Water control is essential to Japan, as more than half of its invested capital is concentrated in elevations under sea level and the majority of the island nation is exceptionally vulnerable to flooding. To avoid potential crisis, the Japanese have developed exceptionally innovative water management practices. Offering the unique perspective of Dutch engineers, considered the world’s most progressive urban water experts, this volume provide a detailed look at how Japan has developed its modern water system. It looks at the system of Tokyo city, discusses river management practices and urban flood control throughout the country, and considers the impact that these innovations have had on delta regions.

This publication brings together the recent work of the OECD on water management issues. It identifies the main policy challenges addressed by that work for sustainable water management.

With the rapid increase of world population, the global water shortage is set to be the major crises of the twenty-first century; that is, population dynamics (growth, age distribution, urbanization and migration) create pressures on freshwater resources due to the increased water demands and pollution. Moreover, water resources management faces a new uncertainty- i.e. the potential for longer-term and more persistent climate change nowadays, which, in coming years, may significantly affect the availability of supply and patterns of water demand. This book mainly focuses on the impact of climate change and human activities on water quality and water resources in Asia Countries. It begins by describing the characteristics of water related disasters in the world. Then, the book analyzes the changes of floods and associated socio-economic damages for whole China over the last century, and assesses water quality and pollution source for the Yangtze River Basin, suggesting water-related disasters would become more intense, longer lasting, and/or more frequent in a future warmer climate. Then, after investigating spatiotemporal trends and causes of water quality and water quality incidents (Chapter 4) and precipitation extreme events (Chapter 5) in Japan, subsequent two chapters mainly evaluate the climate and human impacts on precipitation variations, water quality and water resources in the Hokkaido area. The final chapter comprehensively analyzes climate change impacts on water resources in the Aral Sea Basin, and then estimate the water requirements and water deficits for irrigation, future agricultural yields of seven major crops, and land and water productivity in four provinces of Turkmenistan considering climate change, population growth, and three socio-economic development scenarios. All results obtained from this book may provide a means to reduce water quality incidents and mitigate future negative impacts by adapting water management. Furthermore, the improved methods for water quality modeling in data scarce regions are transferable to other study areas and applicable in future research.

Long constrained as a security actor by constitutional as well as external factors, Japan now increasingly is called to play a greater role in stabilizing both the Asia-Pacific region and the entire international system. Japan's Security Agenda explores the country's diplomatic, political, military, and economic concerns and policies within this new context.

Old forms of governance in both public and private sectors are becoming increasingly irrelevant because of rapidly changing conditions. Because of these changes, both governance processes and the scope of the institutions through which power is exercised throughout society may have to undergo a radical break with the past and prevailing models of governance. Water sector is an integral part of the global system. Consequently, its governance processes and the institutions responsible for its management must change as well in order to cope with the current challenges and potential future changes. Because of these current and future changes, water governance may have to change more during the next 20 years compared to the past 2000 years, if societal expectations are to be successfully met. All these changes will make water governance more complex than ever before witnessed in human history. Improving water governance will require good and objective analyses of case studies from different parts of the world as to what has worked, why and the enabling environments under which good governance has been possible. The present volume analyses case studies of good water governance from different parts of the world, and for different water use sectors. It concludes with an analysis of the critical issues that should be considered for water governance and a priority research agenda for improving water governance in the future. This book was published as a special issue of the International Journal of Water Resources Development.