The State of Water

The State of Water PDF

Author: Obi Kaufmann

Publisher: Heyday Books

Published: 2019

Total Pages: 144

ISBN-13: 9781597144698

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Obi Kaufmann, author of the best-selling California Field Atlas, turns his artful yet analytical attention to the Golden State's single most complex and controversial resource: water. In this new book, full-color maps unravel the braided knot of California's water infrastructure and ecosystems, exposing a history of unlimited growth in spite of finite natural resources--a history that has led to its current precarious circumstances. Yet this built world depends upon the biosphere, and in The State of Water Kaufmann argues that environmental conservation and restoration efforts are necessary not only for ethical reasons but also as a matter of human survival. Offering nine perspectives to illustrate the most pressing challenges facing California's water infrastructure, from dams to species revitalization, Kaufmann reveals pragmatic yet inspiring solutions to how water in the West can continue to support agriculture, municipalities, and the environment. Interspersed throughout with trail paintings of animals that might yet survive under a caring and careful water ethic, Kaufmann shows how California can usher in a new era of responsible water conservation, and--perhaps most importantly--how we may do so together.

Brad Temkin: The State of Water

Brad Temkin: The State of Water PDF

Author:

Publisher:

Published: 2019-05-21

Total Pages: 148

ISBN-13: 9781942185550

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Chicago photographer Brad Temkin (born 1956) brings attention to the visual and ecological beauty of the transformation of water, by showing the structures and processes that most people do not even think about. Most storm water runoff is considered waste, yet more than 700 cities reclaim and reuse wastewater and storm water with combined sewer systems, recycling it for agricultural uses and even drinking water. As we mimic nature and separate the impurities like sludge, salt or chemicals, a transformation occurs. Temkin believes it matters less what each structure really is used for, or whether the water pictured is pure or waste. He is drawn to the strangeness of these forms and the distorted sense of scale. Moving beyond mere description, he embraces the abstract and surreal landscape of water transformation. Temkin has received a Guggenheim Fellowship for his work, which is collected in museums throughout the United States.

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.

Florida's Water

Florida's Water PDF

Author: Tom Swihart

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2012-06-25

Total Pages: 290

ISBN-13: 113652164X

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Florida's Water poses fundamental questions about water sustainability in the United States' fourth largest state. Florida has long-standing water quality problems. Global climate change threatens to intensify Florida's floods and droughts, make hurricanes more common or more damaging, and eventually submerge much of low-lying Florida, including the Everglades. How can Florida meet these extraordinary challenges? And what lessons does the Florida experience hold for other states? This book fully integrates the many diverse responsibilities of water management into a readable and compelling combination of interesting narratives and deep analysis. Author Tom Swihart's unique, intimate knowledge of Florida's successes and failures in water management brings out both the novelty of Florida's water situation and the features that it has in common with other states.

The State of the World's Land and Water Resources for Food and Agriculture

The State of the World's Land and Water Resources for Food and Agriculture PDF

Author: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2013-06-17

Total Pages: 332

ISBN-13: 1136498877

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The State of the World's Land and Water Resources for Food and Agriculture is FAO's first flagship publication on the global status of land and water resources. It is an 'advocacy' report, to be published every three to five years, and targeted at senior level decision makers in agriculture as well as in other sectors. SOLAW is aimed at sensitizing its target audience on the status of land resources at global and regional levels and FAO's viewpoint on appropriate recommendations for policy formulation. SOLAW focuses on these key dimensions of analysis: (i) quantity, quality of land and water resources, (ii) the rate of use and sustainable management of these resources in the context of relevant socio-economic driving factors and concerns, including food security and poverty, and climate change. This is the first time that a global, baseline status report on land and water resources has been made. It is based on several global spatial databases (e.g. land suitability for agriculture, land use and management, land and water degradation and depletion) for which FAO is the world-recognized data source. Topical and emerging issues on land and water are dealt with in an integrated rather than sectoral manner. The implications of the status and trends are used to advocate remedial interventions which are tailored to major farming systems within different geographic regions.

Western Times and Water Wars

Western Times and Water Wars PDF

Author: John Walton

Publisher: Univ of California Press

Published: 1993-08-31

Total Pages: 402

ISBN-13: 0520084535

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"Walton first uses his magnifying glass to capture images of struggle in a California valley during a century and a half of transformation, then inverts it to scrutinize the American state, popular politics, and collective action in general. The maneuver is bold, the outcome stimulating."—Charles Tilly, New School for Social Research "A passionate and first rate historical adventure. The plot is as intricate, fascinating, and full of intrigue and detail as a Dickens or a Tolstoy novel."—John Nichols, author of The Milagro Beanfield War

Against the Current: Privatization, Water Markets, and the State in Chile

Against the Current: Privatization, Water Markets, and the State in Chile PDF

Author: Carl J. Bauer

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2012-12-06

Total Pages: 173

ISBN-13: 1461564034

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In 1981 Chile's military government dictated a new Water Code that radically changed the country's previous water rights system by strengthening private property rights, favoring market incentives, and reducing state regulation. Against the Current: Privatization, Water Markets, and the State in Chile is the first empirical and interdisciplinary study of water markets in Chile, which is the leading international example of free market water policies. Against the Current: Privatization, Water Markets, and the State in Chile challenges the glowing reports given by neoliberals in Chile and the World Bank, showing that the results of this economic experiment have actually been rather mixed. Within the agricultural sector the Water Code has worked fairly well, although the market incentives to conserve water have been ineffective and water rights trading has been less active than expected. The Code's impact has been more negative at the level of river basins, where the institutional framework has revealed critical flaws in coordinating multiple water users and resolving conflicts. Against the Current: Privatization, Water Markets, and the State in Chile combines law, political economy, and geography to analyze the disadvantages, problems, and wider contexts of water markets. This book will appeal to everyone interested in property rights, market-friendly environmental policies, the political economy of sustainable development, and the intersection of economics with law and institutions.

The Great Water

The Great Water PDF

Author: Matthew R Thick

Publisher: MSU Press

Published: 2018-01-01

Total Pages: 298

ISBN-13: 1628953187

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Michigan’s location among the Great Lakes has positioned it at the crossroads of many worlds. Its first hunters arrived ten thousand years ago, its first farmers arrived about six thousand years after that, and three hundred years ago the French expanded into the territory. This book is a small sample of the words of Michigan’s people—a collection of stories, letters, diary entries, news reports, and other documents—that give personal insights into important aspects of Michigan’s history. Designed to provoke thought and discussion about Michigan’s past, the documents in this reader are expressions of past ideas, markers of change, and windows into the lives of the people who lived during well-known events in Michigan history.