Comparative International Water Research

Wescoat, James L.

doi:10.1111/j.1936-704x.2009.00055.x

Cited by 10 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…The grouping of water crises into syndromes and categorizing the syndromes based on impacts on human wellbeing can promote learning from “water experiences and experiments in distant places and times” [ Wescoat , 2009, p. 61]. A major challenge in the water sector has been how to effectively implement initiatives founded on a set of general principles (participation, integration, coordination, gender equity) in a heterogeneous world made up of different cultures, social norms, physical attributes, availability of renewable and nonrenewable resources, investment funds, management capacities, and institutional arrangements.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The nature and causes of the global water crisis: Syndromes from a meta‐analysis of coupled human‐water studies

Srinivasan¹,

Lambin

Gorelick

et al. 2012

Water Resources Research

257

178

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[1] Freshwater scarcity has been cited as the major crisis of the 21st century, but it is surprisingly hard to describe the nature of the global water crisis. We conducted a metaanalysis of 22 coupled human-water system case studies, using qualitative comparison analysis (QCA) to identify water resource system outcomes and the factors that drive them. The cases exhibited different outcomes for human wellbeing that could be grouped into a six "syndromes": groundwater depletion, ecological destruction, drought-driven conflicts, unmet subsistence needs, resource capture by elite, and water reallocation to nature. For syndromes that were not successful adaptations, three characteristics gave cause for concern: (1) unsustainability-a decline in the water stock or ecosystem function that could result in a long-term steep decline in future human wellbeing; (2) vulnerability-high variability in water resource availability combined with inadequate coping capacity, leading to temporary drops in human wellbeing; (3) chronic scarcity-persistent inadequate access and hence low conditions of human wellbeing. All syndromes could be explained by a limited set of causal factors that fell into four categories: demand changes, supply changes, governance systems, and infrastructure/technology. By considering basins as members of syndrome classes and tracing common causal pathways of water crises, water resource analysts and planners might develop improved water policies aimed at reducing vulnerability, inequity, and unsustainability of freshwater systems.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The nature and causes of the global water crisis: Syndromes from a meta‐analysis of coupled human‐water studies

Srinivasan¹,

Lambin

Gorelick

et al. 2012

Water Resources Research

257

178

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Consequently, the Nile is a geopolitical flashpoint viewed with concern by regional and international observers focused on the potential spillover of disputes, leading to a push for frameworks to compare and learn from the politics and capacity-building efforts in stressed rivers (Srinivasan et al 2012). In this context, the 21st century will be a period of increasing exchange and mutual learning across contexts, scales, and areas of expertise (Wescoat 2009) The increasing pressure on the world's rivers has brought with it a golden age of research on the politics of water in contested regions, which creates new needs and opportunities for critical analysis and comparison. The Nile illustrates, however, that it is not enough to suggest that water is political, nor to use a single analytical perspective (political ecology) to draw and compare lessons within rivers, let alone across them.…”

Section: Dustin Evan Garrick • 153mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Hydropolitics of the Nile Revisited: Elites, Experts, and Everyday Practices in Egypt and Sudan

Garrick

2016

Global Environmental Politics

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Almost four billion people are projected to live in river basins experiencing severe water stress in 2050, according to the OECD's most recent environmental outlook (OECD 2012). Iconic rivers as diverse as the Colorado, Murray-Darling, Orange, and Yellow are closed or closing, often failing to meet downstream requirements for ecosystems and livelihoods (Grafton et al. 2013;Molle et al. 2010). These trends have been attributed to a confluence of factors: population growth, resource demands for food and energy security, and climate change. Increasingly, however, water crises have been framed as governance crises (OECD 2011).Unpacking the governance crises surrounding water requires confrontingand embracing-politics (Schlager and Blomquist 2008). The politics of water involve situating water as part of a wider web of relationships between the state and society and between nation-states sharing contested waters. Water has received attention for its role in statebuilding, particularly since Wittfogel's controversial "hydraulic society" thesis (Wittfogel 1957). The hydraulic society thesis holds that the challenges posed by arid and semi-arid water systems require a specialized bureaucracy that can breed totalitarian, or despotic, rule. The thesis has long been discredited for its association with environmental determinism and neglect of contradictory evidence of peasant revolutions and alternative forms of social organization; nevertheless, it remains deeply entrenched, as do the prescriptions for a strong state with centralized control over the resources required to master complex hydrological challenges.

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“…Such an approach is increasingly called for in the domain of water resources management (Mollinga & Gondhalekar, 2014;Wescoat, 2009). …”

Section: Case Study Analysis In Water Managementmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Mollinga and Gondhalekar suggest that this is driven by an acknowledgement of shared water-related challenges around the globe, a perceived need to integrate the knowledge base of different localized water studies, and to address the dichotomy between water policy theory and practice (2014, p.183). The domain of integrated water resources management in a broad sense (Wescoat, 2009), flood management more specifically (Van Alphen & Lodder, 2006), and lately delta management (Bucx et al, 2014;Renaud, Syvitski, et al, 2013) have been the object of such kinds of analyses.…”

Section: Case Study Analysis In Water Managementmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bringing in the floods : a comparative study on controlled flooding in the Dutch, Bangladesh and Vietnamese deltas

Staveren¹

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Comparative International Water Research

Cited by 10 publications

References 13 publications

The nature and causes of the global water crisis: Syndromes from a meta‐analysis of coupled human‐water studies

The nature and causes of the global water crisis: Syndromes from a meta‐analysis of coupled human‐water studies

The Hydropolitics of the Nile Revisited: Elites, Experts, and Everyday Practices in Egypt and Sudan

Bringing in the floods : a comparative study on controlled flooding in the Dutch, Bangladesh and Vietnamese deltas

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