Water auditing/water governance analysis PDF Download

Author: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Publisher: Food & Agriculture Org.
ISBN: 9251384363
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 76

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Book Description
The paper aims to promote the increased focus on governance dimension of water-related issues, and the value of investing in development of institutions that balance water demand and supply, and that mediate between the claims of competing users for inclusive and sustainable water management. Water governance determines the equity and efficiency in water resource and services allocation and distribution, and balances water use between various socioeconomic activities, and between those and ecosystems. Strengthening water governance for agriculture and food security means enabling effective problem-solving to produce policies and institutions related to water use and management that are regarded as legitimate by all relevant actors. The combination of technical and governance analyses has the potential to help decision-makers identify the most appropriate ways to achieve water efficiency, productivity, and sustainability, while at the same time increasing the capacity of agricultural productivity to end hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition. This paper provides practical guidance to undertake an in-depth water governance analysis at country and subnational levels and to develop technically valid and politically feasible strategies for change. With its emphasis on continual learning and adaptation, water governance analyses will help policy practitioners work in a more informed and politically sensitive way towards more sustainable, efficient, and equitable water use, guaranteeing social and economic sustainability for all users.

Author: Batchelor, C
Publisher: Food & Agriculture Org.
ISBN: 9251093318
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 238

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Book Description
In many regions of the world, sustainable and reliable delivery of water services has become increasingly complex and problematic. Complexities that are very likely to increase, considering the unprecedented confluence of pressures linked to demographic, economic, dietary trends, and climate change. Particularly if overall demand for freshwater exceeds supply, the delivery of water services is often less about engineering, although engineering is still required, and more about politics, governa nce, managing and protecting sources, resolving conflicts about water, ensuring rights to water are respected, and so on. It is also about understanding and monitoring the hydrological cycle at the appropriate scale of analysis. This is where water accounting and auditing can play a crucial role. The rationale behind this water accounting and auditing sourcebook is that scope exists worldwide to improve water-related sectoral and inter-sectoral decision-making at local, regional and national le vels. Water accounting and auditing are recommended by FAO and others as being fundamental to initiatives that aim to cope with water scarcity. This sourcebook aims to provide practical advice on the application and use of water accounting and auditing, helping users planning and implementing processes that best fit their needs.

Author: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Publisher: Food & Agriculture Org.
ISBN: 9251304270
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 53

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Book Description
There is growing interest in water accounting, why it is needed, what benefits it brings, and equally important, how it can be put into practice. Water accounting is not a new idea, yet it is an alarmingly simple one. It is about quantifying water resources and uses of water, much like financial accounts provide information on income and expenditure. Interest in water accounting is based on the premise that ‘We cannot plan and manage what we do not measure’ – a statement that few would disagree with. However, given the current focus on water as a precious and limiting resource, the risks of extreme floods and droughts, and water’s central role in the 2030 Agenda, it is difficult to understand why so little attention is given to water accounting and to making sure we have enough water. Indeed, estimates suggest that by 2050, if we continue with our current approach to water management, global water demand will exceed supply by over 40%, which would put at risk 45% of global GDP, 52% of the world’s population, and 40% of grain production (WWDR, 2016). This concern is supported by the World Economic Forum that consistently ranks water crises as a top global risk (WEF, 2015). Reports from South Africa (January 2018) suggesting that Cape Town may be the world’s first major city to face the prospect of running out of water following severe drought, is a timely ‘wake-up call’ for everyone to focus on accounting for water.

Author: Jeff Sturman
Publisher: IWA Publishing
ISBN: 1900222523
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 336

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Book Description
Water auditing is a method of quantifying water flows and quality in simple or complex systems, with a view to reducing water usage and often saving money on otherwise unnecessary water use. There is an increasing awareness around the globe of the centrality of water to our lives. This awareness crosses political and social boundaries. In many places people have difficult access to drinking water. Often it is polluted. Water auditing is a mechanism for conserving water, which will grow in significance in the future as demand for water increases. Water Auditing and Water Conservation is aimed at undergraduate and graduate students in environmental engineering and science programs, water auditors and professionals in the water field, especially those motivated by quantitative water conservation needs. There is a strong emphasis on principles, and on the relationship of water auditing with associated activities like environmental auditing, environmental management systems, resource conservation, flow measurement, water quality and legal frameworks. Alongside the theoretical materials we integrate field experience from professionals. Chapters outline the processes and issues at stake in a variety of typical applications (arenas) in which water auditing are conducted. These include buildings (interior and exterior), landscape, external commercial applications requiring irrigation, aquatic centres, material transport by water, cooling systems and non-metal manufacturing (e.g. paper manufacture). This book will lead the prospective water auditor to a sufficiently thorough knowledge of water auditing to be able to apply the principles to many situations and make recommendations for water conservation measures.

Author: Claudia Pahl-Wostl
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319218557
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 299

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Book Description
This book offers the first comprehensive treatment of multi-level water governance, developing a conceptual and analytical framework that captures the complexity of real water governance systems while also introducing different approaches to comparative analysis. Applications illustrate how the ostensibly conflicting goals of deriving general principles and of taking context-specific factors into account can be reconciled. Specific emphasis is given to governance reform, adaptive and transformative capacity and multi-level societal learning. The sustainable management of global water resources is one of the most pressing environmental challenges of the 21st century. Many problems and barriers to improvement can be attributed to failures in governance rather than the resource base itself. At the same time our understanding of complex water governance systems largely remains limited and fragmented. The book offers an invaluable resource for all researchers working on water governance topics and for practitioners dealing with water governance challenges alike.

Author: Cecilia Tortajada
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317985559
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 232

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Book Description
Old forms of governance in both public and private sectors are becoming increasingly irrelevant because of rapidly changing conditions. Because of these changes, both governance processes and the scope of the institutions through which power is exercised throughout society may have to undergo a radical break with the past and prevailing models of governance. Water sector is an integral part of the global system. Consequently, its governance processes and the institutions responsible for its management must change as well in order to cope with the current challenges and potential future changes. Because of these current and future changes, water governance may have to change more during the next 20 years compared to the past 2000 years, if societal expectations are to be successfully met. All these changes will make water governance more complex than ever before witnessed in human history. Improving water governance will require good and objective analyses of case studies from different parts of the world as to what has worked, why and the enabling environments under which good governance has been possible. The present volume analyses case studies of good water governance from different parts of the world, and for different water use sectors. It concludes with an analysis of the critical issues that should be considered for water governance and a priority research agenda for improving water governance in the future. This book was published as a special issue of the International Journal of Water Resources Development.

Author: Asanga Gunawansa
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
ISBN: 1781006423
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 449

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Book Description
ÔEnsuring that everybody has access to drinking water, sanitation and enough nutritious food, which depends on water to grow it, are prerequisites for a healthy life. Water management is not just about the technical aspects of water supply and sanitation. It is equally about our water governance systems, including policies, regulation and societal perception of water rights. This book presents many helpful examples of how different societies are dealing with these issues and of the performance of public and private sector players in this important arena.Õ Ð Colin Chartres, International Water Management Institute (IWMI), Colombo, Sri Lanka ÔI congratulate the Institute of Water Policy, the two editors and the contributors for a very thoughtful book on urban water governance. Our objective is to deliver sustainable water and sanitation services to our people. This book contains useful lessons on how to achieve that objective.Õ Ð Tommy Koh, Chairman, Governing Council, Asia-Pacific Water Forum This insightful book explores urban water governance challenges in different parts of the world and highlights the advantages and disadvantages of publicly run, privatized, and publicÐprivate partnership managed water facilities. The contributors expertly discuss various types of public and private water governance architectures as well as identifying the trends, challenges, opportunities and the shifts in perceptions with regard to the provision of water supply services. Many chapters are dedicated to analyzing the urban water supply scenarios in selected countries, with specific focus on legal, policy and institutional frameworks. The study reveals that while private sector participation has been largely promoted by multilateral institutions as part of institutional and financial reforms, ultimately governments bear the major responsibility for provision of water supply services either as Ôservice providerÕ or as Ôregulator and policy-makerÕ. Containing a detailed overview and analysis of the global urban water supply sector, this timely compendium will strongly appeal to academics, researchers and university students following water-related courses. Water sector professionals, water regulators and public officers as well as managers and researchers employed by private sector water operators will also find plenty of invaluable information in this important book.

Author: Nanny Bressers
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317000188
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 394

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Book Description
Water is becoming one of the world's most crucial concerns. A third of the world's population has severe water shortage, while three quarters of the global population lives in deltas which run the risk of severe flooding. In addition, many more face problems of poor water quality. While it is apparent that drastic action should be taken, in reality, water problems are complex and not at all easy to resolve. There are many stakeholders involved - industries, local municipalities, farmers, the recreational sector, environmental organisations, and others - who all approach the problems and possible solutions differently. This requires delicate ways of governing multi-actor processes. This book approaches the concept of 'water management' from an interdisciplinary and non-technical, but governance orientation. It departs from the fragmented nature of water management, showing how these lack cooperation, joint responsibility and integration and instead argues that the capacity to connect to other domains, levels, scales, organizations and actors is of utmost importance. Connective capacity revolves around connecting arrangements (such as institutions), actors (for instance individuals) and approaches (such as instruments). These three carriers of connectedness can be applied to different focal points (the objects of fragmentation and integration in water management). The book distinguishes five different focal points: (1) government layers and levels; (2) sectors and domains; (3) time orientation of the long and the short term; (4) perceptions and actor frames; (5) public and private spheres. Each contributor pays attention to a specific combination of one focal point and one connective carrier. Bringing together case studies from countries including The Netherlands, United Kingdom, Romania, Sweden, Finland, Italy, India, Canada and the United States, the book focuses on the question of how to deal with the various sources of fragmentation in water governance by organizing meaningful connections and developing 'connective capacity'. In doing so, it provides useful scientific and practical insights into how 'connective capacity' in water governance can be enhanced.

Author: Simon Porcher
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319985159
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 366

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Book Description
Access to water is one of the most pressing global issues of the twenty-first century, particularly when set against the background of a rapidly growing global population. This book provides a cutting-edge, comprehensive overview of the challenges facing water governance and regulatory choices. The recently adopted Sustainable Development Goals set forward an ambitious agenda of providing universal access to good quality water supply and sanitation services within a financially constrained environment: however, the various peculiarities of each country regarding water governance makes it difficult to identify and implement the best practices and benchmarks. Drawing together empirical studies from countries around the world, the editors and contributors combine extensive data to review the individual challenges facing each country, from the supervision of autonomous regulatory bodies to the question of centralization and the influence of local utility companies. This pioneering and practical volume will be of interest and value not only to students and scholars of water governance, but also to practitioners and regulators.

Author: International Centre for Water Security and Sustainable Management
Publisher: UNESCO Publishing
ISBN: 9231004689
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 281

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Book Description