Megacities and Water Management

Varis, Olli; Biswas, Asit K.; Tortajada, Cecilia; Lundqvist, Johan

doi:10.1080/07900620600684550

Cited by 113 publications

(63 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…Since the 1990s, the water supply of the city, including groundwater and springs, has not been able to meet the increasing demand associated with this huge increase in population, and future projections of water demand suggest this will not let up anytime soon ( Fig. 1; Varis et al 2006). Another challenge related to water use is that 40% of Turkey's industry, such as clothing and textile manufacturers, is located in Istanbul (Altinbilek 2006), and such industries consume large quantities of water.…”

Section: Istanbul and The Greater Melen Projectmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In many cases, satisfying demands of urban centers means exploiting the resources in surrounding areas where rural regions, some distant, have to provide the necessary resources to supply food, water, and energy to megacities. This arrangement puts significant and disproportionate pressure on rural ecological and social systems and threatens their long-term viability in many ways (Varis et al 2006). Tacoli (2003) points out the rural-urban co-dependence by drawing attention to the reliance of rural populations on urban centers for access to education, health, and communication services, among other things, whereas urban populations primarily depend on the resources of rural regions for achieving, for example, food and water security and various types of energy production.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Political ecology of inter-basin water transfers in Turkish water governance

Işlar¹,

Boda²

2014

E&S

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ABSTRACT. We explore the emergence of two contemporary mega water projects in Turkey that are designed to meet the demands of the country's major urban centers. Moreover, we analyze how policy makers in the water sector frame problems and solutions. We argue that these projects represent a tendency to depoliticize water management and steer away from controversial issues of water allocation by emphasizing large-scale, centralized, technical, and supply-oriented solutions. In doing so, urgent concerns are ignored regarding unsustainable water use, impacts on rural livelihoods, and institutional shortcomings in the water sector. These aspirations build heavily on prevailing discourses of modernity, development, and economic growth, and how urban centers are perceived as drivers of this growth. In the light of these tendencies, social and environmental implications are downplayed, even though the projects will change or already have changed the dynamics within urban-rural life and agricultural water resources practices. We develop an understanding of how such projects are presented as the only solution to problems of water scarcity in Turkey.Key Words: inter-basin water transfers; political ecology; Turkey; urban water; water governance INTRODUCTIONProviding water for the domestic and industrial needs of growing megacities is one of the biggest challenges facing current water governance. In many cases, satisfying demands of urban centers means exploiting the resources in surrounding areas where rural regions, some distant, have to provide the necessary resources to supply food, water, and energy to megacities. This arrangement puts significant and disproportionate pressure on rural ecological and social systems and threatens their long-term viability in many ways (Varis et al. 2006). Tacoli (2003) points out the rural-urban co-dependence by drawing attention to the reliance of rural populations on urban centers for access to education, health, and communication services, among other things, whereas urban populations primarily depend on the resources of rural regions for achieving, for example, food and water security and various types of energy production. While we recognize this inter-reliance, our current focus is primarily on the politics and consequences of the transfer of water resources from rural areas to urban centers.

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Section: Istanbul and The Greater Melen Projectmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Political ecology of inter-basin water transfers in Turkish water governance

Işlar¹,

Boda²

2014

E&S

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“…Water demand management focuses on using water more efficiently but does not address processes that lie at the root of many of the problems of water overexploitation and pollution. Many megacities are located in places where water shortages put severe limitations to further growth (Varis et al, 2006); the real solution here is to integrate water concerns in spatial planning. Similarly, many breadbaskets in the world are situated in regions where water scarcity threatens sustainable production (Ma et al, 2006).…”

Section: Water Governance: From Internal To External Integrationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evolving water science in the Anthropocene

Savenije

Hoekstra

Zaag

2014

Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci.

143

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Abstract. This paper reviews the changing relation between human beings and water since the Industrial Revolution, a period that has been called the Anthropocene because of the unprecedented scale at which humans have altered the planet during this time. We show how the rapidly changing world urges us to continuously improve our understanding of the complex interactions between humans and the water system. The paper starts by demonstrating that hydrology and the science of managing water resources have played key roles in human and economic development throughout history; yet these roles have often been marginalised or obscured. Knowledge of hydrology and water resources engineering and management helped to transform the landscape, and thus also the very hydrology within catchments itself. It is only fairly recent that water experts have become conscious of such mechanisms, exemplified by several concepts that try to incorporate them -integrated water resources management, eco-hydrology, socio-hydrology. We have reached a stage at which a more systemic understanding of scale interdependencies can inform the sustainable governance of water systems, using new concepts like precipitation sheds, virtual water transfers, water footprints, and water value flow.

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“…Meanwhile, the number of inhabitants in megacities increased from 23.6 million in 1950 to 453 million in 2014, and is expected to reach 730 million by 2030 (UN-DESA 2014). The rapid growth of megacities in recent decades has resulted in a significant lag in management capacities compared to earlier periods of lower urban growth when megacities were able to progressively build infrastructure and innovative governance (Varis et al 2006). …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Urban water sustainability: framework and application

Yang¹,

Hyndman²,

Winkler³

et al. 2016

E&S

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ABSTRACT. Urban areas such as megacities (those with populations greater than 10 million) are hotspots of global water use and thus face intense water management challenges. Urban areas are influenced by local interactions between human and natural systems and interact with distant systems through flows of water, food, energy, people, information, and capital. However, analyses of water sustainability and the management of water flows in urban areas are often fragmented. There is a strong need to apply integrated frameworks to systematically analyze urban water dynamics and factors that influence these dynamics. We apply the framework of telecoupling (socioeconomic and environmental interactions over distances) to analyze urban water issues, using Beijing as a demonstration megacity. Beijing exemplifies the global water sustainability challenge for urban settings. Like many other cities, Beijing has experienced drastic reductions in quantity and quality of both surface water and groundwater over the past several decades; it relies on the import of real and virtual water from sending systems to meet its demand for clean water, and releases polluted water to other systems (spillover systems). The integrative framework we present demonstrates the importance of considering socioeconomic and environmental interactions across telecoupled human and natural systems, which include not only Beijing (the water-receiving system) but also water-sending systems and spillover systems. This framework helps integrate important components of local and distant human-nature interactions and incorporates a wide range of local couplings and telecouplings that affect water dynamics, which in turn generate significant socioeconomic and environmental consequences, including feedback effects. The application of the framework to Beijing reveals many research gaps and management needs. We also provide a foundation to apply the telecoupling framework to better understand and manage water sustainability in other cities around the world.

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Megacities and Water Management

Cited by 113 publications

References 4 publications

Political ecology of inter-basin water transfers in Turkish water governance

Political ecology of inter-basin water transfers in Turkish water governance

Evolving water science in the Anthropocene

Urban water sustainability: framework and application

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