Geography

This publication contains a variety of articles on different aspects of water.

You've heard the phrase, and for water, it really is true. Earth's water is (almost) everywhere: above the Earth in the air and clouds, on the surface of the Earth in rivers, oceans, ice, plants, in living organisms, and inside the Earth in the top few miles of the ground. ...

No other natural resource is more contested than water. Climate change and the associated extreme weather events have contributed to the challenges presented by a modern era of floods, drought, water pollution, and growing freshwater shortages. New global water arrangements for managing water, characterized by large-scale infrastructural projects, an emphasis on the “efficient” use of scarce resources, and an understanding of water as an “economic good,” have been the predominant responses to what is increasingly regarded as a global water crisis. ...

Newly updated and expanded, The Water Dictionary provides standardized definitions for thousands of water- and wastewater-related words, phrases, acronyms, chemicals, and microorganisms.

"Just do an Internet search." "It's on the Internet" These phrases have quickly become a part of the vernacular. The quintessential book of data relating to water, The Water Encyclopedia: Hydrologic Data and Internet Resources arose from the premise that most of the information provided within this publication could be easily found on the Internet. As the editors and their team of contributors soon discovered, using the Internet for research can be problematic. Too much, too little, and questionable data sets can influence the caliber of your results. ...

In recent years, a greater level of integration of the world economy and an opening of national markets to trade has impacted virtually all areas of society. The process of globalization has the potential to generate long-term benefits for developing countries, including enhanced technology and knowledge transfers and new financing options supporting agricultural and economic development. However, risks of political and economic instability, increased inequality, and losses in agricultural income and production for countries that subsidize their agricultural and other economic sectors threaten to offset potential benefits. Globalization can also have a profound impact on the water sector - in terms of allocation and use of water - and thus on food security as well. ...

This thoroughly engaging, concise book tells the story of California's most precious resource, tracing the journey of water in the state from the atmosphere to the snowpack to our faucets and foods. Along the way, we learn much about California itself as the book describes its rivers, lakes, wetlands, dams, and aqueducts and discusses the role of water in agriculture, the environment, and politics. ...

"There's Money in Thirst," reads a headline in the New York Times. The CEO of Nestlé, purveyor of bottled water, heartily agrees. It is important to give water a market value, he says in a promotional video, so "we're all aware that it has a price." But for those who have no access to clean water, a fifth of the world's population, the price is thirst. ...

William Houston and Robin Griffiths have turned their attention to one of the biggest challenges being faced across the globe today: Water. Up to the turn of the century the world's population had grown with water abundant in most developing countries. Then everything changed. Ocean oscillations (which affect the weather patterns) have altered, leading to droughts in areas that were expecting rain, and flooding for those previously anticipating arid conditions. The result is that around a fifth of the world's population will receive much less rain than expected. ...

We all know what water is, and we often take it for granted. But the spectre of a worldwide water crisis suggests that there might be something fundamentally wrong with the way we think about water. Jamie Linton dives into the history of water as an abstract concept, stripped of its environmental, social, and cultural contexts. Reduced to a scientific abstraction - to mere H20 - this concept has given modern society licence to dam, divert, and manipulate water with apparent impunity. ...

Blue Gold: World Water Wars examines environmental and political implications of the planet's dwindling water supply, and posits that wars in the future will be fought over water. The film also highlights some success stories of water activists around the world and makes a strong case for community action.

Traces writer Arundhati Roy's bold and controversial campaign against the Narmada Valley dam project in India, a massive undertaking that would drown fertile farmlands and displace over a million people.

Builds a case against the growing privatization of the world's dwindling fresh water supply with an unflinching focus on politics, pollution, human rights and the emergence of a domineering world water cartel. Interviews with scientists and activists intelligently reveal the rapidly building crisis... begging the question: Can anyone really own water?

A central Brazilian Xavante, a Wayuu from Venezuela, and a US anthropologist explore an indigenous campaign to protect a river from devastating effects of uncontrolled Amazonian soy cultivation. The film results from long collaboration between anthropologist Laura Graham and Xavante, and more recent collaboration with Wayuu. The Association Xavante Warã, a Xavante organization that promotes indigenous knowledge and ways of living in the central Brazilian cerrado (a spiritually and materially integrated space that Xavante know as ʹró) and conservation of this unique environment, invited Graham to tell the story of its campaign to save the Rio das Mortes. David Hernández Palmar, a Wayuu (Iipuana clan) from Venezuela, accompanied Graham to meet the Xavante and learn about their struggles over water.

Rainfall, hurricanes, rivers, reservoirs, springs, lakes, aquifers, wetlands, floodplains, water parks, irrigation, wells--the list of water-related topics in Texas is long and critical to the state's economic and political future. Texas Water Atlas provides the first comprehensive reference for water-related topics in Texas. Geographers Lawrence E. Estaville and Richard A. Earl have compiled a host of data to visually convey vital information on Texas' climate, surface and groundwater, water uses and hazards, water quantity and quality, recreation, future supply projections, and the environmental management of its water resources. ...

The survival of communities is threatened when big business buys the water supply in the third world. This is a look at how water is becoming the catalyst for community resistance to globalization, and at the conflict between public stewardship and private profit.

Also has Facing the challenges : case studies volume and an accompanying disc in the Jones Media Center.

The Journal of the American Water Resources Association (JAWRA) is dedicated to publishing original papers characterized by its broad approach to water resources issues. Water by its nature is complex. ...

An article index for all things related to water.