that, among other impacts, threatens the water supply system of the area. In this process of urbanization new landscapes of consumption — greening the city with non-native natures — have been produced, requiring a higher use of water and other inputs. Starting with the drought events of 2008 in Metropolitan Barcelona, this article aims to develop an understanding of the production of the green city in a Mediterranean environment. Using urban political ecology, and extending our scope to cultural theories, we investigate the proliferation of Atlantic gardens in the Barcelona Metropolitan Region. By broadening existing debates on suburban natures from a predominantly North American focus to other contexts, the article aims to offer a different view of the political, economic and cultural constructions of urban natures in order to facilitate the design of more equitable cities. Introduction March 2008: the water system supplying the Metropolitan Region of Barcelona (hereafter MRB), one of the most populated conurbations of Southern Europe, reaches a crisis. Reservoirs fall to the lowest figures in decades for quantity of water stored, and domestic supply cannot be guaranteed for long. Restrictions on agriculture, municipal uses and even households are imposed. Water is temporarily shipped in from Tarragona and even from Marseilles by sea tankers. A very rainy May, however, improves the situation in the reservoirs and softens the pressures to reduce water demand. Eventually, thanks to an abundance of rainfall in the following months, all restrictions are lifted and ‘normality’ is restored. The intensity and ‘mediatization’ of the 2008 drought episode, and the emphasis on climatology, concealed the social and economic drivers and relations that underlie situations of water scarcity. In Barcelona, water supply and demand had been in a precarious equilibrium for a number of years, while demographic, economic and urban The Catalan government under a postdoctoral grant Beatriu de Pinós and the Spanish CICYT under grant number CSO2009-12772-C03-01 funded part of the research for this article. We would like to especially thank Professor Erik Swyngedouw of the University of Manchester, the Park and Garden Service of the Barcelona City Council for helpful historical information and Josefina Gómez Mendoza for helpful information about Madrid. We would also like to thank the three IJURR referees for relevant suggestions and criticisms on previous versions of the manuscript. The usual disclaimers apply. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research DOI:10.1111/j.1468-2427.2012.01118.x © 2012 Urban Research Publications Limited. Published by Blackwell Publishing, 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main St, Malden, MA 02148, USA