Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
impacts on humans. As explored in the following section, rethinking this anthro-
pocentric attitude, at least in part, may hold the key to more sustainable relation-
ships between water and humans.
Water and Sustainability: Integrated Water
Resources Management
The example of Katrina is suggestive of a third key focus of water-related research
by environmental geographers: sustainable water management. Here, it is important
to note that water is a messy resource to manage. Water is a fl ow resource that
constantly transgresses political boundaries. Unlike most of the resources central to
our livelihoods and communities, water is constantly on the move. This means that
water connects communities in ways that most other resources do not. Impacts of
water use - both positive and negative - are felt far downstream, in other communi-
ties and jurisdictions. Yet water is most often used close to the point of abstraction.
Thus, water presents managers with three complex issues which are diffi cult to
resolve: dealing with competition between multiple users of water resources (agri-
culture, energy production (hydropower), industry, urban water supply, recreation,
tourism and ecosystem services); balancing the multiple scales at which water is
managed; and responding to the mismatch between geopolitical and administrative
boundaries, on the one hand, and hydrological boundaries on the other. Research
on water-related issues tends to mimic this fragmentation: knowledge on hydrologi-
cal, ecological, biological, socio-political and economic processes tends to be pro-
duced in separate fi elds, with little interaction between researchers. Recognition of
the negative effects of fragmentation in the early 20th century led to attempts to
develop organisational and institutional structures that could coordinate water
resources management at a watershed scale, such as the Tennessee Valley Authority,
through 'integrated water resources management' (IWRM).
According to its proponents, IWRM is intended to address some of the resource
management fl aws illustrated by Katrina, through the comprehensive, integrated
assessment and governance of water in concert with other resources - particularly
land - at the watershed scale. In particular, IWRM includes the implementation of
governance mechanisms designed to reduce or eliminate confl ict through, for
example, integrating land use and water resource planning mechanisms. These
governance mechanisms are informed by integrated scientifi c approaches that
manage multiple resources (e.g. soil, vegetation, water) on a watershed scale, usually
with explicit goals of constraining point and non-point source pollution, source
protection, and soil and water conservation (Mitchell 1995; 2005; Newson, 1997;
White, 1997; Wescoat, 2000; Ducros and Watson, 2002; Wescoat and White, 2003;
Watson, 2004; Shrubsole and Watson, 2005; Ivey et al., 2006; and for an early
discussion see Weber, 1964).
As geographers have demonstrated, IWRM is particularly relevant in the global
South, where critical challenges in water-related health and water security are
prevalent and compounded by jurisdictional fragmentation and weak governance
(see, e.g., Young et al., 1994; Lonergan et al., 2002; Jones and van de Walt,
2004). An integrated approach, many environmental geographers have argued, is
better able to effectively address these water management challenges. A notable
example is the work of geographer Gordon Young in developing the United
Nations World Water Assessment Programme,
3
which coordinated 24 UN agencies
