Balancing Water for Humans and Nature, authored by two of the world's leading experts on water management, examines water flows - the 'blood stream' of both nature and society - in terms of the crucial links, balances, conflicts and trade-offs between human and environmental needs. The authors argue that a sustainable future depends fundamentally on our ability to manage these trade-offs and encourage long-term resilience. They advocate an ecohydrological approach to land/water/environmental problems and advance a strong, reasoned argument for viewing precipitation as the gross fresh water resource, ultimately responsible for sustaining all terrestrial and aquatic ecosystem services. This book makes the most coherent and holistic argument to date for a new ecological approach to understanding and managing water resources for the benefit of all. Basing their analysis on per capita needs for an acceptable nutritional diet, the authors analyse predictions of the amounts of water needed for global food production by 2050 and identify potential sources. Drawing on small-scale experiences in Africa and Asia, they also cover the vulnerability of the semi-arid tropics through a simplified model of green and blue water scarcity components.

The 21st century presents many challenges to the hazard manager; dynamic climatic conditions combined with population growth, rapid urbanization, and changing socio-economic relationships are reshaping disaster impacts, community responses, and social safety mechanisms. Indeed, human vulnerability is constantly restructured by the ongoing interplay of physical, social, economic, and political forces. At the same time, reducing vulnerability and enhancing community resilience require policies aimed at mitigating the consequences of disasters as they affect different locations and different groups, requiring sound scientifically-based research to further an understanding of the forces at play, and to devise appropriate means to counter them. It is within this context that this book examines evolving approaches to natural hazards. Research into natural hazards has a long tradition beginning with a focus on physical processes and evolving into an interdisciplinary agenda that incorporates interactions between the physical and human environments, embracing initiatives ranging from the physical to the socio-economic and political. It utilises various methodological approaches and technological advances, employing both quantitative and qualitative procedures. The papers included in this book offer insights into the development of applied hazards research, as they build on previous work, evolving technologies, improved understandings of the factors involved, and increased awareness of the needs of those who manage hazards. This volume shows an appreciation for the foundation that has been set, and will inspire future researchers as they look to address these very pressing social issues.

The Nile River System, Africa: Ecohydrology and Management from Catchment to Coast, Volume Two provides a critical synthesis of knowledge for an important global region. It covers water availability and needs in the Nile basin, focusing on socioeconomic, hydrological and ecological aspects and the catchment-coast continuum, also providing the information needed to develop a policy for the river that is less skewed toward immediate human needs and more focused on environmental impacts. Readers will find ecological perspectives, recent stresses, the current status of the basin, and more. The greater integration of ecological and river management themes is the main strength of this book, making it a strong reference for academics and water resources managers, as well as fishery experts, aquatic scientists and social scientists. - Provides a basis for improved environmental management of the Nile River basin from its headwaters to the Mediterranean Sea - Presents a multidisciplinary approach, covering both environmental and societal needs - Includes case studies from this diverse river that can be applied globally

The focus of this book is on the key water-related vulnerabilities to climate change in Africa, particularly in its most vulnerable areas, exploring potential management responses to such vulnerabilities. The African countries are particularly exposed and vulnerable to the negative impacts of climate change, with important impacts on water resources and hydrological systems, water availability, water resource management and sea level variations. Already, under various anthropogenic pressures, the status of water resources in Africa has been changing over the past decades, with decreasing water quality, falling groundwater levels, and variability in rainfall, both in terms of timing and intensity. Climate change will further accelerate the rate of change, affecting the ability of people and societies to respond in a timely manner. It is clear that there is no quick fix to the pressures imposed on water resources by climate change. Increasing the resilience of ecosystems and communities to extreme events such as flooding and drought, and integrating climate change risks and opportunities into development decision-making is indeed a key challenge, as much a technical climate-change one, as a political and developmental challenge. The book, in this regard, intends to contribute to the debate around climate change in relation to water resources management in Africa, and in particular inform policy decisions and actions that will improve governments’ and communities’ ability to manage the challenges of climate change and variability in relation to the aquatic ecosystems that they depend on. The knowledge collected in this book will benefit policy makers, researchers, as well as other stakeholders.

In sub-Saharan Africa, property relationships around land and access to natural resources vary across localities, districts and farming regions. These differences produce patterned variations in relationships between individuals, communities and the state. This book captures these patterns in an analysis of structure and variation in rural land tenure regimes. In most farming areas, state authority is deeply embedded in land regimes, drawing farmers, ethnic insiders and outsiders, lineages, villages and communities into direct and indirect relationships with political authorities at different levels of the state apparatus. The analysis shows how property institutions - institutions that define political authority and hierarchy around land - shape dynamics of great interest to scholars of politics, including the dynamics of land-related competition and conflict, territorial conflict, patron-client relations, electoral cleavage and mobilization, ethnic politics, rural rebellion, and the localization and 'nationalization' of political competition.