Asian river basins are undergoing rapid transformation. This volume considers the implications of the environmental change-development nexus for water management, river health and hazard awareness. As Biswas and Tortajada (2011) have recently commented, water management in Asia will likely change more in the next twenty years than in the last 2000 years. Critical environmental trends include decreasing flows of water and sediment due to dam construction and increased water extraction, land use change (especially forest removal), encroachment and degradation of floodplain and wetland environments, increased water demand and concerns about water security, urban expansion and associated pollution of rivers and contamination of groundwater reserves. These challenges are being reframed by new approaches to water management which represent a transition from engineering-dominated approaches towards integrated water management, from technology transfer to adaptive technologies. The volume comprises an introduction and five chapters. Brierley and Callum reframe approaches to river repair within emerging theories of in ecology and earth science which regard nature as a complex adaptive system replete with inherent uncertainties. These ideas are mirrored in the four case study chapters which deal with water governance in the Mekong Basin (Hirsch); hybrid adoption of water resource technologies in India (Barbanente et al.); determination of sediment dynamics in Java Rijsdijk); and ecological conservation imperatives in the headwaters of the Yellow, Yangtze and Mekong rivers in western China (Li et al.).

Conventional wisdom says that the world is heading for a major water crisis. By 2050, global population will increase from 7 billion to a staggering 9.5 billion and the demands this will place on food and water systems will inevitably push river basins over the edge. The findings from this book present a different picture. While it is convenient to visualize an inevitable global water and food crisis in which increasing demands result in increasing poverty, food insecurity and conflict, the reality is far more nuanced and revolves around the politics of equitable and sustainable development of resources. The first part of this book provides detailed insight into conditions of water flows within nine river basins. In the second part, authors summarize and re-analyze the outcome of the nine basins, providing a coherent global picture of water, water productivity and development. They assess the impacts of variations of these attributes on development and approaches for poverty alleviation, and explore the institutional factors that support or obstruct change. How people will manage river systems while protecting vital ecosystem functions will make the difference between catastrophe and survival. As Prof Asit Biswas points out, "... the world is facing a water crisis not because of physical scarcity of water but because of poor management practices in nearly all countries of the world." The book is based on the four years (2006-2010) of extensive research into the state of ten of the world’s major river basins carried out under the CGIAR Challenge Program for Water and Food’s Basin Focal Project. This book was published as a special issue of Water International.

Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) has in recent years captured the attention of policy makers and policy analysts. A lot has been written on this topic, most often disparately, about institutions for IWRM. However, there has been limited success in bridging disciplinaryboundaries (social versus physical sciences) with the result that conceptual inconsistencies persist with regard to our understanding of institutions for IWRM. This paper outlines key features of an analytical framework for the institutional analysis of IWRM in river basins. Thenovelties of the analytical approach include emphasis on transparent policy processes of state parastatals, modes of water-service provisioning and conditions for collective action in the management of common pool resources in river basins and its implications for sustainable rurallivelihoods. The paper then discusses certain methodological concerns with regard to the operationalizing of various elements of the analytical framework. In particular, the paper discusses issues related to defining the scope of analysis, scale of water use and management and collective action for the management of common pool resources in a river basin. The paper also discusses the process by which the comparative analysis of IWRM may be undertaken by highlighting the importance of problem specification, hypothesis generation and methods of data collection.

This thesis presents analysis of the status of IWRM implementation along with the challenges with regards to policy and institutional measures as well as the required basin information and management instruments. The research entailed a detailed analysis of water resources systems based on a case study from the Awash River Basin in Ethiopia, covering the historical and present state of the challenges and gaps in policies, institutional arrangements and management instruments. The status quo of practical water management, implications of plausible management alternatives in terms of their impact to future water availability, demand fulfilment, patterns of use, and sustainability of the environment were examined. Moreover, the interlinkages and dynamics between key water dependent resources sectors, broadly categorized into water, energy, food, and ecosystems (WEFE) was explored to identify key tradeoffs and synergies. This was deliberated as to improving the synchronization of sectoral plans and resources management programs, thereby fast-tracking the coordination process in IWRM. Overall, the research provides a clearer understanding of the system-wide problems, structural challenges and possible future consequences regarding the management and sustainability of the entire water resource system. Ultimately the purpose is to set in motion new strategies and mechanisms to improve the implementation of the currently applied IWRM framework in the context of the SDGs.

In recent years, Integrated Water-Resources Management (IWRM) has captured the attention of policymakers and policy analysts. A lot has been written, most often in a disparate way about institutions for IWRM. However, there has been limited success in bridging disciplinary boundaries (social versus physical sciences) with the result that conceptual inconsistencies persist with regard to our understanding of institutions for IWRM. This paper reviews IWMI research on IWRM in Asia and highlights drawbacks in contemporary approaches to the study of institutions for IWRM in river basins. The paper then outlines key features of an alternative analytical framework. In doing so, it discusses certain novel features of the alternative approach: emphasis on transparent policy processes of State parastatals, modes of water-service provisioning and conditions for collective action in the management of common-pool resources in river basins and its implications for sustainable rural livelihoods.

The performance of the International Food Policy Research Institute’s (IFPRI’s) research program that focuses on water resource issues is reviewed for the period 1994–2010 around the three themes that constitute the program: global modeling, river basin modeling, and institutions. The IFPRI water team has been involved in leading-edge research in a number of dimensions: it has focused on analysis at varying geographic scales; the work has been truly interdisciplinary by engaging economics with biophysical science and other social sciences; and research outputs have been innovative in advancing institutional analysis and water pricing and in policy measures addressing the complexities of water supply management. In the research tasks, IFPRI’s water team actively collaborated with a wide range of researchers from within the CGIAR network, national research institutes, and universities. Within the team, a largely stable group of leaders has been responsible for the professional development of a substantial cohort of junior staff who have moved onto successful careers elsewhere. The output of the program has been prolific and prominent in academic, policy, and development communities. The approach taken is to review selected publications from the themes; assess the quality of the journals in which papers have been published; and evaluate the performance, on average, of researchers in the program. In addition, surveys of stakeholders were carried out, and three specific projects were subjected to detailed review. The assessment demonstrated the high regard in which the program research outputs and researchers are held. The IFPRI water team has been remarkably productive throughout the 16 years considered, working on issues that are of high relevance to policy and producing work that has largely been cutting edge. However, impacts generated by individual projects were not consistently or readily identifiable. To maximize the benefits of this performance and to overcome challenges associated with securing more outcomes, this report recommends that a more coordinated approach be taken to develop the research project portfolio. This would involve better targeting of projects to policy objectives through a more systematic review of research demand forces and improved integration of research work with policy development processes. The latter in particular requires the development of a sense of research project “ownership” within the policy circles the research is designed to influence. More effort in the development of in-country research partnerships can aid this process as local researchers can act as “champions” within local policy circles. Where government agencies have a research function, their integration into the partnerships is recommended. Avoidance of completing research projects in a “policy vacuum” is critical but requires both advanced planning of each research project as well as constant adaptation of the work plan to (often rapidly) evolving policy contexts. To achieve project impacts beyond the immediacy of the specific case study context, a more targeted and coordinated publication strategy should be developed in light of changing publication technology. Project webpages within the IFPRI website, with readily downloadable reports, are useful during the implementation of each project and more formal papers should be targeted for publication in high-impact factor technical journals with parallel papers prepared for more policy-oriented journals that have high circulations.

This book is a collection of highly refined articles on historical water projects and traditional water technologies of international interest in the Asian region, addressing information on past water projects (mostly before the 20th century) in the Asian regions that are technically and culturally of interest and educationally valuable. This book explores historical water projects in these regions, presenting technologies used at the time, including calculation and forecasting methods, measurement, material, labor, methodologies, and even water culture. It is expected that the old Asian wisdom of "reviewing the old and learning the new" would be realized to a certain extent in modern planning and practice of water projects. This book will enable the reader to understand historical water projects and technologies in the Asian region. It can be used as a one-stop resource to source notable Asian water projects and their relevance to modern-day technology. In this regard, this book is expected to be of interest to a variety of audiences, including the corresponding Asian regions and other international audiences interested in Asian water history from an engineering perspective.