GECHS » Water

Coastal Cities Summit

Kirsten Ulsrud — Fri, 16 May 2008 08:38:16 +0000

The International Ocean Institute, USA and the city of St. Petersburg, Florida, USA, are hosting a Coastal Cities Summit on November 17-20 2008, to address the complex challenges that coastal city leaders face as populations increase, resources are depleted, and the impacts of climate change are felt. The Coastal Cities Summit intends to bring together 600-700 coastal city leaders, managers and academics to discuss environmental, social, economic, and public policy challenges and viable solutions. The 3 ½ day conference will focus on three themes: Climate Change, Risk and Vulnerability, and Sustainable Development. The planners are soliciting speakers on areas that are particularly relevant to coastal cities: freshwater, pollution, energy, infrastructure, and port security. All sessions are intended to give a long-needed voice to those who are on the front lines taking leadership on climate change, providing implementation and response plans and continuing to focus on protecting citizens from possible extreme events and human-induced degradation.

Full details are available at the conference website.

Symposium: Marine social-ecological systems and global change

Kirsten Ulsrud — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 09:52:56 +0000

An international symposium titled “Coping with global change in marine social-ecological systems” will be held in Rome in July 2008. Principal sponsors of the symposium are GLOBEC, EUR-OCEANS and FAO. Marine socio-ecological systems have marine and human components which are highly inter-connected and interactive. The IPCC report identifies the need to make social-ecological systems more resilient by building “adaptive capacity”. This is an issue on which both natural and social scientists can contribute, for example by identifying the essential characteristics of such systems and relevant approaches to building such capacity. By “global change” the symposium includes climate change, but also resource over-exploitation, competing uses of the marine environment, changing lifestyles, and globalisation of trade and economies. While the focus is on climate and environmental change, how these interact with other global changes are important considerations. The central goals of the symposium are to share experiences across disciplines and to identify key next steps and common elements and approaches that promote resilience of marine social-ecological systems in he face of global changes. This involves:

Exploring conceptual issues relating to social-ecological responses in marine systems to global changes;
Analysing case studies of specific examples of social-ecological responses in marine systems to significant environmental changes manifested locally;
Synthesising the work of natural and social scientists and building comparisons of social-ecological responses in marine ecosystems subjected to major environmental variability;
Developing innovative approaches to the use of science and knowledge in management, policy and advice;
Identifying lessons for governance for building resilient social-ecological systems.

For information and registration, see the symposium website.

Newsletter: Water and Human Security

Lynn Rosentrater — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 20:36:41 +0000

Issue 2 of the GECHS newsletter is now available for download. Contributors, writing on the topic of water, include:

Karen O’Brien on Understanding the Global Water Crisis
Lyla Mehta on Water Scarcity: Measuring the price of perception
Jinxia Wang, Jikun Huang and Scott Rozelle on Groundwater Challenges in Northern China
Kwasi Nsiah-Gyabaah Lessons from Ghana: Sustainable watershed management
Claudia Pahl-Wostl, Joyeeta Gupta, Nils Petter Gleditsch and Daniel Petry on Water Governance: Global Thinking in Bonn

Download the PDF [746k]

Book announcement: Israel – Palestinian Water Issues

Lynn Rosentrater — Tue, 22 May 2007 23:00:34 +0000

Hillel Shuval and Hassan Dweik (Eds.), Israel – Palestinian Water Issues – From Conflict to Cooperation. Hexagon Series on Human and Environmental Security and Peace, vol. 2 from Springer.

In Israeli-Palestinian Water Issues – From Conflict to Cooperation leading Palestinian, Israeli and international water experts document the importance of mutual understanding, respect and amity among peoples during a difficult period of stress. This book demonstrates hope, optimism and belief that people with good will can help contribute to peace and mutual cooperation in solving shared water problems essential for their mutual survival and welfare. The present water crisis facing the Middle East will become even more severe over the next twenty years, unless dealt with energetically and in good time. This situation requires urgent action by the countries of the region, the international community and civil society generally. This book provides valuable source material for water scientists, engineers, political scientists, specialists in conflict resolution, environmentalists, economists, lawyers, administrators, managers and policy makers interested in understanding, developing, managing and protecting the scarce shared water resources of the Middle East and for the promotion of “Water for Life” for the benefit of all the nations of the region.

Water and human development

Kirsten Ulsrud — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 17:13:34 +0000

Lyla Mehta, GECHS SSC member, was one of the contributors to the Human Development Report 2006, and her background paper “Water and Human Development: Capabilities, Entitlements and Power” is now available online. The paper highlights how the multifaceted aspects of water are often neglected in official policy debates. It looks at a human development approach to water scarcity and asks what entitlements and capabilities would mean with respect to water. Efforts are made to explore the entitlements framework for both water as a basic need/right and for the wider and more productive uses of water.

Policy Note on Environmental Cooperation in Great Lakes Region, Nile Basin

Kirsten Ulsrud — Mon, 22 Jan 2007 16:41:02 +0000

Two policy briefs written by GECHS SSC member Patricia Kameri-Mbote are now available from the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. In the newest brief of the Navigating Peace series of the Environmental Change and Security Program (ECSP), Kameri-Mbote lays the historical foundation of water management in the Nile River Basin, and recommends policies for facilitating cooperation among the region’s many water users. In her second brief, published by the Africa Program, she argues that rather than being a source of competition, Africa’s dependence on natural resources can facilitate dialogue and provide a pathway to peacebuilding in the troubled Great Lakes Region.

Policy Brief: Water’s Role in Conflict and Cooperation

Lynn Rosentrater — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 09:58:48 +0000

GECHS SSC member Ken Conca has recently published “The New Face of Water Conflict” as part of a new series of policy-friendly briefs published by The Navigating Peace Initiative at the Woodrow Wilson Center’s Environmental Change and Security Program. The series examines how water can contribute to cooperation between states, while addressing water’s role in conflict within states. The briefs offer policy recommendations for using water resources management to head off conflict and to support sustainable peace among countries.

Recent article on Chinese Water Management

Lynn Rosentrater — Thu, 22 Jun 2006 10:53:15 +0000

Barnett, J. Webber, M. Wang, M. Finlayson, B. and Dickinson, D. 2006. ‘Ten Key Questions About the Human Dimensions of Water in the Yellow River Basin’, Environmental Management, 38(2): 179-188.

Abstract: Water is scarce in many regions of the world, clean water is difficult to find in most developing countries, there are conflicts between irrigation needs and urban demands, and there is wide debate over appropriate means of resolving these problems. Similarly, in China, there is limited understanding of the ways in which people, groups, and institutions contribute to, are affected by, and respond to changes in water quantity and quality. We use the example of the Yellow River basin to argue that these social, managerial, and policy dimensions of the present water problems are significant and overshadow the physical ones. Despite this, they receive relatively little attention in the research agenda, particularly of the lead agencies in the management of the Yellow River basin. To this end, we ask ten research questions needed to address the policy needs of water management in the basin, split into two groups of five. The first five relate to the importance of water in this basin and the changes that have affected water problems and will continue to do so. The second five questions represent an attempt to explore possible solutions to these problems.

Governing Water: Contentious Transnational Politics and Global Institution Building

Lynn Rosentrater — Sun, 18 Jun 2006 09:36:01 +0000

The Environmental Change and Security Program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars recently hosted GECHS SSC member Ken Conca as he presented research from his book Governing Water: Contentious Transnational Politics and Global Institution Building. Winner of the Chadwick F. Alger Prize and the Harold and Margaret Sprout Award, the book was inspired by the actions of the Itoiz protesters. Conca said: “The core question of the book is ‘What’s the relationship between this sort of contentious politics, this sort of extra-institutional disruptive politics, and our approaches to global environmental governance?’” His presentation is available online, along with video and other information about the event.

Understanding the Global Water Crisis

Lynn Rosentrater — Thu, 25 May 2006 14:18:20 +0000

SSC members Ken Conca, Patricia Kameri-Mbote, and Lyla Mehta held a roundtable disucsssion at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars to discuss the escalating water crisis experienced around the world and the threat of growing water scarcity.

Water is an emerging issue for human security, however, conventional portrayals of water scarcity mask how access to and control over water is highly unequal and a result of socio-political processes. Dr. Ken Conca examined how social and economic globalization are yielding informal but increasingly embedded sets of global rules and shaping the governance of water systems around the world. Dr. Patricia Kameri-Mbote addressed the conflict and cooperation dynamics at play in the Horn of Africa and Great Lakes Region. Dr. Lyla Mehta discussed how water scarcity relates to competing forms of governance that shape people’s rights and access to natural resources. This meeting was webcast live and will be archived at www.wilsoncenter.org.

Drs. Ken Conca, Lyla Mehta, and Patricia Kameri-Mbote speaking at the roundtable discussion on 24 May 2006. Photo: David Owen Hawxhurst.