Water and the future of humanity: Revisiting water security is worth purchasing and a must read for water science enthusiasts. It provides a comprehensive review of critical issues of water security in one volume. It could also find a home in government agencies that deal with water, energy, food and infrastructure; in fact, it could be a mandatory text. This book would complement any private collection of water works as it ties together many issues that are often treated independently.
The book is unique in that it covers most of the bases of water security – a complex and multifaceted topic. It provides detailed biophysical and, to a lesser extent, human dimensions of water security. The goal of the book is to clarify the main drivers of an eventual water crisis in a holistic way so as to construct a vision for a water-secure world within the next few decades. Moreover, it does so using clear and accessible language, drawing on beautiful and informative figures, plenty of inset boxes with tangible examples of success, and chapter summaries that help knit together the complex tapestry.
The book sets out the essential links between water and sustainability from the outset and continues to drive home this message all the way through. It provides a clear and targeted description of climate science for the water manager that is nicely scaffolded by the likely effects of climate change on water resources availability and its variability, but also on water demand and use. Thankfully, the book’s primer on the climate assessment process is tight, saving more room for meaty stuff such as using appropriate historical data trends.
Historical data trends, it argues, should include “population, economic, energy use, land use, technology changes and anything else that has an effect on the values we need to make decisions” (57). Indeed, all these things contribute to climate change, but the argument presented is unidirectional. The book does not mention that the relationship between values and the drivers of climate change is multi-directional. Still, in the text, the human dimensions of water security are more than an afterthought, as they have oft been in the past. The section on scenario development does make a multi-directional link, stressing the need to consider multiple pathways and feedback between different futures and the forces that drive climate change. Additionally, there is recognition of the need to engage iteratively with the myriad of stakeholders from various disciplines and responsibilities to ensure the scenarios are scientifically credible, salient and legitimate.
The section on modelling is good. Starting with a basic description of global climate models (GCMs), it progresses into systematic errors and biases, especially in the modelling of precipitation and the limited capacity to use GCMs to drive hydrological or water resource models. An overview of the two types of downscaling is presented. The problem with statistical downscaling is that meteorological correlates will change with global warming, whereas dynamic downscaling is limited by expensive computational cost and the need for highly trained personnel. This comparison is useful for non-modellers. Progress in the modelling domain includes the delta method and the improvements in combined statistical downscaling. It outlines how this method is making progress to tune models so they no longer exhibit bias, which is opening up pathways to examine not only average changes, but also the important changes in probability distributions. The coverage of multi-model ensembles provides a nice segue into a discussion about uncertainty in water management.
The current and future challenges in water management are confounded by the lack of stationarity in the climate and, hence, the hydrological system. An excellent figure, which ought to be memorized by those responsible for water-linked infrastructure, appears on page 67 (Figure 3.6). It explains how the probability function of a climate variable might be altered with climate change – emphasizing how the probability of extreme events increases as a result of increased variability. This point is essential. Information on probability and variability is critical, so that proper investments can be made in the future. GCMs, however, have not been able to provide accurate information on changes in precipitation or its variability, which is exactly what water managers need. This section could be superficial to those of a more technical palate, but it is well suited to managers or students who wish to have a more complete understanding of the interdisciplinary nature of water security and climate change.
“Water for a healthy environment” is a refreshing chapter with the premise that there are no substitutions for water. The book draws on Vorosmarty et al. (Citation2010) to show a global picture of how freshwater systems provide services in support of human water security and biodiversity (Figure 4.1, p. 82). The sub-section “Human impact on the environment” covers: agriculture, urbanization and industrialization, desertification, coastal zones and, critically, what we don’t know and tipping points. A review of integrated water resources management (IWRM) and ecosystem management is provided with insets that outline applications from around the world, including: “IWRM in the Yellow River, China”; “The Bagota Conservation Trust Fund”; “Restoring water provision in a dry area, Dondapadu, India”; as well as “Korea’s Four Rivers Restoration Project”. These tangible examples provide a nice gateway into the next chapter on “Integrated urban water resources management”.
The fifth chapter is unique. Generally, IRWM focuses on the river basin or catchment scale. This chapter, on the other hand, emphasizes the shift of population from rural to urban areas. Tremendous opportunities exist in the urban environment to establish the level of sectoral integration that is required for integrated urban water resources management (IUWRM). This will, however, require significant restructuring of existing institutions – as engineers and economics professionals will need to work closely with social scientists and politicians. A well-crafted table (Table 5.1, p. 118) provides a comparison of traditional urban water management and the more recent IUWRM. There are also inset boxes with success stories. Box 5.1, “Urban water conservation in California,” demonstrates that water consumption can decrease by as much as 30% in urban areas with better technology and through changing landscaping behaviours (e.g. outdoor water use). The treatment of water governance is rudimentary given its critical importance for making technological and managerial solutions work, and for the massive cultural shifts among sectors that must take place in our institutions for IUWRM to occur.
Strong links are made between water, food and energy security. Chapters on each topic lay out significant challenges to meet the growing demand for water, food and energy. The chapters draw on seminal figures and provide several insets to drive the key message home: climate change will make the provision of food and energy much more challenging in the future.
Water projections and scenarios for the future weave together early threads. Positive scenarios contrast with “business-as-usual” scenarios. The development and use of “backcasting” scenarios are outlined as a way to explore sustainable water management. Additionally, this section presents the “soft path for water” as a means to overcome many of the challenges for future water management. A section on strategies for moving toward a positive water future breaks down the two key assumptions about key drivers: those that are water-independent (gross domestic product or GDP projections) and those focused on water policy, be they technological, regulatory, economic or educational. It concludes with a forward-looking section that emphasizes once again the need for a systems-oriented perspective to develop scenarios for identifying leverage points and actions toward a more water-secure world.
The final chapter of the book provides a good review, but it has less of the forward-looking points that I had hoped for. It also has a few typographical errors that should have been caught by the editor. It gives the impression that this chapter was rushed to print.
In general, the chapters are well laid out and a good length, which provides a solid structure for the book. If it were to be considered for a course text, it could benefit from an index. I wouldn’t say the treatment of water security in the book is necessarily new. It does, however, provide a more complete picture of the topic than previous works by pulling together hundreds of useful references into one complete volume.
It is less detailed and technical than Water security: The water-food-energy-climate nexus (Waughray Citation2011). It does not cover the human dimensions in the same breadth as Water security: Principles, perspectives and practices (Lankford et al. Citation2013). It is, however, more comprehensive and closer to a systems-oriented perspective than many books of a more regional nature. Critically, it is a comprehensive picture of the global challenges for securing water resources in the twenty-first century.
Global Institute for Water Security and School of Environment and Sustainability, University of Saskatchewan
© 2014 Canadian Water Resources Association
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/07011784.2014.985515
References
- Lankford, B., K. Bakker, M. Zeitoun, and D. Conway eds. 2013. Water security: Principles, perspectives and practices. New York: Routledge.
- Vörösmarty, C. J., P. B. McIntyre, M. O. Gessner, D. Dudgeon, A. Prusevich, P. Green, S. Glidden, S. E. Bunn, C. A. Sullivan, C. R. Liermann, and P. M. Davies. 2010. Global threats to human water security and river biodiversity. Nature 467: 555–561.
- Waughray, D., ed. 2011. Water security: The water-food-energy-climate nexus. Washington, DC: Island Press.