Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
natural systems (Jasanoff, 2004; Bonnell, 2005;). With respect to water, geographers
have developed the tools to accomplish this task. Perhaps surprisingly, the concep-
tual heterodoxy of approaches to the study of water (including the positivist, instru-
mentalist and Marxist approaches discussed in this chapter) has not proved to be
a barrier to collaboration within and beyond the discipline (e.g. Bonell and Bruijn-
zeel, 2005), nor has it impeded the sustained impact of geographers on water policy.
Indeed, this heterodoxy may partly explain why geography, more than any other
modern discipline, best exemplifi es an integrated, multidisciplinary approach to the
study of water issues, which is increasingly recognised to be crucial for the improved
stewardship and management of water resources - for the benefi t of humans and
non-humans alike. Geography's sometimes uneasy bridging of the binaries besetting
the modern academy (physical versus social sciences, humans versus the environ-
ment) will continue to be the key to its unique contribution in this fi eld.
NOTES
1. http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/hrc/water/about.php.
2.
http://understandingkatrina.ssrc.org/Cutter/#5
. An excellent exploration of the issues is
provided on the Social Science Research Council's website 'Understanding Katrina: Per-
spectives from the Social Sciences' (http://understandingkatrina.ssrc.org/), with contribu-
tions from geographers Neil Smith, Susan Cutter, James K Mitchell, Stephen Graham
and others.
3. www.unesco.org/water/wwap/wwdr/
4. These two issues are not necessarily so acute in areas of environmental science that are
more lab-based or modelling-intensive. I am indebted to Professor Michael Church,
University of British Columbia, for these insights.
5. For example, Bill Graf (past president of the Association of American Geographers)
chaired the United States' National Resource Council's Committee on Watershed Man-
agement, charged with developing a new strategy for American watersheds (NRC 1998;
Graf 2001).
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