Legislation / Policy / Institutions / Watercourses / Manual pumps / Runoff / Spate irrigation / Recharge / Groundwater / Tanks / Farm ponds / Wells / Dams / Water conservation / Water harvesting / Households / Crops / Water resources / Drought

The Fourth Assessment Report of IPCC having clinched in 2007 the evidence of global warming on account of anthropogenic activities, backed with scientific data gathered and analyzed globally, has made it mandatory world over to focus efforts on delineation of the anticipated adverse impacts of global warming on regional temperature and moisture regimes and the linked hydrologic, climatic and biospheric processes. First and foremost is the requirement to understand vulnerability to food and livelihood security in various ecosystems—on mainland, mid-range and high mountains as well as coastal areas including CEZs. The projected global temperature rise of the order of about two degrees or more and further rise at a decadal rate of o around 0. 2 C is sufficient to make grievous changes in sea surface level and submerge many low lying coastal areas around the world thereby possibly causing unprecedented losses to human habitat and livelihood in the coming years. A rise in climate variability is also becoming increasingly evident with potential direct impact on agricultural performance, on water accessibility and on weather extremes. Developing countries due to their poor infrastructure, limited resources and large impoverished population are likely to face more intense and wi- spread adverse impact of climate change than the developed world and also have limited adaptation capacity.

Pakistan’s water management is at a critical watershed. The world’s seventh-most populous country faces serious challenges that will require improvements in both the "hardware" and "software" of agricultural water management. Water shortages are growing rapidly as a result of growing demand across all water-using sectors. Rapid population growth, from 175 million people in 2010 to an estimated 236 million by 2030 and 280 million by 2050, and international food-price spikes create pressure to increase agricultural production of staples; but demand for cash crops is also growing rapidly, including for cotton, fruit trees and tobacco, to raise rural incomes and generate rural employment to absorb the relatively young, rapidly growing rural population. Water management is also increasingly affected by climate change – including an increased number of flood and drought events – and growing energy shortages, which affect how water is being sourced and used. Last but not least, Pakistan’s political situation is fragile, which has reduced incentives to invest in enhanced agricultural water (and other) technologies. How Pakistan addresses these challenges will be decisive for its population’s future water and food security, for economic growth, and for environmental sustainability. It will also affect water and food outcomes globally, due to the interconnectedness of global food trade. This book was published as a special issue of Water International.

This book contributes to the literature on resilience, hazard planning, risk management, environmental policy and design, presenting articles that focus on building resilience through social and technical means. Bringing together contributions from Japanese authors, the book also offers a rare English-language glimpse into current policy and practice in Japan since the 2011 Tohoku disaster. The growth of resilience as a common point of contact for fields as disparate as economics, architecture and population politics reflects a shared concern about our capacity to cope with and adapt to change. The ability to bounce back from hardship and disaster is essential to all of our futures. Yet, if such ability is to be sustainable, and not rely on a “brute force” response, innovation will need to become a core practice for policymakers and on-the-ground responders alike. The book offers a valuable reference guide for graduate students, researchers and policy analysts who are looking for a holistic but practical approach to resilience planning.

The study examines the global pattern and impacts of droughts through mapping several drought-related characteristics - either at a country level or at regular grid scales. It appears that arid and semi-arid areas also tend to have a higher probability of drought occurrence. It is illustrated that the African continent is lagging behind the rest of the world on many indicators related to drought-preparedness and that agricultural economies, overall, are much more vulnerable to adverse societal impacts of meteorological droughts. The study also examines the ability of various countries to satisfy their water needs during droughts using storage-related indices.

In 2009, more than 40,000 people died prematurely in Sindh, Pakistan because of an illness associated with an environmental health risk. This means that almost one of every five deaths that occurred that year was caused by environmental factors. Loss of natural resources and impacts from natural disasters also represent development challenges. Increased salinity and waterlogging result in loss of agricultural crops. In addition, hydro-meteorological hazards recurrently affect Sindh, as illustrated by the devastating effects of the 2010 and 2011 floods. For Sindh's population, these problems mean pain and suffering, and reduced opportunities for economic advancement. The costs of all these phenomena are equivalent to 10% of Sindh's Gross Domestic Product. Climate change may exacerbate these challenges. Sindh's environmental and climate change problems call for urgent responses. A number of feasible interventions could be carried out to address the categories of environmental degradation that have the highest impacts on Sindh's population. Many of those interventions have positive benefit-cost ratios, meaning that every rupee invested in them would result in health and social benefits worth more than one rupee. Addressing these challenges also calls for targeted institutional strengthening and policy improvements, particularly after the 18th Constitutional Amendment devolved environmental management responsibilities to provincial governments. The underlying goal of this book is to facilitate and stimulate sharing of information on these phenomena, and to provide an interdisciplinary framework for bringing about improved environmental conditions in Sindh. It includes a methodology that enables the identification of environmental and climate change priority problems; the analysis of interventions to address such problems; the establishment of a social learning mechanism to continuously improve Sindh's responses and build resilience in the face of climate variability and change; and opportunities for the potential involvement of different stakeholder groups to decisively tackle climate change and deteriorating environmental conditions.