The Global Water System In The Anthropocene

The Global Water System in the Anthropocene provides the platform to present global and regional perspectives of world-wide experiences on the responses of water management to global change in order to address issues such as variability in supply, increasing demands for water, environmental flows and land use change. It helps to build links between science and policy and practice in the area of water resources management and governance, relates institutional and technological innovations and identifies in which ways research can assist policy and practice in the field of sustainable freshwater management. Until the industrial revolution, human beings and their activities played an insignificant role influencing the dynamics of the Earth system, the sum of our planet‘s interacting physical, chemical, and biological processes. Today, humankind even exceeds nature in terms of changing the biosphere and affecting all other facets of Earth system functioning. A growing number of scientists argue that humanity has entered a new geological epoch that needs a corresponding name: the Anthropocene. Human activities impact the global water system as part of the Earth system and change the way water moves around the globe like never before. Thus, managing freshwater use wisely in the planetary water cycle has become a key challenge to reach global environmental sustainability.

This unique, engaging, and highly authoritative volume enlightens readers on changes needed in the way society accesses, provides, and uses water. It further shines a light on changes needed in the way we use food, energy, and other goods and services in relation to water, and offers projections and recommendations, up to 2050, that apply to water access challenges facing the poor and the common misuse of water in industry, agriculture, and municipalities. Written by an unparalleled slate of experts convened by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, the book takes on one of the most critical issues on the planet today. In a frank yet optimistic assessment of major developmental challenges, but also opportunities, facing future generations, the author elucidates linkages between water and a range of other drivers from various disciplinary and stakeholder perspectives. Ultimately portraying the belief that Humanity can harness its visionary abilities, technologies, and economic resources for increased wellbeing and sound stewardship of resources, the book presents an optimistic statement stressing actions scientists, policy makers, and consumers can and must take to meet the water management challenges of a warming planet anticipating nine billion inhabitants by 2050. Gulbenkian Think Tank on Water and the Future of Humanity: Benedito Braga, Pres. World Water Council & Prof. of Civil Engineering, Univ. of São Paulo, Brazil; Colin Chatres, Director General of the International Water Management Institute, Sri Lanka; William J. Cosgrove, Pres. of Ecoconsult Inc. & Senior Adviser for the UN World Water Development Report, Canada; Luis Veiga da Cunha, Prof. Environmental Science and Engineering, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal; Peter Gleick, Pres. of the Pacific Institute, USA; Pavel Kabat, Director, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, Austria; and Prof. & Chair, Earth Systems Science, Wageningen University, The Netherlands; Mohamed Ait Kadi, President of the General Council of Agricultural Development, Morocco; Daniel P. Loucks, Prof. of Civil Engineering, Cornell Univ. USA; Jan Lundqvist, Senior Scientific Advisor, Stockholm International Water Institute, Sweden; Sunita Narain, Director, Center for Science & Environment, New Delhi, India; Jun Xia, Pres., International Water Resources Association, Chair Prof. & Dean, The Research Institute for Water Security (RIWS), Wuhan University, China.

This edited book is a collection of essays presented at the 3rd annual endowed conference held at Duquesne University, USA. The conference series addresses emerging concerns and threshold problems about the sustainability of our planet. The contributions gathered here highlight the inter-relation of topics and expertise from the perspectives of science and policy, religion and ethics, and pivotal global issues. The book concludes with an ethical analysis of the multiple and over-lapping challenges to paramount concerns that require urgent attention and long-term resolution. The book is written for scholars and students in a variety of disciplines and fields that deal with the earth’s current survival and future flourishing.

Scholarly interest in water ethics is increasing, motivated by the urgency of climate change, water scarcity, privatization and conflicts over water resources. Water ethics can provide both conceptual perspectives and practical methodologies for identifying outcomes which are environmentally sustainable and socially just. This book assesses the implications of ongoing research in framing a new discipline of water ethics in practice. Contributions consider the difficult ethical and epistemological questions of water ethics in a global context, as well as offering local, empirical perspectives. Case study chapters focus on a range of countries including Canada, China, Germany, India, South Africa and the USA. The respective insights are brought together in the final section concerning the practical project of a universal water ethics charter, alongside theoretical questions about the legitimacy of a global water ethics. Overall the book provides a stimulating examination of water ethics in theory and practice, relevant to academics and professionals in the fields of water resource management and governance, environmental ethics, geography, law and political science.

At publication date, a free ebook version of this title will be available through Luminos, University of California Press’s Open Access publishing program. Visit www.luminosoa.org to learn more. This exciting volume presents the work and research of the Rivers of the Anthropocene Network, an international collaborative group of scientists, social scientists, humanists, artists, policy makers, and community organizers working to produce innovative transdisciplinary research on global freshwater systems. In an attempt to bridge disciplinary divides, the essays in this volume address the challenge in studying the intersection of biophysical and human sociocultural systems in the age of the Anthropocene, a new geological epoch of humans' own making. Featuring contributions from authors in a rich diversity of disciplines—from toxicology to archaeology to philosophy—this book is an excellent resource for students and scholars studying both freshwater systems and the Anthropocene.

An intellectual history of America's water management philosophy Humans take more than their geological share of water, but they do not benefit from it equally. This imbalance has created an era of intense water scarcity that affects the security of individuals, states, and the global economy. For many, this brazen water grab and the social inequalities it produces reflect the lack of a coherent philosophy connecting people to the planet. Challenging this view, Jeremy Schmidt shows how water was made a “resource” that linked geology, politics, and culture to American institutions. Understanding the global spread and evolution of this philosophy is now key to addressing inequalities that exist on a geological scale. Water: Abundance, Scarcity, and Security in the Age of Humanity details the remarkable intellectual history of America’s water management philosophy. It shows how this philosophy shaped early twentieth-century conservation in the United States, influenced American international development programs, and ultimately shaped programs of global governance that today connect water resources to the Earth system. Schmidt demonstrates how the ways we think about water reflect specific public and societal values, and illuminates the process by which the American approach to water management came to dominate the global conversation about water. Debates over how human impacts on the planet are connected to a new geological epoch—the Anthropocene—tend to focus on either the social causes of environmental crises or scientific assessments of the Earth system. Schmidt shows how, when it comes to water, the two are one and the same. The very way we think about managing water resources validates putting ever more water to use for some human purposes at the expense of others.

International Environmental Cooperation and the Global Sustainability Capital Framework offers an integrated analysis of international environmental cooperation (IEC) and global sustainability. From a strategic management perspective, the book develops the Sustainability Capital Framework for IEC and global sustainability. The book provides an in-depth examination of the significance of state participation in international environmental agreements (IEAs), and analyzes the structure, life cycle, and evolution of IEAs. Through the Sustainability Capital Framework, the book delineates the core drivers, barriers, incentives, and critical success factors for IEC and global sustainability. Develops the Sustainability Capital Framework for IEC and global sustainability from a strategic management perspective Discusses the imperative for IEC through the novel lens of our common vulnerabilities and contingent survivability in the face of global environmental change Presents a detailed discussion of the structure, life cycle, and evolution of IEAs Identifies the core drivers, barriers, incentives, and critical success factors for IEC and global sustainability Analyzes the human and environmental impacts of war, a core barrier to IEC and global sustainability Highlights the human and moral dimensions of global sustainability

This book explores how human civilization has contributed to changes in the Anthropocene, an era that marks a fundamental change in the way mankind has interacted with the Earth system. It examines the 21st century in the context of human development of water infrastructures, climate change impacts on freshwater resources, groundwater depletion, rising population, land use change, extreme events (droughts, floods, and wildfires). The implications of climate change impacts on environmental assets and the global water cycle are also highlighted. The book takes a pragmatically trans-disciplinary and holistic approach to the discussion of these issues, and the Earth system in the Anthropocene, drawing from a plethora of case studies. The capabilities of machine learning tools in satellite hydrology applications have been demonstrated as well as the feasibility of remote sensing data and innovative geospatial tools in environmental assessment. The book further showcases the multiple strengths and potential of new multi-disciplinary satellite radar programmes and geodetic missions, to measure and characterize extreme events, and their links to global climate, as well as in remote sensing of the environment. The aim is to provide innovative tools and a scientific framework that underpin our fundamental understanding of environmental systems, and the complexities of socio-hydrological systems in the Anthropocene. Policy issues have also been raised as an important aspect that can strengthen the management and administration of water resources, particularly in emerging economies where observational data is often lacking, limited, or difficult to access. It also highlights the lessons learned from freshwater hotspots (e.g., Lake Chad and Lake Urmia) where prolonged droughts and human activities have led to a permanent loss of surface water. It identifies the role of institutions and stakeholders in driving policies that underpins water management and climate change adaptation. The book articulates the novel applications of remote sensing tools as part of a monitoring framework that can alert stakeholders and the public sector to the dangers of mismanagement of freshwater in these hotspots and help facilitate water governance approaches. The book fills a critical gap in the multi-disciplinary aspect of planetary science, particularly in understanding the impacts of climate change and human actions on freshwater resources, as well as the stability of the Earth system.