This is a Festschrift in honour of Professor Asit K. Biswas, for his manifold contributions to water resources policy and management and his extensive efforts over six decades to generate, synthetize, apply, and disseminate knowledge at national and global levels. Global Water Resources: Festschrift in Honour of Asit K. Biswas includes invited contributions on global water issues from 23 globally renowned leaders in the public and private sectors, as well as academia, who have made significant contributions to the field of water resources policy, management, development and governance. The vision and expertise of this distinguished group of experts provides a unique focus on unfolding water issues and their bearing on world development This book will be of great value to scholars, students, and policymakers interested in water resource governance, sustainable development, and climate change. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of the International Journal of Water Resources Development.

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.

R.E. Newell President, International Commission on Climate International Association of Meteorology and Atmospheric Physics Water is the active ingredient in the global climatic system, its physical properties ensuring that it plays a major role. Its high thermal capacity provides a mechanism for moderating mid latitude winter temperatures; solar energy is absorbed by the surface layers of the middle latitude oceans in summer and is released to the atmosphere in winter as the ocean cools. The variation of saturation vapour pressure with temperature is the factor which causes oceanic surface temperatures at low latitudes to be limited by evaporation to values near 29°C, thereby limiting tropical marine air temperatures to about the same value. The substantial amount of energy involved in phase changes - the latent heat - governs the passage of solar energy to the atmo sphere; visible solar radiation is absorbed at the Earth's surface, energy is supplied to evaporate water and the latent heat is released to the atmosphere when and where condensation occurs, which is often a considerable distance from the source of the moisture. The infrared radiative characteristics of water vapour, namely the broad vibration-rotation bands typical of a triatomic molecule, permit it to act as the principal agent of energy loss from the atmosphere, throu?,h infrared radiation to space.

This book highlights the relationship between the water sector and various other sectors in order to establish an improved understanding of the importance of water resources as an essential cross-cutting vector of socio-economic development. The book is both policy and practice oriented and is not constrained by existing definitions on water security. It includes actual experiences of policy, management, development and governance decisions taken within the water sector, and examples on how these have affected the energy and agricultural sectors as well as impacted the environment, and vice versa, as appropriate. It also discusses trade-offs, short and long-term implications, lessons learnt, and the way forward. The book includes case studies on cities, countries and regions such as Australia, China, Singapore, Central Asia, Morocco, Southern Africa, France, Latin America, Brazil and California.

Produced biennially, The World's Water is the most comprehensive and up-to-to date source of information and analysis on freshwater resources. Each new volume examines critical global trends and offers the best data available on a variety of topics related to water. Volume 7 features chapters on U.S. water policy, transboundary waters, and the effects of fossil fuel production on water resources, among other timely issues. Water briefs provide concise updates on topics including bottled water, The Great Lakes Water Agreement, and water and security. The World's Water is coauthored by MacArthur "genius" Peter H. Gleick and his colleagues at the world-renowned Pacific Institute. Since the first volume was published in 1998, the series has become an indispensable resource for professionals in government agencies and nongovernmental organizations, researchers, students, and anyone concerned with water and its use.

The United Nations World Water Assessment Programme (WWAP) is hosted and led by UNESCO. WWAP brings together the work of 31 UN-Water Members as well as 38 Partners to publish The United Nations World Water Development Report (WWDR) series. The annual World Water Development Reports focus on strategic water issues. UN-Water Members and Partners - all experts in their fields - contribute with latest findings on a specific theme. This edition of the World Water Development Report focuses on Water and Jobs and seeks to inform decision-makers, inside and outside the water community, about the importance of the water and jobs nexus for the social and economic development and environmental sustainability of countries, rich and poor. The importance of water for jobs across economies is such that this report could be subtitled No water - No jobs. Indeed, a great majority of jobs are dependent upon water, and therefore increasingly at risk under conditions of water scarcity. T

This book presents a new way of looking at and analyzing policies, programs and/or plans in which research scientists have used their knowledge to develop mechanisms such as South Africa's National Water Resource Strategy, Second Edition; Australian and South African climate change adaptation strategies for government entities and the UNDP's Water and Ocean Governance focus area. It critically assesses how science can be used in the service of society and how researchers and practitioners can bridge the gaps that arise as a result of incomplete thinking. Presenting a bird’s-eye view of how thinking and understanding operate in the policy context, it offers a valuable contribution to fields of inquiry such as research methods, comparative analyses, political science, international relations and the natural and social sciences in general. This book fills a market gap, providing real-world solutions to the practical application of science, paradigms and theories.

Produced biennially, The World's Water is the most comprehensive and up-to-to date source of information and analysis on freshwater resources. Each new volume examines critical global trends and offers the best data available on a variety of topics related to water. Volume 8 features chapters on hydraulic fracturing (fracking), water footprints, sustainable water jobs, and desalination financing, among other timely issues. Water briefs provide concise updates on topics including the Dead-Sea and the role of water in the Syrian conflict. The World's Water is coauthored by MacArthur "genius" Peter H. Gleick and his colleagues at the world-renowned Pacific Institute. Since the first volume was published in 1998, the series has become an indispensable resource for professionals in government agencies and nongovernmental organizations, researchers, students, and anyone concerned with water and its use.