Resource management

Abstract

Water provides the geographer with an ideal link between the natural environment and man-made systems. As a consequence water resource studies have frequently provided an important theme in geographical works (Chorley, i g6g) . However, geography is only one of many disciplines contributing to the water resources debate as can be seen from a perusal of the contents of the papers presented at the recent United Nations Water Conference (United Nations, 1977).A preoccupation of many writers (e.g. Biswas, ig76) over the last few years has been the conceptual framework within which water resource methodology and practice has been carried out. Burke and Heaney (tg75) stress that water resource systems are synergistic and complex. From this they reason that the normal analytical approach of reasoning from the part to the whole is inapplicable and that what is needed instead is a methodology involving reasoning from the whole to the part. Expressing a similar theme Wiener (1977) has identified four basic geometries applicable to water resource planning, three of which-the water resources geometry, the water requirements geometry and the pollution geometry-are relatively easy to quantify. The fourth, however, which deals with the socio-economic-political factors of the planning