Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
8
WATER RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
IN A CHANGING WORLD
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
When you have finished reading this chapter you should have:
An understanding of water resource management.
An understanding of the main issues of change that affect hydrology.
An understanding of how hydrological investigations are carried out to look at issues of change.
A knowledge of the research literature and main findings in the issues of change.
A knowledge of case studies looking at change in different regions of the world.
We live in a world that is constantly adjusting to
change. This applies from the natural, through to the
economic world and is fundamental to the way that
we live our lives. The theory of evolution proposes
that in order to survive each species on the planet is
changing over a long time period (through natural
selection) in order to adapt to its ecosystem fully.
Equally, economists would say that people and busi-
nesses need to adapt and change to stay competitive
in a global economy. If, as was argued in the intro-
ductory chapter of this topic, water is fundamental
to all elements of our life on this planet, then we
would expect to see hydrology constantly changing
to keep up with our changing world. It is perhaps
no great surprise to say that hydrology has, and is,
changing - but not in all areas. The principle of
uniformitarianism states in its most elegant form:
'the present is the key to the past'. Equally, it could
be said that the present is the key to the future and
we can recognise this with respect to the funda-
mentals of hydrology. By the end of the twenty-first
century people may be living in a different climate
from now, their economic lives may be unlike ours,
and almost certainly their knowledge of hydrological
processes will be greater than at present. However,
the hydrological processes will still be operating in
the same manner, although may be at differing rates
than those that we measure today.
The early chapters of this topic have been
concerned with hydrological processes and our
