Montréal, cité de l'eau

Montreal, City of Water. An Environmental History 

Michèle Dagenais 

Translated by Peter Feldstein

UBC Press 

2017

Built within an exceptional watershed, the city of Montreal is intertwined with the waterways that ring its island and flow beneath it in underground networks. Even as the city has pushed its suburbs deeper into the interior of the island and onto the mainland, the daily lives and leisure activities of its inhabitants have remained closely bound to water.

Montreal, City of Water focuses on water not only as a physical element of the urban landscape – both shaping and shaped by its development – but also as a sociocultural component of the life of the city. This unique study considers the role of water in the production and transformation of urban space over the last two hundred years, telling the story of Montreal through its connections to the natural elements on which it depends.

To explore how Montrealers have conceived of and experienced their relationship to water, Montreal, City of Water looks to both past and present. It traces the decisive role of water in the historical process of urbanization. And it shines a light on current concerns about water pollution, river rehabilitation, and renewed public access to the riverfront – and the power relations involved in addressing those concerns.

Montreal, City of Water will interest scholars and students of urban environmental history, urbanization, and urban planning, particularly those with a focus on water history and urban rivers. Historians of Montreal and the St. Lawrence River region will also find this study invaluable.