Cecilia Tortajada

Asit K. Biswas

Philippe Rohner

This book highlights what are likely to be the future megatrends in the water sector and why and how they should be incorporated to improve water governance in the coming decades. In this first ever book on megatrends for the water sector, 22 leading world experts from different disciplines representing academia, business, government, national and international organisations discuss what the major megatrends of the future are and how they will radically change water governance in the coming decades.

Assessing Global Water Megatrends

Definitive analyses of transboundary water management in Latin America are conspicuous by their absence. The situation is a little better for rivers compared to groundwater resources. Transboundary water management in Latin America has been evolving in a somewhat different manner compared to other continents. The book includes eight authoritative case studies of Latin American transboundary rivers and aquifers, as well as a thinkpiece on the complexities of managing aquifers based on global experiences. The case studies are of different scales, ranging from the mighty Amazon to small Silala. The overall focus of the book is on ways in which such difficult and complex rivers and aquifers that are shared by two or more countries can be managed efficiently and equitably, and on the lessons, both positive and negative, that other regions can learn from the Latin American experience. This book was published as a special issue of the International Journal of Water Resources Development.

Managing Transboundary Waters of Latin America

Dogan Altinbilek

One of the most controversial issues of the water sector in recent years has been the impacts of large dams. Proponents have claimed that such structures are essential to meet the increasing water demands of the world and that their overall societal benefits far outweight the costs. In contrast, the opponents claim that social and environmental costs of large dams far exceed their benefits, and that the era of construction of large dams is over. A major reason as to why there is no consensus on the overall benefits of large dams is because objective, authoritative and comprehensive evaluations of their impacts, especially ten or more years after their construction, are conspicuous by their absence. This book debates impartially, comprehensively and objectively, the positive and negative impacts of large dams based on facts, figures and authoritative analyses. These in-depth case studies are expected to promote a healthy and balanced debate on the needs, impacts and relevance of large dams, with case studies from Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe and Latin America.

Impacts of Large Dams: A Global Assessment

Water Is The Most Critical Resource For The Long-Term Sustainable Development Of The Middle East. This Book Will Be Of Direct Interest To Anyone Interested In The Management Of International Waters.

A Comprehensive Approach to Middle Eastern Water

Core and Periphery

Andrea Biswas-Tortajada

Coffee, as a commodity and through its global value chains, is the focus of much interest to achieve fair trade and equitable outcomes for producers, processors and consumers. It has iconic cultural and economic significance for Colombia, which is one of the world's major coffee producers for the global market. This book examines sustainable coffee production in Colombia, specifically the initiatives of Nestlé to create shared value. It describes the transformation of the coffee landscape by the development of economically, socially and environmentally viable and dedicated supply chains. Suppliers have been encouraged to shift production and quality paradigms, in order to develop long-term and sustainable strategies for higher value and premium quality products. This has been partially achieved by establishing a robust partnership with the Coffee Growers Federation and other public, private and social actors, thereby taking control of the institutional architecture and knowledge base that exists in the country. The book provides an important lesson of corporate social responsibility and the creation of shared value for the benefit of farmers, corporations and consumers.

Creating Shared Value Chains in Colombia

Sustainability in Coffee Production

Rafael Izquierdo

The global attention in recent years has focused primarily on water quantity and allocation issues. Water quality has received significantly less attention than water quantity. Commendable progress has been made by the developed world to control point sources of pollution, but commensurate progress in reducing non-point sources has not been made. In the third world countries both point and non-point sources of pollution are becoming increasingly a serious concern. Already, nearly all water bodies in such countries near and around urban centres have been severely polluted, with very high health and environmental costs. The book assesses the current status of water quality management in both developed and developing worlds, as well as analysing the effectiveness of economic instruments and legal and institutional frameworks to control water contamination. It outlines the importance of building up social and political awareness to reverse the trend of continuing water quality deterioration, which is likely to be a most challenging task in the coming years. This book was published as a special issue of International Journal of Water Resources Development.

Present Situations, Challenges and Future Perspectives

Water Quality Management

Eglal Rached

Access to safe drinking water and proper sanitation is essential for human survival and for maintenance of a decent quality of life. Currently, more than a billion people do not have access to safe drinking water and more than two billion people lack proper sanitation. In 1992, the United Nations proclaimed that water should be considered to be a human right. This position, however, has not been accepted by many developed and developing countries. This book systematically and comprehensively analyzes the legal development of the concept of water as a human right; implications for the national governments, and international and national organizations for the implementation of this concept; progress made in different Middle East and North African countries to provide every individual access to clean water and sanitation, constraints faced to assure universal access to water-related services and how these constraints can be overcome, and an overall research agenda in areas where more knowledge is necessary.

Water as a Human Right for the Middle East and North Africa

Leonardo da Vinci, the eminent Renaissance scholar and philosopher said, "water is the driver of nature". Many may have considered it to be an overstatement in the past, but at the beginning of the third millennium, no sane individual would disagree with Leonardo's view. Water is becoming an increasingly scarce resource for most of the world's citizens. The current trends indicate that the overall situation is likely to deteriorate further, at least for the next two decades, unless the water profession eschews its existing "business as usual" practices, which can only allow incremental changes to occur. Somewhat surprisingly, the water profession as a whole neither realised nor appreciated the gravity of the global water situation as late as 1990, even though a few serious scholars have been pointing out the increasing criticality of the situation from around 1982. For example, the seriousness of the crisis was not a major issue, either at the International Conference on W ater and the Environment, which was organised by the UN system in Dublin and also at the UN Conference on Environment and Development at Rio de Janeiro. Held in 1992, both are considered to be important events for the water sector of the past decade. It is now being increasingly recognised that the Dublin Conference was poorly planned and organised, and thus not surprisingly it produced very little, if any, worthwhile and lasting results.

Water Resources of North America

Yugal Joshi

"This book describes the journey of Singapore's development and the fundamental role that water has had in shaping it. What makes this case so unique is that the quest for self-sufficiency in terms of water availability in a fast-changing urban context has been crucial to the way development policies and agendas have been planned throughout the years"--

Sustainable Development in an Urban City-state

The Singapore Water Story

This book highlights the likely impacts of climate change in terms of global and national water securities, how different countries are attempting to address these complex problems and to what extent they are likely to succeed. A major global concern at present, especially after the social and economic havoc that has been caused by COVID-19 in only one year, is how we can return to earlier levels of economic development patterns and then further improve the process so that sustainable development goals are reached to the extent possible by 2030, in both developed and developing countries. Mankind is now facing two existential problems over the next several decades. These are climate change and whether the world will have access to enough water to meet all its food, energy, environment and health needs. Much of expected climate change impacts can be seen through the lens of extreme hydrological events, like droughts, floods and other extreme hydrometeorological events. Chapter 7 is available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.Chapter 12 is available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.

Water Security Under Climate Change

Olli Varis

Transboundary rivers and lakes are often the remaining new sources of water that can be developed for human uses. These water sources were not used in the past because of the many complexities involved. Written and edited by the world’s leading water and legal experts, this unique and authoritative book analyses the magnitudes of the transboundary water problems in different parts of the world. It also examines difficulties and constraints faced to resolve these problems.

Asit K. Biswas

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