The Cultures of Water Management

This book assesses the importance of the cultural dimensions of water management, which differ from one region of the world to another, from humid Southeast Asia to arid parts of the Middle East and Africa. Water is a vital resource, and water circulation brings invaluable benefits in many ways. Too much or too little water can also create disasters, however, including flooding and drought. Water is considered “too much to control” in humid areas and “too little to survive” in arid regions. There is a great storehouse of traditional and scientific knowledge on water management as an expression of culture in both arid and humid areas. The qanat, for example, is used in some arid regions to control the transport of water underground. In humid areas, people have long existed under the threat of heavy flooding by drawing upon traditional knowledge for survival. Once-effective water management is threatened, however, by climate change such as global warming and by the globalization and urbanization of society. Adaptive water management is now imperative as climate and society undergo changes. Not only political and institutional solutions are called for. As well, adaptations of traditional methods must be introduced into modern systems of water management. This book provides valuable guidance on how that synthesis can be achieved.