Water Sustainability A Global Perspective
J.A.A. Jones


Using the latest mapping techniques, J.A.A. Jones, Chair of the IGU Commission for Water Sustainability, examines water availability, the impact of climate change and the problems created for water management worldwide as well as possible solutions.

Water Sustainability: A Global View is the first textbook to meld the physical and human aspects affecting the world's water resources. In Part One, it examines the restless water cycle, the impact of past and future climate change and the problems created for water management. In Part Two, the author investigates the human factors: population growth, urbanisation, the commercialisation of water including globalisation, privatisation and the role of international organisations, as well as the impact of war, terrorism and the credit crunch. In Part Three, current and future solutions are discussed including improved efficiency, water treatment systems, crop modification, desalination and rainwater harvesting. Jones concludes by positing the question of how far technical and financial innovations can overcome the limitations of climatic resources and examining the human and environmental costs involved in such developments.

This book is the ideal text for any student of water sustainability whether approaching the subject from the point of view of international relations, geography or environmental management.

• Includes 80 up-to-date maps illustrating current water resources as well as future predictions and generated from a range of international databases
• The first text to cover issues of poverty disease, debt, trade, food supply and terrorism in the context of water resources
• Focuses on solutions for the future
• An official contribution to the UN International Year of Planet Earth
• Written by the Chair of the International Geographical Union Commission on Water Sustainability
• Maps and revision materials available free on www.hodderplus.co.uk/geography
  
  

  Table of Contents:
  1 A looming crisis
  Part I Status and challenges
  2 Rising demand and dwindling per capita resources
  3 Water and poverty
  4 Pollution and water-related disease
  5 Governance and finance
  6 Water, land and wildlife
  7 Dams and diversions
  8 Trading water – real and virtual
  9 Water, war and terrorism
  10 The threat of global warming
  Part II Nature’s resources
  11 The restless water cycle
  12 Shrinking freshwater stores
  Part III Towards sustainability
  13 Cutting demand
  14 Increasing supplies
  15 Cleaning up and protecting the aquatic environment
  16 Using seawater
  17 Controlling the weather
  18 Improved monitoring and data management
  19 Improving prediction and risk assessment
  20 Improving management and justice
  21 Aid for the developing world
  Conclusions
  22 Is sustainability achievable?