Water Science, Policy, and Management

Abstract

Sustainable water management is an increasingly complex challenge and policy priority facing global society. This book examines how governments, municipalities, corporations, and individuals find sustainable water management pathways across competing priorities of water for ecosystems, food, energy, economic growth and human consumption. It looks at the current politics and economics behind the management of our freshwater ecosystems and infrastructure and offers insightful essays that help stimulate more intense and informed debate about the subject and its need for local and international cooperation. This book celebrates the 15-year anniversary of Oxford University’s MSc course in Water Science, Policy and Management. Edited and written by some of the leading minds in the field, writing alongside alumni from the course, Water Science, Policy and Management: A Global Challenge offers in-depth chapters in three parts: Science; Policy; and Management. Topics cover: hydroclimatic extremes and climate change; the past, present, and future of groundwater resources; water quality modelling, monitoring, and management; and challenges for freshwater ecosystems. The book presents critical views on the monitoring and modelling of hydrological processes; the rural water policy in Africa and Asia; the political economy of wastewater in Europe; drought policy management and water allocation. It also examines the financing of water infrastructure; the value of wastewater; water resource planning; sustainable urban water supply and the human right to water.

Jim Hall

Professor of Climate and Environmental Risk

Prof. Jim Hall FREng is Professor of Climate and Environmental Risks in the University of Oxford and Director of Research in the School of Geography and the Environment.