With Africa's water resources constantly threatened by an increasing population and the resultant rise in water demand, together with the stresses of water use for various activities, desertification, climate change, and other interventions in the water cycle by man, it is vital that the water resources in arid and semi-arid regions are developed a

This book, which contains 15 separately authored chapters, discusses both the principles and applications of an integrated approach to natural resource management. Such an approach must embrace the complexity of systems and redirect research towards the greater inclusion of issues such as participatory approaches, multi-scale analysis and an array of tools for system analysis, information management and impact assessment. Case studies, particularly from developing countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America, are included. This book is of interest to a wide range of readers in many disciplines, including forestry, soil and management sciences, agriculture, and development studies.

The study sites. Methods. The wealth index and its variation. Human, financial, physical and natural capital - the essets available to households. Households productive activities - the generation of cash and subsistence gross income. Exploring household strategies. Net income and poverty. Temporal changes in livelihood strategies. Modelling livelihood change. Making a difference.