La décroissance des réseaux? Des modèles économiques et territoriaux émergents, en quête de stabilité

Over the last couple of decades, operators of urban technical systems (notably water and sanitation networks) have experienced in most of the European cities an unprecedented and unexpected phenomenon, i.e. the diminution of consumption levels. Such a process is deeply questioning the general and historical functioning of these large technical networks, destabilising the technical as well as the economic or the territorial components of the network. The integration of degrowth processes in these traditional business models is one of the key challenges operators are currently facing. Based on an embedded research conducted within two European operators in Spain and Germany affected by such a phenomenon, this article details the adaptation strategies developed by operators to integrate shrinking demand regime and demonstrates that they largely overcome tariff adjustment policies.