Villholth / Lopez-Gunn / Van Der Gun Advances in Groundwater Governance

Erscheinungsjahr 2017
ISBN: 978-1-351-80841-5
Verlag: Taylor & Francis
Format: PDF
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 620 Seiten

Although groundwater remains relatively unknown and underappreciated across the globe, its importance is enormous and even steadily increasing because of factors such as population growth and climate change. It is the sole or primary source of drinking water in many parts of the world and it forms an indispensable and often the most reliable supply of irrigation water in dry regions. In addition, it plays an important role in mining and other branches of industry. But the relevance of groundwater is not limited to its use as an extractable resource. Groundwater is also a major environmental component, supporting ecosystems and defining to a large extent the local conditions for land use, the use of the subsurface space and the extraction of mining resources.

The potential benefits of groundwater and groundwater-dependent ecosystems to human society are huge, and good groundwater governance is crucial for achieving, enhancing and sustaining these benefits and for allocating them equitably. Exploring the subject and sharing information on its many facets and on experiences gained is therefore of high practical as well as strategic relevance. This book presents a multicoloured picture of groundwater governance. The complexity and the many dimensions of groundwater governance are captured in twenty-eight chapters, written by a team of leading experts from different parts of the world and with a diversity of professional backgrounds. The book aims to describe the state-of-the-art and latest developments regarding each of the themes addressed, paying attention to the wide variation in conditions around the globe.

The book consists of four parts. The first part sets the scene by defining groundwater governance, exploring its emergence and evolution, framing it through a socio-ecological lens and describing groundwater policy and planning approaches. The second part discusses selected key aspects of groundwater governance. These include leadership, political support, participation, cooperation, conflict resolution, legal frameworks, information and knowledge, capacity development, economic instruments, awareness raising and assessment of groundwater governance. The third part zooms in on the increasingly important linkages between groundwater and other resources or sectors, such as health, land use, food, energy, surface water, mining and the subsurface space; as well as between local groundwater systems and phenomena or actions at the international or even global level (transboundary aquifer management, global trade). The fourth part, finally, presents eight interesting case studies that illustrate current practices in groundwater governance in different parts of the world.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Villholth, Karen G.

Lopez-Gunn, Elena

Van Der Gun, Jac

Conti, Kirstin

Garrido, Alberto

Fachgebiete

• Technische Wissenschaften Bauingenieurwesen Bauingenieurwesen
• Geowissenschaften Umweltwissenschaften Umweltwissenschaften
• Geowissenschaften Geologie Geologie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Setting the stage. Key elements of groundwater governance. Integration and policy linkages beyond the local groundwater system. Cases.

Über Autor(innen)

Karen G. Villholth has more than 25 years of experience in groundwater resources assessment and management. She deals with research, policy advice, and capacity development related to groundwater irrigation for smallholders, transboundary aquifers, groundwater resources assessment and modelling, climate change and groundwater, adaptation through underground solutions, role of depleting aquifers in global food production, groundwater and eco-system services, and groundwater management and governance for institutions at various levels, from local to global. She engages with multidisciplinary teams and stakeholders in co-developing tools, approaches, and policies to a more sustainable use of groundwater for livelihoods, food security, and environmental integrity. Karen is a Principal Researcher and a Research Group Leader at IWMI, International Water Management Institute at the Southern Africa regional office. She is leading the global IWMI-led partnership initiative on Groundwater Solutions for Policy and Practice (GRIPP). Karen holds a PhD in Groundwater Assessment and a MSc in Chemical Engineering from the Technical University of Denmark and a MSc in Civil Engineering from the University of Washington. She previously worked for DHI-Water and Environment and the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland. She is co-author of three books related to groundwater and more than 50 peer-reviewed journal papers.

Elena López Gunn is the Founder and Director of ICATALIST and a Cheney Fellow at University of Leeds in the United Kingdom. Elena finished her PhD at King's College, London. She also holds a Masters from the University of Cambridge. She was an Associate Professor at IE Business school and a Visiting Senior Fellow at the London School of Economics as Alcoa Research Fellow. Professionally, Elena has collaborated with a number of organizations including UNESCO, FAO, UNDP, EU DG Research and Innovation, universities (Spanish and Dutch) and river basin agencies, the England and Wales Environment Agency, as well as the private sector like Repsol, and NGOs like Transparency International-Spanish Chapter. She has published on a range of topics mainly related to water security, social innovation, collaborative decision making, water governance, evaluation of public policy, knowledge management and transfer. Her current main focus is climate change adaptation, DRR and socio-ecological systems. She has recently worked as Technical Expert for the International Atomic Agency on projects related to groundwater governance and capacity building. Elena lives in Madrid with her husband, Dave, and her three fabulous children.

Jac van der Gun is a Dutch groundwater hydrologist and water resources specialist (MSc, Wageningen University). He has been employed successively by a Dutch water supply company (WMG, Velp), UN-OTC (New York) and the R&D organisation TNO (Delft/Utrecht). His professional career spans almost half a century and has focused on (1) water resources exploration and assessment (including significant fieldwork); (2) hydrogeological mapping; (3) water resources planning and manage¬ment; and (4) training, capacity building and institutional development. He has been involved actively in the Groundwater Reconnaissance of The Netherlands (entrusted with the overall responsibility for this programme). His long-term assignments abroad include positions as a resident hydrologist in Bolivia and as a resident water resources assessment project manager in Yemen and Paraguay. In addition, he carried out numerous short missions in Asia, Latin America, Africa and Europe for various international and national organisations, providing scientific-technical input, supervising projects, and formulating or evaluating projects and programmes. He has also lectured at UNESCO-IHE on groundwater for more than thirty years. In 2003 he became the founding director of the International Groundwater Resources Assessment Centre (IGRAC) and since then he is mainly active in groundwater-related projects of international organisations (e.g. the Groundwater Governance Project).

Kirstin I. Conti has 10 years experience in the environmental and water policy sectors. As a child, Kirstin’s favorite gardening project was creating a compost bin – placing worms in a compost box and feeding them produce scraps. Years later her love for nature led her to her major in Earth Systems at Stanford University, which is an interdisciplinary program focused on environmental problem solving. At that time, her experiences in the classroom and conducting field research in in the Southern Africa region sparked her passionate for a career in water management. Her professional experiences revealed the complexity of managing shared water resources. As an environmental consultant in San Francisco, she witnessed stakeholder conflicts prevent the effective management of California’s water. She completed a Masters of Laws at University of Dundee and her doctoral research at the University of Amsterdam and the International Groundwater Resources Assessment Centre (IGRAC). Her focus is improving groundwater governance and conflict prevention mechanisms for the purpose of ensuring that our most abundant fresh water resource, groundwater, is managed sustainably, equitably, and cooperatively.

Alberto Garrido is Spanish Professor of Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics and Vice-Rector of Quality and Efficiency at the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM). Has a Bachelor Degree and MSc in Agricultural Engineering; a Masters in Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics from the University of California, Davis (1992) and a Doctoral Degree in Agricultural Economics from the UPM (1995). Has supervised 17 Doctoral Dissertations, published 195 references, of which 70 are academic articles and 15 books. Has 25 years of experience in leading research projects and grants. His research focuses on agricultural risks and insurance, natural resource economics and policy and water policy. Has consulted for the main international organisations (FAO, BID, The World Bank, IFAD), several national governments of Europe, Asia and America, and numerous private companies and foundations. He has coordinated 55 research projects, 8 of which with international consortia. Since 1996, he is a member of the Advisory Board of the Rosenberg Forum of International Policy.