Assessment of transboundary river basins for potential hydro-political tensions

Stefano, Lucía De; Petersen‐Perlman, Jacob D.; Sproles, E. A.; Eynard, Jim; Wolf, Aaron T.

doi:10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2017.04.008

Cited by 142 publications

(81 citation statements)

References 61 publications

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“…The transboundary aspect of resources makes disputes occur at multiple scales ('hydro-political tensions'), from the local to the global (De Stefano et al, 2017). Therefore, physical characteristics determine social interactions, from which relations of cooperation or domination emerge.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The liquid politics of an urban age

Diep

2018

Palgrave Commun

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In fragile social and economic societies, water governance systems have rarely managed to meet everyone's needs, but rather misrecognised the demand of those excluded from decision-making structures. Across regions, underlying socio-political issues have often remained unaddressed on the basis that water scarcity is primarily caused by geo-climatic conditions. Exclusionary governance is one central driver to migratory patterns along with instabilities in political regimes. It is reflected in poor service provision and tends to perpetuate injustices. Several commitments of the New Urban Agenda (NUA) set objectives of universal and equitable water provision through multi-stakeholder involvement in urban planning processes. It thereby demonstrates efforts deployed towards 'good governance' for transparent, accountable and participatory decision-making. However, several studies have pointed out the questionable role of citizens in NUA. Building on their argument, the present article reflects on exclusionary patterns that the NUA aims to tackle and the mechanisms it proposes to achieve this. This article aims to highlight how power relations in water governance produce and reproduce exclusion in access, such as through population movements. It questions how NUA envisions water governance structures based on collaboration between multiple stakeholders in different contexts, and highlights the need to scrutinise the people-centric language adopted in its commitments. With references to water politics from Latin America and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, it adopts a political ecology approach looking at questions of inclusivity for marginalised groups and discusses approaches for the active involvement of these people in water governance models.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The liquid politics of an urban age

Diep

2018

Palgrave Commun

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“…Here, it is important to note that any changes made in the upstream area might have a considerable impact on downstream regions. Therefore, governance of major river basins, particularly transboundary river basins where collaboration between nations is a prerequisite for avoiding political conflicts [12], is of utmost significance with respect to environmental health and economic development. Figure 1 briefly visualizes selected features and processes of a river basin.…”

Section: Relevance Of River Basinsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Review of Earth Observation-Based Analyses for Major River Basins

Uereyen

Kuenzer

2019

Remote Sensing

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Regardless of political boundaries, river basins are a functional unit of the Earth’s land surface and provide an abundance of resources for the environment and humans. They supply livelihoods supported by the typical characteristics of large river basins, such as the provision of freshwater, irrigation water, and transport opportunities. At the same time, they are impacted i.e., by human-induced environmental changes, boundary conflicts, and upstream–downstream inequalities. In the framework of water resource management, monitoring of river basins is therefore of high importance, in particular for researchers, stake-holders and decision-makers. However, land surface and surface water properties of many major river basins remain largely unmonitored at basin scale. Several inventories exist, yet consistent spatial databases describing the status of major river basins at global scale are lacking. Here, Earth observation (EO) is a potential source of spatial information providing large-scale data on the status of land surface properties. This review provides a comprehensive overview of existing research articles analyzing major river basins primarily using EO. Furthermore, this review proposes to exploit EO data together with relevant open global-scale geodata to establish a database and to enable consistent spatial analyses and evaluate past and current states of major river basins.

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“…They are also conflict-prone and attempts to solve the water sharing problems in the past have failed [104,105]. The situation surrounding the Syr Darya River underlines the fragility of the water-energy-food nexus, and the high interdependence of the three sections, in CA.…”

Section: Water-energy-food Security Nexus Issues In Camentioning

confidence: 99%

Essentials of Endorheic Basins and Lakes: A Review in the Context of Current and Future Water Resource Management and Mitigation Activities in Central Asia

Yapiyev

Sagin

Inglezakis

et al. 2017

Water

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Abstract:Endorheic basins (i.e., land-locked drainage networks) and their lakes can be highly sensitive to variations in climate and adverse anthropogenic activities, such as overexploitation of water resources. In this review paper, we provide a brief overview of one major endorheic basin on each continent, plus a number of endorheic basins in Central Asia (CA), a region where a large proportion of the land area is within this type of basin. We summarize the effects of (changing) climate drivers and land surface-atmosphere feedbacks on the water balance. For the CA region, we also discuss key anthropogenic activities, related water management approaches and their complex relationship with political and policy issues. In CA a substantial increase in irrigated agriculture coupled with negative climate change impacts have disrupted the fragile water balance for many endorheic basins and their lakes. Transboundary integrated land and water management approaches must be developed to facilitate adequate climate change adaptation and possible mitigation of the adverse anthropogenic influence on endorheic basins in CA. Suitable climate adaptation, mitigation and efficient natural resource management technologies and methods are available, and are developing fast. A number of these are discussed in the paper, but these technologies alone are not sufficient to address pressing water resource issues in CA. Food-water-energy nexus analyses demonstrate that transboundary endorheic basin management requires transformational changes with involvement of all key stakeholders. Regional programs, supported by local governments and international donors, which incorporate advanced adaptation technologies, water resource research and management capacity development, are essential for successful climate change adaptation efforts in CA. However, there is a need for an accelerated uptake of such programs, with an emphasis on unification of approaches, as the pressures resulting from climate change and aggravated by human mismanagement of natural water resources leave very little time for hesitation.

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Assessment of transboundary river basins for potential hydro-political tensions

Cited by 142 publications

References 61 publications

The liquid politics of an urban age

The liquid politics of an urban age

A Review of Earth Observation-Based Analyses for Major River Basins

Essentials of Endorheic Basins and Lakes: A Review in the Context of Current and Future Water Resource Management and Mitigation Activities in Central Asia

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