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Water
by Jon Clift Amanda CuthbertWATER: USE LESS-SAVE MORE THE CHELSEA GREEN GUIDES-A NEW SERIES OF POCKET-SIZED BOOKS TO HELP SAVE THE EARTH! Did you know that Americans now use 127 percent more water than we did in 1950? Or that about 95 percent of the water entering our homes goes down the drain? Our population is growing, our climate changing, and our lifestyles demand more and more water. This book includes one hundred tips for conserving water in the home and garden. Following just a few will reduce your consumption of water, save money, and save the environment. This book gives you 100 water saving tips for the home and garden - from simple things like having a shower instead of a bath, to more drastic measures like installing a rainwater harvesting system. If each one of us does just one of them, we can help reduce the likelihood of water shortages both now and in the future
Water: Healer or Poison?
by Jan de VriesWater is one of the basic necessities of life - no organism can survive in its absence. In recent years, however, it has become increasingly clear that our public water supply is not as pure as it should be and many are questioning its high chemical content. 'Water scares' are becoming all too frequent. Beaches, seas and oceans themselves are being increasingly contaminated. Plankton are beginning to die and the Earth is being deprived of one of its primary sources of oxygen. In this important addition to his Nature's Gift series, Jan de Vries discusses the implications of this self-inflicted damage and points out the health risks of the various forms of water contamination. Yet, in its pure form, water is one of nature's greatest healers and this volume draws on Jan de Vries' extensive experience of the various water-treatment methods. It provides his readers with guidance and sensible advice on the benefits to be gained from pure, unadulterated water, and it's safe use. Anyone who has been perturbed or confused by the conflicting reports and guidelines concerning this important issue will welcome such an informative book.
Water: A Natural History
by Alice OutwaterAn environmental engineer turned ecology writer relates the history of our waterways and her own growing understanding of why our waterways continue to be polluted#151;and what needs to be done to save this essential natural resourse. Water: A Natural History takes us back to the diaries of the first Western explorers; it moves from the reservoir to the modern toliet, from the grasslands of the Midwest to the Everglades of Florida, throught the guts of a wastewater treatment plant and out to the waterways again. It shows how human-engineered dams, canals and farms replaces nature’s beaver dams, prairie dog tunnels, and buffalo wallows. Step by step, Outwater makes clear what should have always been obvious: while engineering can depollute water, only ecologically interacting systems can create healthy waterways. Important reading for students of environmental studies, the heart of this history is a vision of our land and waterways as they once were, and a plan that can restore them to their former glory: a land of living streams, public lands with hundreds of millions of beaver-built wetlands, prairie dog towns that increase the amount of rainfall that percolates to the groundwater, and forests that feed their fallen trees to the sea.
Water: Abundance, Scarcity, and Security in the Age of Humanity (Global Challenges In Water Governance Ser.)
by null Jeremy J. SchmidtAn intellectual history of America's water management philosophyHumans take more than their geological share of water, but they do not benefit from it equally. This imbalance has created an era of intense water scarcity that affects the security of individuals, states, and the global economy. For many, this brazen water grab and the social inequalities it produces reflect the lack of a coherent philosophy connecting people to the planet. Challenging this view, Jeremy Schmidt shows how water was made a “resource” that linked geology, politics, and culture to American institutions. Understanding the global spread and evolution of this philosophy is now key to addressing inequalities that exist on a geological scale. Water: Abundance, Scarcity, and Security in the Age of Humanity details the remarkable intellectual history of America’s water management philosophy. It shows how this philosophy shaped early twentieth-century conservation in the United States, influenced American international development programs, and ultimately shaped programs of global governance that today connect water resources to the Earth system. Schmidt demonstrates how the ways we think about water reflect specific public and societal values, and illuminates the process by which the American approach to water management came to dominate the global conversation about water. Debates over how human impacts on the planet are connected to a new geological epoch—the Anthropocene—tend to focus on either the social causes of environmental crises or scientific assessments of the Earth system. Schmidt shows how, when it comes to water, the two are one and the same. The very way we think about managing water resources validates putting ever more water to use for some human purposes at the expense of others.
WATER: Exploring Sustainable Water Management for the New Millennium
by Allerd Stikker"Allerd Stikker has always reminded me of Alexis de Tocqueville, who would have chosen to study the problem surrounding water rather than the American democracy. He has the same insatiable curiosity, the same energy, same passion, same ease in mixing analysis with intuition, the capacity to draw together different cultures, the same capacity to listen and to dialogue with those who reason from different starting blocks. "Water, the Blood of the Earth is the outcome of reflection and action of a cosmopolitan who has remained loyal to his native land, mixing some European thinking of the Age of Enlightenment with some futuristic viewpoints." -Charles Louis de Maudhuy, advisor to the chairman, Veolia Water "Lack of access to clean and sufficient water in many parts of the world, especially in Asia and Africa, will be a major issue in the coming decades. "This book presents an overall view on the diversity of problems and solutions, based on the author's involvement in water-related projects. Over the course of the years I have followed some of these projects with interest; they inspire us to take concrete actions." -Antony Burgmans, former chairman, Unilever "In this book Allerd describes his convincing views on desalination solutions for local and urban clean water shortages as well as his deeply felt findings on the spiritual meanings of water, all assembled on a 20 years' journey on which I was lucky to travel along." -Leonor Lindner
Water: The Fate of Our Most Precious Resource
by Marq De VilliersIn his award-winning book WATER, Marq de Villiers provides an eye-opening account of how we are using, misusing, and abusing our planet's most vital resource. Encompassing ecological, historical, and cultural perspectives, de Villiers reports from hot spots as diverse as China, Las Vegas, and the Middle East, where swelling populations and unchecked development have stressed fresh water supplies nearly beyond remedy. Political struggles for control of water rage around the globe, and rampant pollution daily poses dire ecological theats. With one eye on these looming crises and the other on the history of our dependence on our planet's most precious commodity, de Villiers has crafted a powerful narrative about the lifeblood of civilizations that will be "a wake-up call for concerned citizens, environmentalists, policymakers, and water drinkers everywhere" (Publishers Weekly).
Water: The Fate of Our Most Precious Resource
by Mauq De VilliersOverview of past, present, and potential future problems endangering the world's water supply. Index and Notes not included.
Water 4.0: The Past, Present, and Future of the World's Most Vital Resource
by David SedlakThe history behind our growing water crisis: “A gem . . . An erudite romp through two millennia of water and sanitation practice and technology.” —NatureTurn on the faucet, and water pours out. Pull out the drain plug, and the dirty water disappears. Most of us give little thought to the hidden systems that bring us water and take it away when we’re done with it. But these underappreciated marvels of engineering face an array of challenges that cannot be solved without a fundamental change to our relationship with water, David Sedlak explains in this enlightening book.To make informed decisions about the future, we need to understand the three revolutions in urban water systems that have occurred over the past 2,500 years, and the technologies that will remake the system. The author starts by describing Water 1.0, the early Roman aqueducts, fountains, and sewers that made dense urban living feasible. He then details the development of clean drinking water and sewage treatment systems—the second and third revolutions in urban water. He offers an insider’s look at current systems that rely on reservoirs, underground pipe networks, treatment plants, and storm sewers to provide water that is safe to drink, before addressing how these water systems will have to be reinvented. For everyone who cares about reliable, clean, abundant water, this book is essential reading.
Water Allocation Law in New Zealand: Lessons from Australia (Earthscan Studies in Water Resource Management)
by Jagdeepkaur Singh-LadharThis book analyses water allocation law and policy in New Zealand and offers a comparative analysis with Australia. In New Zealand, it is generally accepted that water allocation law has failed to be adequately addressed and New Zealand is now faced with the problem of over-allocation in many catchments. In comparison, Australia has extensive experience in reforming its water law and policy over the last 20 years. This book provides a comparative and critical analysis of the lessons that New Zealand can learn from the Australian experience and offers guidance for the improvement of water allocation outcomes in New Zealand. Starting with the background of water allocation law and policy in New Zealand, the book traces the evolution of legal policies, including the 1967 Water and Soil Conservation Act and the 1991 Resource Management Act, and examines the role they have played in current water allocation issues. The book situates these findings within global challenges, such as the impact of climate change, and the global scarcity of and increasing demand for freshwater resources. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars researching water law and policy, natural resource management and environmental law more broadly. It will also be of use to policy makers and professionals involved in developing and implementing water allocation laws and policies.
Water and American Government: The Reclamation Bureau, National Water Policy, and the West, 1902–1935
by Donald J. PisaniDonald Pisani's history of perhaps the boldest economic and social program ever undertaken in the United States--to reclaim and cultivate vast areas of previously unusable land across the country--shows in fascinating detail how ambitious government programs fall prey to the power of local interest groups and the federal system of governance itself.
Water and Climate Change in Africa: Challenges and Community Initiatives in Durban, Maputo and Nairobi (Routledge Advances in Climate Change Research)
by Patricia E. PerkinsIn the coming decades, countries around the world will face increasingly severe challenges related to global climate change. While the details vary from country to country, the impacts will be especially grave for marginalized people, whose access to food, potable water, and safe shelter may be threatened due to fluctuations in rainfall and temperature, and to extreme weather events. Because weather extremes are the main way that climate change manifests itself, water governance is a crucial aspect of climate change resilience. Following an overview of the ways climate change is affecting three cities in Africa, Water and Climate Change in Africa: Challenges and Community Initiatives in Durban, Maputo and Nairobi discusses the equity and climate justice implications, and then gives examples of ways in which a range of local community organizations are extending their current activities to address these challenges through innovative new programs and initiatives at the grassroots. This approach has implications for communities worldwide; it is a process of building on existing organizations’ aptitudes and strengths in the light of local knowledge of climate challenges, and creating partnerships to build equity-enhancing new methods of protecting people’s subsistence. This book should be of interest to climate change scholars, activists and policy-makers, as well as development studies researchers and practitioners.
Water and Development
by The World BankDevelopment patterns, increasing population pressure, and the demand for better livelihoods in many parts of the globe all contribute to a steadily deepening global water crisis. Development redirects, consumes, and pollutes water. It also causes changes in the state of natural water reservoirs, directly by draining aquifers and indirectly by melting glaciers and the polar ice caps. Maintaining a sustainable relationship between water and development requires that current needs be balanced against the needs of future generations. The development community has transformed and broadened its approach to water since the 1980s. As stresses on the quality and availability of water have increased, donors have begun to move toward more comprehensive approaches that seek to integrate water into development in other sectors. This evaluation examines the full scope of the World Bank's lending and grant support for water activities. More than 30 background papers prepared for the evaluation have analyzed Bank lending by thematic area and by activity type. IDA and IBRD (the Bank) have supported countries in many water-related sectors. The evaluation, by definition, is retrospective, but it identifies changes that will be necessary going forward, including those related to strengthening institutions and increasing financial sustainability. Lessons and results from nearly 2,000 loans and credits, and work with 142 countries are identified.
Water and Human Societies: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives
by David A. Pietz Dorothy Zeisler-VralstedThis book explores the historical relationships between human communities and water. Bringing together for the first time key texts from across the literature, it discusses how the past has shaped our contemporary challenges with equitable access to clean and ample water supplies. The book is organized into chapters that explore thematic issues in water history, including “Water and Civilizations,” Water and Health,” “Water and Equity” and “Water and Sustainability”. Each chapter is introduced by a critical overview of the theme, followed by four primary and secondary readings that discuss critical nodes in the historical and contemporary development of each chapter theme. “Further readings” at the end of each chapter invite the reader to further explore the dynamics of each theme. The foundational premise of the book is that in order to comprehend the complexity of global water challenges, we need to understand the history of cultural forces that have shaped our water practices. These historical patterns shape the range of choices available to us as we formulate responses to water challenges. The book will be a valuable resource to all students interested in understanding the challenges of water use today.
Water and Light: A Diver's Journey to a Coral Reef (Southwestern Writers Collection Series, Wittliff Collections at Texas State University)
by Stephen HarriganThe New York Times–bestselling author&’s memoir of diving in the Caribbean offers &“in precise, lucid, prose, the marvels of the sea bottom&” (New Yorker).Author Stephen Harrigan spent months diving on the coral reefs of Grand Turk Island in the Caribbean. In this evocative account, he describes his many explorations, both personal and natural. Though he is there to learn about the history of the coral reef, Harrigan freely admits that his true motivation is to become, at least for a time, his &“underwater self.&”&“Moving, intelligent and, in the best sense, literary. . . . Stephen Harrigan is anchored in reality; he knows that the environment he's describing is in serious jeopardy. At the same time, he has made this book sparkle with his remarkable ability to discuss the metaphysical and spiritual aspects of underwater exploration without ever sounding saccharine or murky.&” —New York Times Book Review
Water and Light: A Diver's Journey to a Coral Reef (Southwestern Writers Collection Series, Wittliff Collections at Texas State University)
by Stephen HarriganThis evocative account of the months Stephen Harrigan spent diving on the coral reefs off Grand Turk Island in the Caribbean was originally published by Houghton Mifflin in 1992.
Water and Post-Conflict Peacebuilding (Post-Conflict Peacebuilding and Natural Resource Management)
by Erika Weinthal Jessica Troell Mikiyasu NakayamaWater is a basic human need, and despite predictions of "water wars," shared waters have proven to be the natural resource with the greatest potential for interstate cooperation and local confidence building. Indeed, water management plays a singularly important role in rebuilding trust after conflict and in preventing a return to conflict. Featuring nineteen case studies and analyses of experiences from twenty eight countries and territories in Africa, Asia, Europe, the Americas, and the Middle East, and drawing on the experiences of thirty-five researchers and practitioners from around the world, this book creates a framework for understanding how decisions governing water resources in post-conflict settings can facilitate or undermine peacebuilding. The lessons will be of value to practitioners in international development and humanitarian initiatives, policy makers, students, and others interested in post-conflict peacebuilding and the nexus between water management and conflict. Water and Post-Conflict Peacebuilding is part of a global initiative to identify and analyze lessons in post-conflict peacebuilding and natural resource management. The project has generated six edited books of case studies and analyses, with contributions from practitioners, policy makers, and researchers. Other books in this series address high-value resources, land, livelihoods, assessing and restoring natural resources, and governance.
Water and Power: Environmental Governance And Strategies For Sustainability In The Lower Mekong Basin (Advances In Global Change Research #64)
by Peter A. Coclanis Mart A. StewartThis book brings together a talented international group of scholars, policy practitioners, and NGO professionals that explores a range of issues relating to environmental, developmental, and governing challenges on the Mekong, one of the world’s greatest rivers and, alas, one of the most endangered. <p><p> The book is divided into three sections devoted in turn to historical perspectives on the Lower Mekong Basin. Issues relate to livelihood strategies, environmental threats, and adaptation strategies; and various aspects of river governance, with individual authors treating questions of governance at different levels of refraction and in different registers. The result is a fresh and innovative collection of essays, which, taken together, provide much-needed new perspectives on some of the most important and seemingly intractable environmental and development issues in contemporary Asia.
Water and Power: The Conflict over Los Angeles' Water Supply in the Owens Valley
by William L. KahrlThis book gives a historical account of the exploitation of water resources of California and the West with maps and documents.
Water and Public Policy in India: Politics, Rights, and Governance
by Deepti AcharyaThis book explores the conceptual and theoretical frameworks of Right to Water and analyzes its values in the context of water policy frameworks of the union governments in India. It uses a qualitative approach and combines critical hermeneutics with critical content analysis to introduce a new water policy framework. The volume maps the complex argumentative narrations which have emerged and evolved in the idea of Right to Water and traces the various contours and the nature of water policy texts in independent India. The book argues that the idea of Right to Water has emerged, evolved and is being argued through theoretical arguments and is shaped with the help of institutional arrangements developed at the international, regional, and national levels. Finally, the book underlines that India’s national water policies drafted respectively in 1987, 2002 and 2012, are ideal but are not embracing the values and elements of Right to Water. The volume will be of critical importance to scholars and researchers of public policy, environment, especially water policy, law, and South Asian studies.
Water and Ritual: The Rise and Fall of Classic Maya Rulers
by Lisa J. LuceroIn the southern Maya lowlands, rainfall provided the primary and, in some areas, the only source of water for people and crops. Classic Maya kings sponsored elaborate public rituals that affirmed their close ties to the supernatural world and their ability to intercede with deities and ancestors to ensure an adequate amount of rain, which was then stored to provide water during the four-to-five-month dry season. As long as the rains came, Maya kings supplied their subjects with water and exacted tribute in labor and goods in return. But when the rains failed at the end of the Classic period (AD 850-950), the Maya rulers lost both their claim to supernatural power and their temporal authority. Maya commoners continued to supplicate gods and ancestors for rain in household rituals, but they stopped paying tribute to rulers whom the gods had forsaken.
Water and Sanitation Services: Public Policy and Management
by Jos LSubstantially reducing the number of human beings who lack access to clean water and safe sanitation is one of the key Millennium Development Goals. This book argues and demonstrates that this can only be achieved by a better integration of the technical and social science approaches in the search for improved organization and delivery of these essential services. It presents a historical analysis of the development of water and sanitation services in both developed and developing countries, which provides valuable lessons for overcoming the obstacles facing the universalization of these services. Among the key lessons emerging from the historical analysis are the organizational and institutional diversity characterizing the development of water and sanitation internationally, and the central role played by the public sector, particularly local authorities, in such development. It also explores the historical role played by cooperatives and other non-profit institutions in reaching rural and peri-urban areas, as well as the emergence of new forms of organization and provision, particularly in poor countries, where aid and development agencies have been promoting the self-organization of water systems by local communities. The book provides a critical exploration of these different institutional options, including the interaction between the public and private sectors, and the irreplaceable role of public funding as a condition for success. The book is divided into two parts: the first reviews theoretical and conceptual issues such as the political economy of water services, financing, the interfaces between water and sanitation services and public health, and the systemic conditions that influence the provision of these services, including the diversity of organizational and institutional options characterizing the governance and management of water and sanitation services. The second section presents a number of country or regional case studies, each one chosen to highlight a particular problem, approach or strategy. These case studies are drawn from Africa, the Americas, Asia and Europe, covering a wide range of socio-economic and political contexts. The book will be of great interest to advanced students, researchers, professionals and NGOs in many disciplines, including public policy and planning, environmental sciences, environmental sociology, history of technology, civil and environmental engineering, public health and development studies.
Water and Social Policy
by Manohar PawarManohar Pawar discusses the relevance and importance of social policy for water issues. By analysing several interrelated perspectives on water, he suggests core values as bases for formulating and implementing social policies so as to provide universal free access to safe drinking water for all, particularly for the most poor and disadvantaged.
Water and Territory in Latin America
by Vladimir AranaThis book focuses in the current situation of water resources, water supply and sanitation, and population movement in Latin America. It identifies new phenomena and challenges that will put more pressure on water resources in the near future and that will create important socioeconomic constraints in population and their governments. This volume offers an evaluation of water resources availability and consumption, water supply and sanitation shortages, management models and population growth and territory occupation trends in eighteen Latin American countries. Also a set of recommendations, policy proposals and projects is outlined.
Water and the California Dream: Historic Choices for Shaping the Future (A\sierra Club Books Publication Ser.)
by David CarleImported water has transformed the Golden State's environment and quality of life. Land ownership patterns and real estate boosterism dramatically altered both urban and rural communities across the entire state. The key has been redirecting water from the Eastern Sierra, the Colorado River, and Northern California rivers. "Whoever brings the water, brings the people," wrote engineer William Mullholland, whose leadership began the process of water irrigating unlimited growth. Using first-person voices of Californians to reveal the resulting changes, Carle concludes that now is the time to stop drowning the California Dream.With extensive use of oral histories, contemporary newspaper articles and autobiographies, Carle provides a rich exploration of the historic changes in California, as imported water shaped patterns of growth and development. In this thoroughly revised edition, Carle brings that history up to date, as water choices remain the primary tool for shaping California's future. In a land where climate change is exacerbating the challenges of a naturally dry region, the state's damaged environment and reduced quality of life can be corrected, Carle argues, if Californians step out of the historic pattern and embrace limited water supplies as a fact of life.
Water and the Future of Humanity
by Springer International PublishingThis unique, engaging, and highly authoritative volume enlightens readers on changes needed in the way society accesses, provides, and uses water. It further shines a light on changes needed in the way we use food, energy, and other goods and services in relation to water, and offers projections and recommendations, up to 2050, that apply to water access challenges facing the poor and the common misuse of water in industry, agriculture, and municipalities. Written by an unparalleled slate of experts convened by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, the book takes on one of the most critical issues on the planet today. In a frank yet optimistic assessment of major developmental challenges, but also opportunities, facing future generations, the author elucidates linkages between water and a range of other drivers from various disciplinary and stakeholder perspectives. Ultimately portraying the belief that Humanity can harness its visionary abilities, technologies, and economic resources for increased wellbeing and sound stewardship of resources, the book presents an optimistic statement stressing actions scientists, policy makers, and consumers can and must take to meet the water management challenges of a warming planet anticipating nine billion inhabitants by 2050. Gulbenkian Think Tank on Water and the Future of Humanity: Benedito Braga, Pres. World Water Council & Prof. of Civil Engineering, Univ. of São Paulo, Brazil; Colin Chatres, Director General of the International Water Management Institute, Sri Lanka; William J. Cosgrove, Pres. of Ecoconsult Inc. & Senior Adviser for the UN World Water Development Report, Canada; Luis Veiga da Cunha, Prof. Environmental Science and Engineering, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal; Peter Gleick, Pres. of the Pacific Institute, USA; Pavel Kabat, Director, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, Austria; and Prof. & Chair, Earth Systems Science, Wageningen University, The Netherlands; Mohamed Ait Kadi, President of the General Council of Agricultural Development, Morocco; Daniel P. Loucks, Prof. of Civil Engineering, Cornell Univ. USA; Jan Lundqvist, Senior Scientific Advisor, Stockholm International Water Institute, Sweden; Sunita Narain, Director, Center for Science & Environment, New Delhi, India; Jun Xia, Pres. , International Water Resources Association, Chair Prof. & Dean, The Research Institute for Water Security (RIWS), Wuhan University, China.