Water demand management and the quest for sustainability

This paper problematises positivist framings of water demand management (WDM) that define the average‐water‐user. Through a situated, case‐study account undertaken in suburban Auckland, we highlight variable social and cultural underpinnings of domestic water use. Activities that are commonly the focus of WDM are shown to be embedded elements of life around which relationships, affects and futures are woven. As a consequence, myopically focusing on the technical–managerial mediation of what are socionatural relations reduces prospects to achieve intended policy outcomes. Reframing WDM as a hydrosocial process provides a basis for water providers to develop more culturally appropriate water management.     

Historical Political Ecology of Water: Access to Municipal Drinking Water in Colonial Lima,Peru (1578–1700)

Historical political ecology provides a powerful framework for understanding nature–society relations in the past. This approach is applied to municipal drinking water governance in early colonial Lima, Peru, with a focus on how power dynamics influenced sociospatial patterns of water access and control. Sixteenth- and seventeenth-century archival sources are analyzed for material aspects of Lima's drinking water pipeline network and for the management strategies employed by the municipal government. Access to water is demonstrated to have shaped, reinforced, and reflected colonial social divisions and to have been linked to the spatial development of the city, including urban–rural relations.     

Planning for source water protection in Ontario

Ontario began developing a drinking water source protection planning process in 2000, after a rural community's water supply was contaminated by pathogens from agricultural runoff. An expert committee report has recommended legislating a new source protection “sphere of jurisdiction” for municipalities; however, no specific new municipal tools or authorities have been proposed as yet. This paper reports findings from an evaluation of the extent to which existing institutional arrangements for land use planning and water management facilitate or constrain source protection by municipalities. A case study of the Regional Municipality of Waterloo suggests there is the potential to link land use planning more strongly to water management through creative use of existing tools, forgoing the need for major institutional changes.     

社会经济系统水循环研究进展

水循环包括自然水循环和社会经济水循环两个方面。社会经济系统水循环指社会经济系统对水资源的开发利用及各种人类活动对水循环的影响。对目前国际国内关于社会经济水循环关注的主要问题 (水资源安全、水资源社会经济研究、人类活动对水循环的影响、水环境、水资源可持续管理和综合管理) 及其进展进行了评述。水资源安全的主要对策已由增加供给转变为水资源需求管理。增加社会参与和明晰水权是水资源管理体制改革的方向。水价在水资源管理中的重要作用得到越来越多的重视。水资源可持续管理和综合管理正逐步落实。水资源需求管理机制、水权水价等水资源管理制度设计、作为可持续水资源管理基础的生态需水问题和环境变化对水资源的影响,将是未来社会经济系统水循环研究的焦点。     

Research progress of socio-economic water cycle in China

China has made great progress in the study of socio-economic water cycle. She has completed national water resources appraisement and medium to long-term water supply planning. She has been engaging in study on water-deficient regions in North China and Northwest China for about half a century. For solving water shortage problem in northern China, she has put forward the famous South-to-North Water Transferring Projects, which has been set as one of the four biggest national projects in the Tenth Five-Year-Plan period although there are still debates. For promoting water use efficiency, China has been reforming her water management system, including water right system and water price system. There has already been a case of water right purchase. China has also done a lot of research on the interaction between human activity, water and ecosystem. For meeting the need of sustainability and coordinating water resources development and environmental protection, the study of ecological water requirement became very hot in recent years. There are three focuses of socio-economic water cycle study now in China: water transfer projects from the south to the north, water resources management and ecological water requirement.     

Research progress of socio-economic water cycle in China

China has made great progress in the study of socio-economic water cycle. She has completed national water resources appraisement and medium to long-term water supply planning. She has been engaging in study on water-deficient regions in North China and Northwest China for about half a century. For solving water shortage problem in northern China, she has put forward the famous South-to-North Water Transferring Projects, which has been set as one of the four biggest national projects in the Tenth Five-Year-Plan period although there are still debates. For promoting water use efficiency, China has been reforming her water management system, including water right system and water price system. There has already been a case of water right purchase. China has also done a lot of research on the interaction between human activity, water and ecosystem. For meeting the need of sustainability and coordinating water resources development and environmental protection, the study of ecological water requirement became very hot in recent years. There are three focuses of socio-economic water cycle study now in China: water transfer projects from the south to the north, water resources management and ecological water requirement.     

需水供水联合管理面临的新的机遇与挑战

在未来10年以及更长的一段时间,全球和中国的水资源管理面临着紧迫的挑战,这些挑战包括水管控、水与食物、水与自然、水与能源、水与健康以及与气候变化相适应的与水相关的跨国合作,所有这些都与区域和全球尺度水安全相关。为了应对这些挑战,无论在中国还是世界范围,水资源管理战略必须解决需水管理(WDM)和供水管理(WSM)这两个重要问题,以及需水管理和供水管理的联合管理问题。本文将站在一个全球高度上研讨这一紧迫问题。通过分析,建议如下:在地方一级进行关于供水和需水管理的知识转让和经验交流和实践;在国家一级制定完善促进供需水管理的指导方针,最终发展到流域和区域级别。由于大陆或次大陆存在很大的差异,具体的区域指导报告是必要的,其中包括:专门针对现有可利用水资源和水需求的评估(通过使用水文方法进行水资源的评估以及需水调查和预测);关于组织、机构、税收、培训和教育的供需水的联合管理,在全球范围起草一个联合国公约草案。并在联合国会议上强调跨国界流域管理和/或竞争用水情况下的管理和/或水匮乏的供水需水联合管理的重要性。参照上述列举的目标,这些目标可能侧重于4个方面:在地方和国家一级(短期)供水管理;在地方和国家一级(短期)需水管理;在国家一级(中期和长期)供水管理和需水管理联合管理:在国际/区域一级(中期和长期)供水管理和需水管理联合管理。     

The geography of water conflict and cooperation: internal pressures and international manifestations

Studies on transboundary water conflict and cooperation generally consider interstate relations over shared water resources as distinct from intrastate relations. While connections have been made between international water relations and regional relationships in general, it is conceivable that international water conflict and cooperation may also be influenced by domestic water events and vice versa. This paper seeks to investigate the dynamics of water interactions across geographic scale and their relationship to broader international affairs. The research approach involves the creation of an analytical framework for assessing possible linkages between external and internal interactions over freshwater resources. The framework is applied to three case studies – the Middle East, South Asia and Southern Africa – utilizing 'event data'. To validate the findings from the quantitative analyses, the results are compared with conventional qualitative understandings of water and overall relations in the three regions. The comparison demonstrates not only the efficacy of the analytical framework in general, but also highlights, at least in terms of the specific case studies selected, the disparate water dynamics across geographic regions and the importance of considering water events, both national and international, within larger political and historical contexts.     

Hydrological Studies and Water Resource Concerns in Southeast Asia

Water supply shortage has become a pressing issue in Southeast Asia in recent years. While on the one hand water demand is escalating with rapid economic development, urbanisation and related population concentrations, on the other, surface water supply sources are increasingly being threatened by the resultant land use changes. Therefore, any understanding of the region's water supply concerns necessarily takes into account the hydrological processes and changes consequent to human interference of the natural environment. Changes to the environment that curtail the quantity of water supply and affect its quality will in turn have implications for water resource issues in megacities and other urban areas. Equally critical to the supply of water are water resource and management issues, in particular, the adequate provision of safe water for human consumption, regarded as not only meeting a basic need but also a human right. This paper provides an overview of hydrological processes and water resource concerns and suggests the scope for further investigation, particularly by geographers.     

Relational Agriculture: Gender,Sexuality, and Sustainability in U.S. Farming

Although 97% of U.S. farms are “family-owned,” little research examines how gender and sexual relationships – inherent in familial dynamics – influence farmers’ practices and livelihoods. Gender and sexual dynamics – shaped by race and class – affect who is considered a farmer, land management decisions, and access to resources like land, subsidies, and knowledge. We use feminist and queer lenses to illuminate how today’s agricultural gender and sexual relations are not “natural,” but when left uninterrogated are constructed in ways that harm women and queer farmers while limiting potential to develop sustainable practices. Women and queer farmers also resist, “re-orienting” gender and sexual relations in ways that expand possibilities for achieving food justice and ecological sustainability. We offer “relational agriculture” as a tool for making visible and re-orienting gender and sexual relations on farms. Relational agriculture brings sexuality into food justice and demonstrates the centrality of gender and sexuality to agricultural sustainability.     

Exploring a New Regionalism-Based Approach to Managing Drinking Water Systems in Rural Regions

Rural regions face many challenges when managing drinking water systems. Current management approaches lack the ability to deal with the complexity that surrounds these infrastructure systems and the critical service they provide, in particular, the links between these systems and the economy and environment. This research explores the potential for an alternative approach. The proposed new regionalism-based approach recognizes and accounts for the myriad of influencing factors, using different mechanisms to support and encourage drinking water systems in fulfilling their potential role in supporting regional resilience. Using a case study approach, data collected from semistructured interviews indicate that elements of the proposed approach are already in use within the Kootenay Development Region of British Columbia, Canada. Results indicate that while the need for an alternate management approach is recognized, and elements of the proposed approach are increasingly applied, substantive barriers remain, such as the existing institutional and jurisdictional structure.     

基于生态水文学的地下水资源管理研究——以延庆盆地为例

传统的地下水资源管理往往只关注地下水位的变化,而很少考虑变化的水位会对区域生态系统产生什么样的影响。本文在生态水文模拟的基础上提出了一种基于生态水文学的地下水资源管理新方法。该方法耦合土壤水分与地下水位,考虑植物在水分胁迫下的蒸腾抑制机理,通过土壤水分亏缺与植物水分胁迫耦合水文过程与植物响应,进行基于过程的分布式生态水...     

Progress in the Research on Benefit-sharing and Ecological Compensation Mechanisms for Transboundary Rivers

Transboundary rivers have important geopolitical and geo-economic connotations, but riparian states of transboundary rivers are often driven by their own rapid population growth and economic development to be-come involved in regional conflicts about the development and use of water resources. Therefore, finding a balance between the need for fair and reasonable development of water resources and the effective protection of environment from an ecological perspective has become a major problem faced by the international community. This paper begins with consideration of international water laws related to transboundary rivers and then reviews advances in the research on benefit-sharing, ecological compensation mechanisms, and adaptive management systems. We believe that existing international water laws form a complete legal system and that more attention needs to be paid to transboundary cooperation and sustainable water resource use. With respect to how transboundary water conflicts are resolved, there is a trend to move away from single water resource allocation (a zero-sum game) to benefit-sharing in order to achieve a win-win situation for riparian states, but there are still some difficulties in transboundary ecological compensation. In China, the central government has paid attention to horizontal ecological compensation between upstream and downstream, offering guidance to promote establishment of inter-province ecological compensation. Based on existing practice, horizontal ecological compensations are still in their infancy, small in scale, supported by a weak legal system, lacking market mechanisms to encourage their use and relying on fiscal transfers as the method of payment. In the future, China will need to intensify its research on legal system development, international cooperation, and benefit-sharing as these impact transboundary water resources. Because government can be seen as a management department with multiple identities (enabler, regulator and buyer), to improve adaptive transboundary ecological compensation mechanisms, government must develop as soon as possible data sharing platforms, standards of water consumption behaviors and intergovernmental policies (or ordinances).     

Health Seeking Behavior: Q‐Structures of Rural and Urban Women in India with Sexually Transmitted Diseases and Reproductive Tract Infections

I use a gender framework to examine why women need to utilize social networks to discover and resolve problems related to reproductive tract infections (RTI) and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). In India, women's health is linked with social status and perception of their health needs. This paper provides insight on how social networks are gender‐, location‐, and context‐specific and how they are linked to STD issues. This paper examines why social networks are integral to women. The health‐seeking behavior of rural and urban casual sex workers is examined via Q‐analysis, a language of mapping relationships. Results from Q‐analysis reveal women's use of four systems—kinship, belief, traditional medical, and western medical services. Finally, I conclude with important implications for research on gender relations and social networks.     

Working rivers: the geomorphological legacy of English freshwater mills

Freshwater mills historically were found throughout England serving a wide variety of uses. The decline in the need for water power over the last 100 years saw a reduction in the number of operational mills. Despite this decline, the associated river structures were rarely removed and many of these have exceeded their design life and have failed or are now starting to fail, with important geomorphological implications for the river. This paper investigates the geomorphological impacts of mills and their structures on English rivers, and considers their legacy for the contemporary management of these systems.     

中国社会化水资源稀缺评价

水资源稀缺是我国21世纪可持续发展面临的最主要问题之一,水资源稀缺评价是水资源管理中最基础性的工作。在界定水资源管理阶段、引入社会适应性能力概念的基础上,将水资源稀缺评价问题拓展到了社会经济领域,强调社会资源在水资源稀缺评价中的作用。同时根据计算的社会化水资源稀缺评价指数,对2002年我国各省 (市) 水文水资源稀缺指数和社会化水资源稀缺指数进行了比较分析。结果表明北京、上海、浙江、广东和广西省由于相对高的社会适应性能力,其社会化水资源稀缺程度指数的相对排序得到了改善;河北、河南、贵州、云南省因相对低的社会适应性能力使其社会化水资源稀缺指数排序有所降低。同时探讨了社会适应性能力对水资源稀缺程度的影响,并指出运用社会资源来适应水资源的稀缺也是水资源可持续开发利用的一种途径。     

浅析全球水危机及水资源可持续利用行动纲领

水对人类的生活和社会经济发展来说是必不可少的。随着人类社会的发展和自然生态的变化,使淡水资源和干净卫生的饮用水日益缺乏,水质不断恶化,加之不健全的用水管理体系使水资源短缺成为全球性的资源危机,并且这种趋势正越发明显。列举目前存在的水危机问题,在分析其原因的基础上,提出了建立水资源可持续利用行动纲领的建议,包括淡水资源评估,实行水资源统一管理,建立水资源价值体系等。     

Integrated water resource management and institutional integration: realising the potential of spatial planning in England

This paper explores the various dimensions of integration that need consideration in developing appropriate institutional arrangements for integrated water resource management (IWRM), drawing upon both IWRM and spatial planning sources. As a result, a framework of integration in IWRM is set out. This is then used to consider the strengths and weaknesses of the new spatial planning system in England, and its potential to contribute to IWRM activities that are being developed, partly in response to the European Union Water Framework Directive. From this analysis it is argued that, taken overall, spatial planning is well placed to meet these challenges and it could in fact play a much more central role than is currently envisaged. An alternative model for IWRM in England is set out which sees the new river basin management plans as integral, rather than parallel, to the spatial planning system.     

Gendering Climate Change: Geographical Insights

Although climate change is expected to increase vulnerabilities, marginalization, and sufferings of many in the Global South, impacts will be unevenly felt across social strata. Intersectionalities of social difference, especially along gender and class lines, differentiate the ways in which impacts of climate change are experienced and responded to. Feminist political ecology and feminist geography insights can explain how different groups of people understand, respond to, and cope with variability and uncertainties in nuanced and critical ways, thereby elucidating the gendered implications of climate change. With a regional focus on South Asia, the article underscores the key issues that can be applied geographically elsewhere. Gendered implications of climate change in South Asia are particularly poignant as patriarchal norms, inequities, and inequalities often place women and men in differentiated positions in their abilities to respond to and cope with dramatic changes in socioecological relations but also foreground the complex ways in which social power relations operate in communal responses to adaptation strategies. This is particularly evident in water-related productive and reproductive tasks in agrarian societies that constitute the majority of South Asia. As climate change is expected to exacerbate both ecological degradation (e.g., water shortages) and water-related natural hazards (e.g., floods, cyclones), thereby transforming gender–water geographies, it becomes imperative to undertake careful multiscalar and critical analyses to better inform policymaking. This article elucidates the complex ways that climate change will affect gender and social relations, thereby highlighting the ways that existing policy narratives and adaptation programs might be better informed by geographical insights. To this end, the article encourages feminist and critical geographers to more forcefully and fruitfully engage with global debates on climate change.     

The Role of Local Knowledge in the Risk Management of Extreme Climates in Local Communities: A Case Study in a Nomadic NIAHS Site

In the context of climate change, research on extreme climates and disaster risk management has become a crucial component of climate change adaptation. Local communities, which have been facing extreme climates for a long time in their production and daily life, have developed some locally applicable traditional knowledge that has played an important role in their adaptation to extreme climate and disaster risk management. Therefore, this research aims to link Local knowledge (LK) to community extreme climate disaster risk management in order to construct a conceptual model. It then takes the extreme climate adaptation strategy of traditional nomads in a temperate grassland of China as an example to analyze the role of LK in extreme climate adaptation using the proposed theoretical framework. The main research objectives of this study are: (1) To construct a conceptual model to illustrate the relations among extreme climate events, risk management, LK, and farmers' adaptation strategies; (2) To apply the theoretical framework to a field case to reveal context-specific extreme climate adaptation mechanisms with LK as a critical component; (3) To test the framework and provide suggestions for the extreme climates adaptation, and the conservation of LK related to climate change adaptation. The results show that from the perspective of disaster risk management, local communities could manage extreme climates as a disaster risk through adaptation strategies formed from LK, because as a knowledge system, LK contains relevant knowledge covering the whole process of disaster risk management.