Toward strong science to support equitable water sharing in securitized transboundary watersheds

Abstract

With unprecedented water scarcity in Earth's water-limited regions, due in large part to continued rapid population growth, peaceable relations among nations are threatened as nations compete with one another for increasingly scarce water resources. This competition occurs against the backdrop of global changean array of multidisciplinary socioeconomic and physical processes that affect water availability. In transboundary basins this multitude of complex uncertain processes often underlain by numerous non-linear, coupled mechanisms controls the amount of water available to be shared among basin riparians and aquatic ecoystems. In this context equitable water sharing and knowledge-based management of besieged aquatic ecosystems demands the strongest possible scientific inference. While transboundary water sharing under non-stationarity has been treated, the impacts of securitization on hydrological process understanding remain largely unknown. However, it is precisely this hydrological process understanding that controls water available for sharing in securitized transboundary basins under non-stationarity. Given the expense involved in solving problems of water scarcity amidst rising population, securitizing state actors may perceive benefit in influencing the hydrologic science literature, including by climatizing increased water scarcity or reduced water quality, even if the true impact is that of a riparian's own water management practices. Indeed, evidence is already emerging of differing hydrologic process understanding in studies impacted by securitization versus those in the broader international literature. Modifying treaties and water sharing agreements to give a neutral third-party arbiter responsibility for resolving contested hydrologic science issues may promote equitable science for the benefit of both aquatic ecosystems and co-riparian states.

In Water‐Limited Landscapes, an Anthropocene Exchange: Trading Lakes for Irrigated Agriculture

“…In cases where water resources are securitized, if the domain of the resultant sanctioned discourse substantially limits scientific inquiry, including through restrictions on funding or data access, then hydrological process understanding may be impaired. Amid hints of securitization in China's water resources (Biba, 2014) and with an understanding of how securitization may confound understanding of hydrologic processes in transboundary watersheds (Wine, 2019b; Wine, 2019d; Wine, 2019e; Wine, 2020), our framework provides a repeatable objective perspective on hydrologic processes in such a setting. A closer look at Hulun Lake reveals a limitation of our framework in that further lake shrinkage may have been averted via water transfer from the nearby Hailar River (Cai et al, 2016).…”

Assessing placement bias of the global river gauge network

“…Stream gauges serve a variety of water resource and management needs 41,42 ; thus, strategies to develop a more representative gauge network that balances local water-management information needs with larger-scale priorities to reduce global bias in which regions and biomes are represented would increase societal value of the overall gauging network. Improvements to gauge infrastructure must also balance equity and data access for communities requiring more informed water-management practices 43 . Multiple alternatives to adding gauges may help bring this goal within reach.…”