Geography of international water conflict and cooperation: Data sets and applications

Abstract

[1] The Transboundary Freshwater Dispute Database provides a framework for quantitative, global-scale explorations of the relationship between freshwater resources and international cooperation and conflict. Projects were designed to test common theories linking freshwater resources to cooperation and conflict, in particular within the context of geography and environmental security. The projects, which follow in sequence, consider three main hypotheses on the likelihood and intensity of water resource disputes. To test these hypotheses, a unique set of tools was created that links water-specific event data with a geographic information system (GIS) that meshes biophysical, political, and socioeconomic data sets at the river basin and other scales. There are three linked data sets: (1) an event data set documenting historical water relations, including a methodology for identifying and classifying events by their intensity of cooperation/conflict; (2) a GIS data set of countries and international basins, both current and historical; and (3) a spatial data set of biophysical, socioeconomic, and political variables, linked to the GIS. This paper describes the hypotheses, the above tools created to test them, and a methodological framework for utilizing the linked event and GIS data sets, providing three projects as examples: (1) indicators of international basins at risk of political tensions, (2) relationships between internal and international hydropolitics in three geographic regions, and (3) hydroclimatological variables and international water relations.

Water stress and water wars

“…Starting with the list of countries predicted to be water-stressed in 2025 (listed in Table 1) I then apply three criteria that would increase the probability of conflict: 25 (a) some countries in the international river basin will experience water-stress by 25 Use of the water-vulnerability criterion in Table 1 also meets the argument by Yoffe, et al (2004) that armed water conflicts are more likely in regions with extreme climatic conditions characterized by high hydrological variability. While water withdrawals from the river basin are, in fact, more telling than the geographical size of the country, appropriate data are not available.…”

Water security and interstate conflict and cooperation

“…In the discussion about the securitization of environmental issues, water is the one natural resource that brings out most of the conflicts in the near future (Gleick, 1993;Gleick, 1993a;Homer-Dixon, 1994;Gleiditsch et al, 2006;Yoffe et al, 2004). Water resources have gone through a process of securitization in several parts of the world, giving rise to the concept of water security, which has been used by a series of actors and in international documents.…”

Exploring Transboundary Water Conflict and Cooperation

“…[7] Yoffe et al [2004] propose a methodology for assembling the Transboundary Freshwater Dispute Database that provides a framework for their quantitative, global scale explorations of the relationship between freshwater resources and possible international conflict and cooperation. Using GIS techniques, Yoffe et al develop a methodology to collect and incorporate current and historical data for countries in transboundary river basins, including biophysical, socioeconomic, and political variables.…”