As a source of reference material for the practising water engineer or water manager, this book outlines a strategy for projecting water consumption for specific types of land use and selecting a water conservation programme to maximise the beneficial use of a limited natural resource - a situation that typifies new development nationally and worldwide.

This Book includes selected papers that has been published in the Water journal Special Issue (SI) on Water Supply and Water Scarcity. Moreover, an overview of the SI is included. The papers selected for publication in the SI include review and research papers on water history, on water management issues under water scarcity regimes, on rainwater harvesting, on water quality and degradation, and on climatic variability impacts on water resources. Overall, the issue identify and highlight the main challenges in water sector, and particularly in management and protection of water resources and in use of alternative (non-conventional) water resources, especially in areas with demographic change and climate vulnerability in order to achieve sustainable and secure water supply. Furthermore, general guidelines and possible solutions for an improved and sophisticated water management system are proposed and discussed, such as the adoption of advanced technological solutions and practices that improve water-use efficiency and the use of alternative water resources, to address the growing environmental and health issues and to reduce the emerging conflicts among water users.

This broad review of the development of US water resource policy analysis and practice offers perspectives from several disciplines: law, economics, engineering, ecology and political science. While the historical context provided goes back to the early 19th century, the book concentrates on the past 60 years and features a discussion of the difficulty that has generally been encountered in bringing the disciplines of economics and ecology into collaboration in the water resource context. The book explores the evolution of water related analytical capabilities and institutions and provides illustrations from case studies, concluding with recommendations for research, institutional change and action. Though designed to be a background textbook for interdisciplinary graduate seminars in water resources planning and management, it is accessible to interested lay readers and those who have policymaking or implementation responsibility but lack a technical background. The book will appeal to students and faculty in water policy, economics, and engineering, and in interdisciplinary programs organized around water resource problems and questions. Policy makers and general readers will also appreciate this non-technical introduction.