Water Security and Society: Risks, Metrics, and Pathways

Abstract

Water security is a major challenge for science and society. We review the rapidly growing literature on water security from the perspective of risk science and management. Competing definitions and indicators of water security reflect unsettled conceptual and methodological issues. However, risk concepts have become prevalent in defining water security; measuring it quantitatively; tracking indicators of hazards, exposure, and vulnerability; and informing management options to reduce water-related risks. We examine water security indicators and indices to identify thresholds for waterrelated risks across multiple dimensions of water security and examine how these vary across different scales and socioeconomic contexts. Water security indicators reveal a disparity in hazards and vulnerability across geographic and political-economic conditions. Recognition of water security as a major societal challenge has been closely followed by a strong commitment to academic, government, development, and policy responses. Pathways to water security capture the sequence of investments in institutions and infrastructure to reduce water-related risks and manage trade-offs. Two well-studied water management case studies illustrate the pathways to water security and the need for more systematic comparative assessment.

Reductionist and integrative research approaches to complex water security policy challenges

“…Water security for growth and development (Grey and Sadoff, 2007). Other peer-reviwed water security articles that build on these include Briscoe (2009);Hall and Borgomeo (2013); Grey et al (2013); Garrick and Hall (2014);and Sadoff et al (2015). Some of the original work is related to the influential World Bank Country Water Resource Strategies, notably for Ethiopia (World Bank, 2006), and many ideas generated by this research have been taken up in various policy fora, including GWP (2010), RAE (2010), OECD (2013), WWC-OECD (2015), as well as those listed in Tables 2 and 3.…”

Reconciling Drought Vulnerability Assessment Using a Convergent Approach: Application to Water Security in the Elqui River Basin, North-Central Chile

“…Nonetheless, this work proposes a new approach-the convergent approach-to assess vulnerability within the integral framework. Vulnerability is assessed in the context of water security, which is now considered a new paradigm in both the academic and public policy fields concerning water resources [22,23,27]. The convergent approach, herein presented in conceptual, methodological and statistical terms, is applied to the analysis of the vulnerability of water security to drought in water-use sectors in the Elqui River basin, a typical basin of the mountainous area in the arid region of north-central Chile [25,64].…”

“…This fact is reflected in the widely accepted definition of water security provided by Grey et al [24] in terms of "a tolerable level of water-related risk to society". In this context, drought is predominantly considered a key determinant with respect to water security for water-use sectors [23,25,26], whereas the concept of vulnerability has gained predominance in research areas such Climate Change Adaptation (CCA), Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) [15] and water security [23,25,27].…”

Groundwater as a strategic resource for improved resilience: a case study from peri-urban Accra

“…Insecurity may result from harmful events such as droughts or contamination, but also more chronic factors, including water-related diseases or unreliable water supply (Garrick and Hall 2014). Freshwater scarcity is increasingly perceived as a global systemic risk and a threat to the sustainable development of human society.…”