Abstract
While climate change presents formidable challenges to global water systems, water problems are primarily the result of the failure of societal institutions to manage the resource and meet the needs of current residents, the economy and environment, and future generations. Single-minded focus on climate change and hydrological response dominates water science at the expense of research that investigates how to safeguard water systems in the face of inevitable environmental and societal change. The latter emphasizes the role of markets, urban planning, insurance, policy, technology, governance, cultural attitudes and values, institutions, legal frameworks, and decision-making strategies in mitigating water stress. This chapter focuses on the issue of vulnerability in the water sector: what it means, why it exists, and how to remedy it.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Adger, W. Neil, Terry P. Hughes, Carl Folke, Stephen R. Carpenter, and Johan Rockström. 2005. “Social-Ecological Resilience to Coastal Disasters,” Science 309(5737): 1036–1039.
AghaKouchak, Amir, David Feldman, Martin Hoerling, and Travis Huxman. 2015. “Recognize Anthropogenic Drought.” Nature 524(7566): 409–411.
Agripulse. 2016. “Food Companies Target Water Risks in global supply chains.” http://www.foodandagpolicy.org/news/story/food-companies-target-water-risks-global-supply-chains-agri-pulse. Accessed September 22 2017.
Burton, Christopher, and Susan L. Cutter. 2008. “Levee Failures and Social Vulnerability in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Area, California.” National Hazards Review 9(3): 136–139.
CBC News. 2013. “2012 Calgary Flood Study Foresaw June’s Devastation.” December 10, 2013. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/2012-calgary-flood-study-foresaw-june-s-devastation-1.2458014. Accessed September 22 2017.
CBC News. 2014. “Alberta flood: By the Numbers One Year Later.” June 15, 2014. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/alberta-flood-by-the-numbers-one-year-later-1.2676657. Accessed September 22 2017.
City of Calgary. 2014. “Calgary’s Flood Resilient Future: Report from the Expert Management Panel on River Flood Mitigation June 2014.” http://www.calgary.ca/_layouts/cocis/DirectDownload.aspx?target=http%3a%2f%2fwww.calgary.ca%2fUEP%2fWater%2fDocuments%2fWater-Documents%2fFlood-Info-Documents%2fExpert-Management-Panel-Report-to-Council.pdf&noredirect=1&sf=1. Accessed September 22 2017.
Cook, Christina, and Karen Bakker. 2012. “Water Security: Debating an Emerging Paradigm,” Global Environmental Change 22: 94–102.
Cutter, Susan L., Christopher T. Emrich, Jennifer J. Webb, and Daniel Morath. “Social Vulnerability to Climate Variability Hazards: A Review of the Literature.” Final Report to Oxfam America 5(2009): 1–44.
Dhillon, Amrit. 2017. “South Asian Floods: Mumbai Building Collapses as Monsoon Rains Wreak Havoc.” The Guardian, August 31 2017. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/aug/31/south-asia-floods-fears-death-toll-rise-india-pakistan-mumbai-building-collapses. Accessed September 27 2017.
Di Baldassarre, Guiliano, Alberto Viglione, Gemma Carr, Linda Kuil, Kun Yan, Luguia Brandimarte, and Gunter Blöschl. 2015. “Debates—Perspectives on Socio-Hydrology: Capturing Feedbacks Between Physical and Social Processes.” Water Resources Research 51(6): 4770–4781.
Executive Department State of California. 2016. “Executive Order B-37-16 Making Water Conservation a California Way of Life.” https://www.gov.ca.gov/docs/5.9.16_Executive_Order.pdf. Accessed September 22 2017.
Falkenmark, M., A. Berntell, A.Jägerskog, J. Lundqvist, M. Matz, and H. Tropp. 2007. On the Verge of a New Water Scarcity: A Call for Good Governance and Human Ingenuity. Stockholm: Stockholm International Water Institute.
Fang, Xing, and John W. Pomeroy. 2016. “Impact of Antecedent Conditions on Simulations of a Flood in a Mountain Headwater Basin.” Hydrological Processes 30(16): 2754–2772.
Fisher, Frank. 2003. Reframing Public Policy: Discursive Politics and Deliberative Practices. New York: Oxford University Press.
Forouzani, Masoumeh, and Eztollah Karami. 2011. “Agricultural Water Poverty Index and Sustainability.” Agronomy for Sustainable Development 31(2): 415–431.
Government of Thailand. 2011. “24/7 Emergency Operation Center for Flood, Storms and Landslide. Current Situation,” No. 96/2011, December 16, 2011. http://www.adrc.asia/documents/disaster_info/2011/12/EOC_Report_16_Dec-eng.pdf. Accessed September 22 2017.
Grey, David, and Claudia W. Sadoff. 2007. “Sink or Swim: Water Security for Growth and Development.” Water Policy 9(2007): 545–571.
Hanak, Ellen, Jeffrey Mount, and Catrin Chapelle. 2016. “California’s Latest Drought.” Public Policy Institute of California. http://www.adrc.asia/documents/disaster_info/2011/12/EOC_Report_16_Dec-eng.pdf. Accessed on September 22, 2017.
Haraguchi, Masahiko, and Lall Upmanu. 2015. “Flood Risks and Impacts: A Case Study of Thailand’s Floods in 2011 and Research Questions for Supply Chain Decision Making.” International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction 14(3): 256–272.
Hernandez, Manny, and Richard Fausset. “A Storm Forces Houston, the Limitless City, to Consider Its Limits.” New York Times, August 30, 2017. Accessed August 31 2017.
Kimmelman, Michael. 2017. “Mexico City Parches and Sinking Faces a Water Crisis.” The New York Times, June 29, 2017. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/30/us/houston-flooding-growth-regulation.html. Accessed September 12 2017.
Kates, Robert W., Craig E. Colten, Shirley Laska, and Stephen P. Leatherman. 2006. “Reconstruction of New Orleans After Hurricane Katrina: A Research Perspective,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 103(40): 14653–14660.
Liu, A. Q., C. Mooney, K. Szeto, J. M. Thériault, B. Kochtubajda, R. E. Stewart, S. Boodoo, R. Goodson, Y. Li, and J. Pomeroy. 2016. “The June 2013 Alberta Catastrophic Flooding Event: Part 1–Climatological Aspects and Hydrometeorological Features.” Hydrological Processes 30(26): 4899–4916.
Micklin, Phillip P. 1988. “Dessication of the Aral Sea: A Water Management Disaster in the Soviet Union.” Science 241(4870): 1170–1176.
Montz, Burrell E., and Graham A. Tobin. 2008. “Livin’ Large with levees: Lessons learned and Lost.” Natural Hazards Review 9(3): 150–157.
Mount, Jeffrey, and Ellen Hanak. 2016. “Water Use in California.” Public Policy Institute of California. http://www.ppic.org/publication/water-use-in-california/. Accessed August 8 2017.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). 2017. “Palmer Drought Severity Index, Explanation.” http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/analysis_monitoring/cdus/palmer_drought/wpdanote.shtml. Accessed September 22 2017.
Polsky, Colin, Rob Neff, and Brent Yarnal. 2007. “Building Comparable Global Change Vulnerability Assessments: The Vulnerability Scoping Diagram,” Global Environmental Change, 17(3–4): 472–485.
Pomeroy, J. W., X. Fang, and D. G. Marks. 2016. “The Cold Rain-on-Snow Event of June 2013 in the Canadian Rockies—Characteristics and Diagnosis.” Hydrological Processes 30(17): 2899–2914.
Public Policy Institute of California. 2017. “California Faces Growing Water Management Challenges.” Accessed July 18, 2017. http://www.ppic.org/content/pubs/report/R_212EHR.pdf. Accessed July 18 2017.
Reisner, Marc. 1986. Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water. New York: Viking Press.
Rockström J., C. Folke, L. Gordon, N. Hatibu, G. Jewitt, F. Penning de Vries, F. Rwehumbiza, H. Sally, H. Savenije, and R. Schulze. 2004. “A Watershed Approach to Upgrade Rainfed Agriculture in Water Scarce Regions through Water System Innovations: An Integrated Research Initiative on Water for Food and Rural Livelihoods in Balance with Ecosystem Functions.” Physics and Chemistry of the Earth 3(2): 1109–1118.
Sandink, Dan, Paul Kovacs, Gregg Oulahen, and Glenn McGillivray. 2010. “Making Flood Insurable for Canadian Homeowners.” Institute for Catastropic Loss Reduction & Swiss Reinsurance Company. https://www.iclr.org/images/Making_Flood_Insurable_for_Canada.pdf. Accessed January 1 2018.
Schultz, Bart, and Stefan Uhlenbrook. 2007. “Water Security: What Does It Mean, What May It Imply? Water for a Changing World – Developing Local Knowledge and Capacity.” In Developing Local Knowledge and Capacity, edited by Guy Alaerts and Nicolas Dickinson, 27–40. Delft, Netherlands: UNESCO Proceedings.
Statistics Canada. 2016. “Population Estimates and Projections.” http://www.statcan.gc.ca/tables-tableaux/sum-som/l01/cst01/demo05a-eng.htm. Accessed June 1 2017.
Stone, Deborah. 2002. Policy Paradox: The Art of Political Decision Making. New York: Norton.
te Linde, A. H., P. Bubeck, J. E. C. Dekkers, H. de Moel, and J. C. J. H. Aerts. 2011. “Flood Risk Estimates Along the River Rhine.” Natural Hazards Systems Science 11: 459–473.
Toronto Sun. 2017. “Homeowners Could be on Hook for Flooding: Insurance Experts.” http://www.torontosun.com/2017/05/08/homeowners-could-be-on-hook-for-flooding-insurance-experts. Accessed August 9 2017.
United Nations. 2015. “The Millennium Development Goals Report 2015.” http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/2015_MDG_Report/pdf/MDG%202015%20rev%20(July%201).pdf. Accessed September 22 2017.
US Bureau of the Census. 2016. “Annual Estimates of the Resident Population: April 1 2010 to April 1, 2016.” https://factfinder.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=PEP_2016_PEPANNRES&src=pt. Accessed June 22 2017.
Vörösmarty Charles J., Pamela Green, Joseph Salisbury, and Richard B. Lammers. 2000. “Global Water Resources: Vulnerability from Climate Change and Population Growth.” Science 289(July): 284–288.
Vörösmarty C. J., P. B. McIntyre, M. O. Gessner, D. Dudgeon, A. Prusevich, P. Green, S. Glidden, S. E. Sullivan, C. Reidy Liermann, and P. M. Davis. 2010. “Global Threats to Water Security.” Nature 467: 555–561.
Water Education Foundation. 2015. “The 2014 Sustainable Groundwater Management Act: A Handbook to Understanding and Implementing the Law.” Sacramento, CA: Water Education Foundation. http://groundwater.ucdavis.edu/files/208021.pdf. Accessed September 27 2017.
White, Gilbert F. 1945. Human Adjustment to Floods: A Geographical Approach to Flood Problems in the United States. Department of Geography Research Paper 29. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago.
Whitfield, P. H., and Pomeroy, J. W. 2016. “Changes to Flood Peaks of a Mountain River: Implications for Analysis of the 2013 Flood in the Upper Bow River, Canada.” Hydrological Processes 30(25): 4657–4673.
Wisner, Ben, Piers Blackie, Terry Cannon, and Ian Davis. 2004. At Risk: Natural Hazards, People’s Vulnerability and Disasters (Second Edition). London, UK and New York: Routledge, p. 51.
World Bank. 2012. “Thai Flood 2011: Overview.” http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/677841468335414861/pdf/698220WP0v10P106011020120Box370022B.pdf. Accessed September 22 2017.
World Water Development Report. 2016. “Water and Jobs.” http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0024/002439/243938e.pdf. Accessed September 22 2017.
Zimmerman, Kim Ann. 2015. “Hurricane Katrina: Facts, Damage & Aftermath.” Live Science. August 27 2015. https://www.livescience.com/22522-hurricane-katrina-facts.html. Accessed September 27 2017.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Gober, P. (2018). Human Dimensions of Water Security. In: Building Resilience for Uncertain Water Futures. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71234-5_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71234-5_2
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-71233-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-71234-5
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)