Using a variety of case studies, this book provides an overview of how societies have gradually developed their water resources and furthers our understanding of how such resources can be managed successfully or unsuccessfully. Discussing how and why particular options are selected, and why a particular course of events eventually prevails, the book stresses the importance of context and a multidisciplinary approach in moving towards sustainable and equitable development.
Researchers and students in water resource management, political ecolgy and critical geography as well as policymakers and those working in the field.
1 River Basin Trajectories: an Inquiry into Changing Waterscapes
François Molle and Philippus Wester
2 Squeezed Dry: the Historical Trajectory of the Lower Jordan River Basin
Mauro Van Aken, François Molle and Jean-Philippe Venot
3 Are Good Intentions Leading to Good Outcomes? Continuities in Social, Economic and Hydro-political Trajectories in the Olifants River Basin, South Africa
Douglas J. Merrey, Hervé Lévite and Barbara van Koppen
4 From Half-full to Half-empty: the Hydraulic Mission and Water Overexploitation in the Lerma: Chapala Basin, Mexico
Philippus Wester, Eric Mollard, Paula Silva-Ochoa and Sergio Vargas-Velázquez
5 Managing the Yellow River: Continuity and Change
David Pietz and Mark Giordano
6 The Colorado River: What Prospect for ‘a River No More’?
Douglas J. Kenney
7 Sharing Scarce Resources in a Mediterranean River Basin: Wadi Merguellil in Central Tunisia
Patrick Le Goulven, Christian Leduc, Mohamed Salah Bachta and Jean-Christophe Poussin
8 Water Competition, Variability and River Basin Governance: a Critical Analysis of the Great Ruaha River, Tanzania
Bruce A. Lankford, Siza Tumbo and Kossa Rajabu
9 Buying Respite: Esfahan and the Zayandeh Rud River Basin, Iran
François Molle, Iran Ghazi and Hammond Murray-Rust
10 Rural Dynamics and New Challenges in the Indian Water Sector: the Trajectory of the Krishna Basin, South India
Jean-Philippe Venot
11 Pumped Out: Basin Closure and Farmer Adaptations in the Bhavani Basin in Southern India
Mats Lannerstad and David Molden
12 Much Ado about the Murray: the Drama of Restraining Water Use
Hugh Turral, Daniel Connell and Jennifer McKay