The Governance of Water Innovations


Book Description

Providing an extensive comparative and international study of water innovations and the issues that arise in their implementation, The Governance of Water Innovations analyses the technical, economic, health and environmental impacts of water innovations and their policy implications.




Governance and Complexity in Water Management


Book Description

The premise of this book is that careful reconsideration of strategies to achieve water management ambitions, together with more in-depth knowledge on the theories and practices of boundary spanning, could bring solutions for contemporary water problems within reach. The book integrates boundary work approaches, new forms of governance and water resource management to explore frameworks for spanning sector, scale and time boundaries. Structured case studies reflect the experiences and lessons of cooperation and exchange with professional water managers and their projects. Recommendations for boundary spanning in practice are presented, and important contemporary water management themes including flooding and flood policy, water depletion and water restoration are discussed in depth. Incorporating conceptual, theoretical and practical foci to address complexity and conflict in adaptive water management, this book will strongly appeal to academics, researchers and practitioners in the areas of water management, planning and sustainability.




Water Governance, Policy and Knowledge Transfer


Book Description

In an increasingly global community of researchers and practitioners, new technologies and communication means have made the transfer of policies from one country or region to another progressively more prevalent. There has been a lot of attention in the field of public administration paid to policy transfer and institutional transplantation. This book aims to create a better understanding of such transfers in the water management sector. These include the adoption of modern water management concepts, such as integrated water resources management and forms of water governance, which are strongly promoted and sometimes also imposed by various international organizations. Transfers also occur within the scope of development aid or for the purpose of creating business opportunities. In addition, many research organisations, consultancies and governmental agencies are involved in cross-border work. The purpose of this book is therefore to present practical examples of the transfer of modern water management from one locality to another and to critically discuss the transferability of policy and governance concepts by analysing the contextual needs and factors. Case studies are included from North America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia. It is argued that in many cases context matters in water management and that there is no panacea or universal concept that can be applied to all countries or regions with different political, economic, cultural and technological contexts. Yet it is also shown that some countries are facing pressing and similar water management issues that cut across national borders, and hence the transfer of knowledge may be beneficial.




Water Societies and Technologies from the Past and Present


Book Description

Today our societies face great challenges with water, in terms of both quantity and quality, but many of these challenges have already existed in the past. Focusing on Asia, Water Societies and Technologies from the Past and Present seeks to highlight the issues that emerge or re-emerge across different societies and periods, and asks what they can tell us about water sustainability. Incorporating cutting-edge research and pioneering field surveys on past and present water management practices, the interdisciplinary contributors together identify how societies managed water resource challenges and utilised water in ways that allowed them to evolve, persist, or drastically alter their environment. The case studies, from different periods, ancient and modern, and from different regions, including Egypt, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Southwest United States, the Indus Basin, the Yangtze River, the Mesopotamian floodplain, the early Islamic city of Sultan Kala in Turkmenistan, and ancient Korea, offer crucial empirical data to readers interested in comparing the dynamics of water management practices across time and space, and to those who wish to understand water-related issues through conceptual and quantitative models of water use. The case studies also challenge classical theories on water management and social evolution, examine and establish the deep historical roots and ecological foundations of water sustainability issues, and contribute new grounds for innovations in sustainable urban planning and ecological resilience.




Governing Water


Book Description

A theoretical and case-study exploration of water politics demonstrates the emergence of alternative institutional forms of global environmental governance that go beyond traditional interstate regimes.




Water Resilience


Book Description

This book synthesizes current knowledge and understanding of management and governance in the context of water resilience; advances theory through synthesis of research and experiences from a variety of disciplinary perspectives. The book highlights the implications of theory and experience for innovation in practice and policy; and it explores frontiers and future research. The book further addresses the need for a consolidated, interdisciplinary approach to the theoretical advances and practical implications of water resilience for academics, resource managers, aid organizations, policy makers and citizens.




Implementing Innovation


Book Description

Over the past three decades, governments at the local, state, and federal levels have undertaken a wide range of bold innovations, often in partnership with nongovernmental organizations and communities, to try to address their environmental and natural resource management tasks. Many of these efforts have failed. Innovations, by definition, are transitory. How, then, can we establish new practices that endure? Toddi A. Steelman argues that the key to successful and long-lasting innovation must be a realistic understanding of the challenges that face it. She examines three case studies--land management in Colorado, watershed management in West Virginia, and timber management in New Mexico--and reveals specific patterns of implementation success and failure. Steelman challenges conventional wisdom about the role of individual entrepreneurs in innovative practice. She highlights the institutional obstacles that impede innovation and its longer term implementation, while offering practical insight in how enduring change might be achieved.




Water Governance: Retheorizing Politics


Book Description

This republished Special Issue highlights recent and emergent concepts and approaches to water governance that re-centers the political in relation to water-related decision making, use, and management. To do so at once is to focus on diverse ontologies, meanings and values of water, and related contestations regarding its use, or its importance for livelihoods, identity, or place-making. Building on insights from science and technology studies, feminist, and postcolonial approaches, we engage broadly with the ways that water-related decision making is often depoliticized and evacuated of political content or meaning—and to what effect. Key themes that emerged from the contributions include the politics of water infrastructure and insecurity; participatory politics and multi-scalar governance dynamics; politics related to emergent technologies of water (bottled or packaged water, and water desalination); and Indigenous water governance.




The Conversation on Water


Book Description

From the contributors to The Conversation, a compelling essay collection on the world's water crises and the necessary steps to build a more sustainable and equitable water future for all. Water-related crises are affecting more and more communities, both in the United States and internationally. If we continue to delay upgrading our infrastructure and addressing rising environmental concerns, we risk further destabilizing already strained systems—or, worse, causing a catastrophic collapse. In The Conversation on Water, water scholar and professor Andrea K. Gerlak collects essays from The Conversation U.S. on critical issues related to water from leading experts in everything from public policy to environmental engineering. Gerlak pays special attention to the threats facing our water systems today—covering insufficient infrastructure, climate change, and pollution—and integrates them with essays on technologies for harvesting water and Indigenous knowledge in governing the oceans. She then proposes solutions that present opportunities for hope and reform. From new partnerships and collaborative efforts to alternative governance practices and new scientific tools and community approaches, readers will learn about viable pathways forward and will understand the deep social and political dimensions of water governance. Understanding these challenges is the first step toward building a more sustainable and equitable water future for all. The Critical Conversations series collects essays from top scholars on timely topics, including water, biotechnology, gender diversity, gun culture, and more, originally published on the independent news site The Conversation U.S. Contributors: Roger Bales, Kevin Befus, Robert Blasiak, Ellen Bruno, Bethany Caruso, Sebastien Chastin, Craig E. Colten, Joseph Cook, Michelle DiBenedetto, Farshid Felfelani, Gabriel Filippelli, Michail Georgiou, Burke Griggs, Gary Griggs, Drew Gronewold, Marissa Grunes, Danielle Hare, Brian Haus, Dan Johnson, Carol Kwiatkowski, Rosalyn R. LaPier, Katharine Mach, Amahia Mallea, Daniel McCool, Jacob Miller-Klugesherz, Nobuhito Mori, Thomas Mortlock, Suzanne O'Connell, Itxaso Odériz, Joseph D. Ortiz, Meg Parsons, Raquel Partelli-Feltrin, Yadu Pokhrel, Manzoor Qadir, Julie Reimer, Landolf Rhode-Barbarigos, Richard Rood, Asher Rosinger, Matthew R. Sanderson, Heidi Schweizer, Alan Seltzer, A. R. Siders, Rodolfo Silva-Casarín, Vladimir Smakhtin, Bruce Sutherland, Lara Taylor, Emily Ury, Ton Van den Bremer, Andrew J. Whelton