Reconnecting People and Water

Reconnecting People and Water PDF

Author: Liz Sharp

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2017-05-18

Total Pages: 230

ISBN-13: 1317916409

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Water management in industrialised western countries has long been seen as a technical process associated with pipes, drains and bureaucracies. This technical model of water management is now being questioned. This book examines the nature of contemporary water management and the prospects for and barriers to different forms of engagement with the public. In particular, it shows how historical and social scientific understandings develop and question current water management norms in relation to water in the landscape, water in the home and the hidden management of water beneath our streets and behind our walls. It is shown that the four-fold challenges of climate change, urbanisation, changing environmental standards and fiscal accountability mean that we can no longer rely on unseen technical fixes to erase the threats of pollution, water shortages and floods. Such concerns offer two prompts for public engagement and participation. First, on a purely instrumental level, public engagement can complement, or offer an obvious alternative to, technical fixes. Second, public engagement may provide a route to find new ways of addressing water and related challenges. The author offers a unique social science perspective on many of the socio-technical issues facing the management of water in urban settings in developed countries, where urban is interpreted broadly to include all areas served by piped water. Drawing on historical context and an extensive review of the published literature, as well as the author's own empirical studies, the work prompts broader discussions about how we manage water in contemporary society. It is invaluable for students and professionals in water resource management and planning.

Reconnecting People and Water

Reconnecting People and Water PDF

Author: Liz Sharp

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2017-05-18

Total Pages: 230

ISBN-13: 1317916395

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Water management in industrialised western countries has long been seen as a technical process associated with pipes, drains and bureaucracies. This technical model of water management is now being questioned. This book examines the nature of contemporary water management and the prospects for and barriers to different forms of engagement with the public. In particular, it shows how historical and social scientific understandings develop and question current water management norms in relation to water in the landscape, water in the home and the hidden management of water beneath our streets and behind our walls. It is shown that the four-fold challenges of climate change, urbanisation, changing environmental standards and fiscal accountability mean that we can no longer rely on unseen technical fixes to erase the threats of pollution, water shortages and floods. Such concerns offer two prompts for public engagement and participation. First, on a purely instrumental level, public engagement can complement, or offer an obvious alternative to, technical fixes. Second, public engagement may provide a route to find new ways of addressing water and related challenges. The author offers a unique social science perspective on many of the socio-technical issues facing the management of water in urban settings in developed countries, where urban is interpreted broadly to include all areas served by piped water. Drawing on historical context and an extensive review of the published literature, as well as the author's own empirical studies, the work prompts broader discussions about how we manage water in contemporary society. It is invaluable for students and professionals in water resource management and planning.

Blue Mind

Blue Mind PDF

Author: Wallace J. Nichols

Publisher: Little, Brown

Published: 2014-07-22

Total Pages: 352

ISBN-13: 0316252077

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A landmark book by marine biologist Wallace J. Nichols on the remarkable effects of water on our health and well-being. Why are we drawn to the ocean each summer? Why does being near water set our minds and bodies at ease? In BLUE MIND, Wallace J. Nichols revolutionizes how we think about these questions, revealing the remarkable truth about the benefits of being in, on, under, or simply near water. Combining cutting-edge neuroscience with compelling personal stories from top athletes, leading scientists, military veterans, and gifted artists, he shows how proximity to water can improve performance, increase calm, diminish anxiety, and increase professional success. BLUE MIND not only illustrates the crucial importance of our connection to water-it provides a paradigm shifting "blueprint" for a better life on this Blue Marble we call home.

Water Stewardship and Business Value

Water Stewardship and Business Value PDF

Author: William Sarni

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2018-04-09

Total Pages: 106

ISBN-13: 1317237471

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The tangible value of increased water efficiency, reuse and recycling and improved social license to operate are moving more companies to adopt water stewardship strategies. This book frames an expanded strategy for water stewardship and business value creation, including brand value, that benefits a range of stakeholders including consumers, customers, investors and employees. The book shows that until recently the linkage between full business value and water stewardship has been missing from the corporate agenda. This linkage and value creation from a leading water strategy is increasingly important to socially responsible investors and "aspirationals" who value companies that have a social mission or focus to their overall business strategy. In general the largest portion of a company’s market capitalization is intangible value and understanding how a water strategy contributes to this intangible value is essential. The authors include cases studies and a framework or path forward to guide companies as they seek to build leading water strategy that goes beyond water stewardship to drive full business value from this investment. The book establishes the linkages and value from an integrated water and business strategy and an approach for companies to follow.

Media and Water

Media and Water PDF

Author: Joanne Garde-Hansen

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2020-12-10

Total Pages: 233

ISBN-13: 1788317769

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As flooding, drought and water scarcity become more pronounced due to climate change, so the way in which these events are presented in the media assumes greater significance. In particular, the media plays an important role in shaping the public perception and understanding of water issues, and debates around extreme weather events more generally. Joanne Garde-Hansen's book offers a sustained and comprehensive exploration of media representations of water. Drawing on a wide range of media – including newspapers, digital, photography, radio, television and video, as well as empirical research on media and memory – she examines how drought, flooding and water management have been portrayed in the media, both historically and in the contemporary world. The use of the media by water institutions to manage public perceptions and the use of digital media by the public to engage with water companies is also included. A particular feature of the book is an examination of water and gender in developed nations. One of the first books to look at media representations of water, this pioneering work provides valuable insights for both scholarly and professional water research.

Water, Technology and the Nation-State

Water, Technology and the Nation-State PDF

Author: Filippo Menga

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2018-05-15

Total Pages: 367

ISBN-13: 1351754734

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Just as space, territory and society can be socially and politically co-constructed, so can water, and thus the construction of hydraulic infrastructures can be mobilised by politicians to consolidate their grip on power while nurturing their own vision of what the nation is or should become. This book delves into the complex and often hidden connection between water, technological advancement and the nation-state, addressing two major questions. First, the arguments deployed consider how water as a resource can be ideologically constructed, imagined and framed to create and reinforce a national identity, and secondly, how the idea of a nation-state can and is materially co-constituted out of the material infrastructure through which water is harnessed and channelled. The book consists of 13 theoretical and empirical interdisciplinary chapters covering four continents. The case studies cover a diverse range of geographical areas and countries, including China, Cyprus, Egypt, Ethiopia, France, Nepal and Thailand, and together illustrate that the meaning and rationale behind water infrastructures goes well beyond the control and regulation of water resources, as it becomes central in the unfolding of power dynamics across time and space.

Water Governance and Collective Action

Water Governance and Collective Action PDF

Author: Diana Suhardiman

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2017-09-08

Total Pages: 190

ISBN-13: 1351705245

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Collective Action is now recognized as central to addressing the water governance challenge of delivering sustainable development and global environmental benefits. This book examines concepts and practices of collective action that have emerged in recent decades globally. Building on a Foucauldian conception of power, it provides an overview of collective action challenges involved in the sustainable management and development of global freshwater resources through case studies from Africa, South and Southeast Asia and Latin America. The case studies link community-based management of water resources with national decision-making landscapes, transboundary water governance, and global policy discussion on sustainable development, justice and water security. Power and politics are placed at the centre of collective action and water governance discourse, while addressing three core questions: how is collective action shaped by existing power structures and relationships at different scales? What are the kinds of tools and approaches that various actors can take and adopt towards more deliberative processes for collective action? And what are the anticipated outcomes for development processes, the environment and the global resource base of achieving collective action across scales?

Non-state Actors in China and Global Environmental Governance

Non-state Actors in China and Global Environmental Governance PDF

Author: Dan Guttman

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2021-09-05

Total Pages: 303

ISBN-13: 9813365943

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This book is the first effort to develop a broad and deep perspective on the emerging space occupied by “non-state actors” in China in the context of global environmental governance. It will serve as a primer both for scholars seeking to understand China’s environmental governance system and for practitioners working with policymakers and administrators within that system. Individual chapters explore what works in achieving social change, domestically as well as globally, and will provide guidance to activists and directors of NGOs as well as scholars.

Adaptive Urban Transformation

Adaptive Urban Transformation PDF

Author: Steffen Nijhuis

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2023-07-01

Total Pages: 315

ISBN-13: 3030898288

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This open access book provides a cross-sectoral, integrative and multi-scale design and planning approach for adaptive urban transformation of fast urbanising deltas, taking the Pearl River Delta (China) as a case study. Deltaic areas are among the most promising regions in the world. Their strategic location and superior quality of their soils are core factors supporting both human development and the rise of these regions as global economic hubs. At the same time, however, deltas are extremely vulnerable to multiple threats from both climate change and urbanisation. These include an increased flood risk combined with the resulting loss of ecological and social-cultural values. To ensure a more sustainable future for these areas, spatial strategies are needed to strengthen resilience, i.e. help the systems to cope with their vulnerabilities as well as enhance their capacity to overcome natural and artificial threats. The book provides a unique approach that integrates research in urban landscape systems, territorial governance and visualisation techniques that will help to achieve more integrated and resilient deltas. Based on an assessment of the dynamics of change regarding the transformational cycles of natural and urban landscape elements, eco-dynamic regional design strategies are explored to reveal greater opportunities for the exploitation of natural and social-cultural factors within the processes of urban development.

Facilitating Watershed Management

Facilitating Watershed Management PDF

Author: Robert Lawrence France

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2005

Total Pages: 398

ISBN-13: 0742533646

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Facilitating Watershed Management brings together myriad distinctive voices to create an experiential learning process drawn from the most important innovators in the field. Presenting an introduction to the diversity of tools (sociological, pedagogical, phenomenological) needed to implement watershed management in the real world trenches, the book helps move students and practitioners from being knowledgeable stewards of watersheds to becoming wise managers of watersheds.