Managing and Transforming Water Conflicts

A practical guide to water conflict resolution for professionals and academics involved in water management.

Jerome Delli Priscoli (Author), Aaron T. Wolf (Author)

9780521129978, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 4 February 2010

384 pages
28 x 21 x 2 cm, 0.86 kg

Review of the hardback: '… this is a well-written and informative introduction to the management of water conflicts which includes detailed examples and case studies as well as useful overviews of theoretical concepts and arguments. Each chapter is supported with high-quality maps, tables and text-boxes. This volume is particularly useful as a teaching resource and is well-suited to undergraduate students or anyone who is new to the field of water management. In addition, established researchers and water professionals will find it a useful guide to the theory and practice of water conflict prevention and resolution.' The Geographical Journal

What is the one thing that no one can do without? Water. Where water crosses boundaries – be they economic, legal, political or cultural – the stage is set for disputes between different users trying to safeguard access to a vital resource, while protecting the natural environment. Without strategies to anticipate, address, and mediate between competing users, intractable water conflicts are likely to become more frequent, more intense, and more disruptive around the world. In this book, Delli Priscoli and Wolf investigate the dynamics of water conflict and conflict resolution, from the local to the international. They explore the inexorable links between three facets of conflict management and transformation: Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR), public participation, and institutional capacity. This practical guide will be invaluable to water management professionals, as well as to researchers and students in engineering, economics, geography, geology, and political science who are involved in any aspects of water management.

Foreword A. Szöllösi-Nagy
Introduction
1. Background, trends, and concepts
2. Water wars, water reality - reframing the debate on transboundary water disputes, hydropolitics, and preventive hydrodiplomacy
3. Water conflict management - theory and practice
4. Crafting institutions - law, treaties, and shared benefits
5. Public participation, institutional capacity, and river basin organisations for managing conflict
6. Lessons learned - patterns and issues
7. Water conflict prevention and resolution - where to from here?
Appendix A. 1997 Convention and ILC draft rules on international groundwater
Appendix B. River basin organisations
Appendix C. Case studies of transboundary dispute resolution J. T. Newton
Appendix D. International water pricing - an overview and historic and modern case studies K. M. Anderson and L. J. Gaines
Appendix E. Treaties with groundwater provisions K. Matsumoto
Appendix F. Treaties with water quality provisions M. Giordano
Appendix G. Treaties that delineate water allocations
References
Index.

Subject Areas: Hydrology & the hydrosphere [RBK], Soil science, sedimentology [RBGB], International environmental law [LBBP]