By 2050, the demand for water to sustain world agriculture will increase by seventy-five per cent in order to feed an estimated nine billion inhabitants. Increased amounts of water will be required for irrigation and for industrial and domestic use. Natural ecosystems will be threatened by the expansion of agricultural land and by a reduc
By 2050, the demand for water to sustain world agriculture will increase by seventy-five per cent in order to feed an estimated nine billion inhabitants. Increased amounts of water will be required for irrigation and for industrial and domestic use. Natural ecosystems will be threatened by the expansion of agricultural land and by a reduction in water availability, while climate change will exacerbate the situation. Management of available resources, particularly groundwater, will become more critical and aquifers will need to be managed for the benefit of all. These selected papers were first presented at the International Association of Hydrogeologists, Dijon 2006, and are divided into six themes: large aquifers, resource assessment; large aquifers, water salinity and evolution; karstic and carbonate aquifer systems; geothermal aquifer systems; aquifer contamination studies and aquifer monitoring systems and management. The volume also includes a short biography of Henry Darcy and illustrates his contribution to science. Five invited contributions describe modern methods for estimating the hydraulic conductivity of aquifers.
Groundwater is invisible, but its impact is visible everywhere. Everything around us relies on groundwater, our drinking water and sanitation, our food supply and our natural environment. Yet because it is invisible, information, management and governance of groundwater is often poor and inadequate. This book contributes to UN Water Groundwater year (2022), and to the effort of “making the invisible, visible”. Through worldwide case studies ranging from the Americas (California, Brazil), to Asia (India, Iran, Lao PDR, Nepal), Africa (Malawi, Tanzania, South Africa) and the MENA region (Lebanon, Morocco, Yemen), including cases of transboundary aquifers, the chapters in this edited volume reflect important recent advances in interdisciplinary knowledge on the governance, management, practice and science-policy interfaces of groundwater. An insightful resource for researchers and planners in the field of environmental policies, water laws, climate change and groundwater governance, this book comes with a new Introduction. The other chapters were originally published in Water International.
This book applies system theory to analyze the operation and structure of the complex earth surface system, including the interactions between society and nature that cause environmental degradation and threats to human populations. The possible ways to harmonize the operation of a global society as a complex system using the United Nation sustainable development goals are investigated, as well as the major efforts currently implemented to achieve this objective and why many are unsuccessful. Readers will learn this material through case studies that assess the essential conditions required to occupy a planet sustainably, and examine the complex interactions between society and nature in the atmosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere, and outer layers of the lithosphere. The book is written for undergraduate students in geography, earth sciences, environmental sciences, and ecology, and will also appeal to environmental agency employees, nature protection representatives, teachers, and researchers.
"The Arab countries have much to gain from considering the linkages between water, energy and food security in their pursuit of sustainable development, given the stressors, constraints and strong interdependencies that characterize the relationships between these three sectors in the region. The nexus analytical framework can be applied at various scales of analysis and can accommodate consideration of the varying natural resources endowments and different production and consumption patterns that exist among Arab countries. It can facilitate the examination of the complex challenges that stymie water, energy and food security in the Arab region, such as shared water resources management, decision-making related to the energy mix and energy efficiency in Arab countries, and national efforts to achieve food security in face of water scarcity, land degradation and development objectives. This sixth issue of the ESCWA Water Development Report presents an analytical framework and a series of case studies for understanding the water-energy-food security nexus in the Arab region. The analytical framework considers the linkages that affect the achievement of water, energy and food security through the lens of sustainable development and the achievement of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, with a view to mitigating climate change and ensuring access to food, water and sustainable energy for all in the context of a human-rights approach."--Publisher's description.
Finalist for the National Book Award An intimate reckoning with aquifer depletion in America's heartland The Ogallala aquifer has nourished life on the American Great Plains for millennia. But less than a century of unsustainable irrigation farming has taxed much of the aquifer beyond repair. The imminent depletion of the Ogallala and other aquifers around the world is a defining planetary crisis of our times. Running Out offers a uniquely personal account of aquifer depletion and the deeper layers through which it gains meaning and force. Anthropologist Lucas Bessire journeyed back to western Kansas, where five generations of his family lived as irrigation farmers and ranchers, to try to make sense of this vital resource and its loss. His search for water across the drying High Plains brings the reader face to face with the stark realities of industrial agriculture, eroding democratic norms, and surreal interpretations of a looming disaster. Yet the destination is far from predictable, as the book seeks to move beyond the words and genres through which destruction is often known. Instead, this journey into the morass of eradication offers a series of unexpected discoveries about what it means to inherit the troubled legacies of the past and how we can take responsibility for a more inclusive, sustainable future. An urgent and unsettling meditation on environmental change, Running Out is a revelatory account of family, complicity, loss, and what it means to find your way back home.
By 2050, the demand for water to sustain world agriculture will increase by seventy-five per cent in order to feed an estimated nine billion inhabitants. Increased amounts of water will be required for irrigation and for industrial and domestic use. Natural ecosystems will be threatened by the expansion of agricultural land and by a reduction in water availability, while climate change will exacerbate the situation. Management of available resources, particularly groundwater, will become more critical and aquifers will need to be managed for the benefit of all. These selected papers were first.
There is no more fundamental resource than water. The basis of all life, water is fast becoming a key issue in today’s world, as well as a source of conflict. This fascinating book, which sets out many of the ingenious methods by which ancient societies gathered, transported and stored water, is a timely publication as overextraction and profligacy threaten the existence of aquifers and watercourses that have supplied our needs for millennia. It provides an overview of the water technologies developed by a number of ancient civilizations, from those of Mesopotamia and the Indus valley to later societies such as the Mycenaeans, Minoans, Persians, and the ancient Egyptians. Of course, no book on ancient water technologies would be complete without discussing the engineering feats of the Romans and Greeks, yet as well as covering these key civilizations, it also examines how ancient American societies from the Hohokams to the Mayans and Incas husbanded their water supplies. This unusually wide-ranging text could offer today’s parched world some solutions to the impending crisis in our water supply. "This book provides valuable insights into the water technologies developed in ancient civilizations which are the underpinning of modern achievements in water engineering and management practices. It is the best proof that "the past is the key for the future." Andreas N. Angelakis, Hellenic Water Supply and Sewerage Systems Association, Greece "This book makes a fundamental contribution to what will become the most important challenge of our civilization facing the global crisis: the problem of water. Ancient Water Technologies provides a complete panorama of how ancient societies confronted themselves with the management of water. The role of this volume is to provide, for the first time on this issue, an extensive historical and scientific reconstruction and an indication of how traditional knowledge may be employed to ensure a sustainable future for all." Pietro Laureano, UNESCO expert for ecosystems at risk, Director of IPOGEA-Institute of Traditional Knowledge, Italy
A new edition of the veteran science writer's groundbreaking work on the world's water crisis, featuring all-new reporting from the most recent global flashpoints Throughout history, rivers have been our foremost source of fresh water for both agriculture and individual consumption, but looming water scarcity threatens to cut global food production and cause conflict and unrest. In this visionary book, Fred Pearce takes readers around the world on a tour of the world's rivers to provide our most complete portrait yet of the growing global water crisis and its ramifications for us all. With vivid on-the-ground reporting, Pearce deftly weaves together the scientific, economic, and historic dimensions of the water crisis, showing us its complex origins--from waste to wrong-headed engineering projects to high-yield crop varieties that have saved developing countries from starvation but are now emptying their water reserves. Pearce argues that the solution to the growing worldwide water shortage is more efficiency and a new water ethic based on managing the water cycle for maximum social benefit rather than narrow self-interest.