Freshwater: Towards a Better Understanding of a Wicked Problem
Abstract
Water begets intricate and profound linkages between multiple systems. Quantitative limits to freshwater availability for human needs, variabilities in the water cycle and environmental water requirements interact with water source pollution. The arising tensions are a great challenge of immense contemporary significance that can best be described as a wicked problem – a problem with multiple dimensions that presents unexpected consequences when engaged. Water challenges make vivid the compromises that must be made between the environment and development. These compromises surface in the conflict between ecocentric and technocentric discourse. Globally, there is evidence of numerous disciplinary and interdisciplinary water-related studies both in the past and ongoing. But there is no meta-mapping of various dimensions of such research to give a clear overview of what has been and what needs to be done. Consequences of this oversight may include unnecessary duplication of research, difficulty in articulating knowledge gaps, and inability to see beyond disciplinary boundaries. The author suggests an outline of how these difficulties can be engaged. This is done through a wide-ranging literature review to identify a range of issues of focus, which issues are then themed into imperatives for water research. These imperatives are subsequently systematised using four normative descriptors: problem, drivers, and mitigation measures. In combination, these descriptors articulate a spectrum of the key issues around water research. The key issues are mapped onto various academic disciplines and societal partners to outline a schema for the positioning of water research. The proposed mapping can facilitate interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary (IDTD) research by allowing researchers to benefit from relevant existing bodies of knowledge while also making explicit knowledge gaps and opportunities for collaboration. By locating academic fields within different worldviews, the outlined schema reveals common ground beyond disciplinary confines around which IDTD research can be instigated.
Full text article
References
Abell, R., Vigerstol, K., Higgins, J., Kang, S., Karres, N., Lehner, B., ... & Chapin, E. (2019). Freshwater biodiversity conservation through source water protection: Quantifying the potential and addressing the challenges. Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems, 29(7), 1022-1038.
Addams, L., Boccaletti, G., Kerlin, M., & Stuchtey, M. (2009). Charting our water future: economic frameworks to inform decision-making. McKinsey & Company, New York.
Akhmouch, A., & Clavreul, D. (2016). Stakeholder engagement for inclusive water governance:“Practicing what we preach” with the OECD water governance initiative. Water, 8(5), 204.
De Amorim, W. S., Valduga, I. B., Ribeiro, J. M. P., Williamson, V. G., Krauser, G. E., Magtoto, M. K., & de Andrade, J. B. S. O. (2018). The nexus between water, energy, and food in the context of the global risks: An analysis of the interactions between food, water, and energy security. Environmental Impact Assessment Review, 72, 1-11.
Arnell, N. W. (1999). Climate change and global water resources. Global environmental change, 9, S31-S49.
Becker, E. (2006). Problem transformations in transdisciplinary research. Unity of knowledge in transdisciplinary research for sustainability. Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems (EOLSS) Publishers, Oxford, UK. Available online at: http://www. eolss. net/Sample-Chapters C, 4.
Brears, R. C. (2018). Blue-Green Infrastructure in Managing Urban Water Resources. In Blue and Green Cities (pp. 43-61). Springer.
Carden, K., Armitage, N., Fisher-Jeffes, L., Winter, K., Mauck, B., Sanya, T., et al. (2018). Challenges and opportunities for implementing Water Sensitive Design in South Africa.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2015). Diarrhea: Common illness, global killer. USA: Department of Health and Human Services.
Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters [CRED] (2017) Disaster Data: A balanced perspective: Floods: Issue No. 48 “Disaster Data: A Balanced Perspective” September 2017.
Chapagain, A.K. and Hoekstra, A.Y., (2004). Water footprints of nations.
Cisneros, J., BE, T.O., Arnell, N.W., Benito, G., Cogley, J.G., Döll, P., Jiang, T., Mwakalila, S.S., Fischer, T., Gerten, D. and Hock, R. (2014). Freshwater resources.
Conforti, P. (2011). Looking ahead in world food and agriculture: perspectives to 2050. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
Connor, R., Renata, A., Ortigara, C., Koncagül, E., Uhlenbrook, S., Lamizana-Diallo, B. M., ... & Hendry, S. (2017). The United Nations world water development report 2017. Wastewater: The untapped resource. The United Nations World Water Development Report.
Costanza, R., De Groot, R., Sutton, P., Van der Ploeg, S., Anderson, S. J., Kubiszewski, I., ... & Turner, R. K. (2014). Changes in the global value of ecosystem services. Global environmental change, 26, 152-158.
Coutts, A. M., Tapper, N. J., Beringer, J., Loughnan, M., & Demuzere, M. (2013). Watering our cities: The capacity for Water Sensitive Urban Design to support urban cooling and improve human thermal comfort in the Australian context. Progress in Physical Geography, 37(1), 2-28.
Donofrio, J., Kuhn, Y., McWalter, K., & Winsor, M. (2009). Water-sensitive urban design: An emerging model in sustainable design and comprehensive water-cycle management. Environmental Practice, 11(3), 179-189.
Dryzek, J. S. (2013). The politics of the earth: Environmental discourses. Oxford university press.
Edwards, G. A. (2013). Shifting constructions of scarcity and the neoliberalization of Australian water governance. Environment and Planning A, 45(8), 1873-1890.
enacademic : List of academic disciplines. https://enacademic.com/dic.nsf/enwiki/152269 [Accessed Dec 2020]
Escobar, A. (1996) Constructing Nature. Elements for a Poststructural Political Ecology. In R. Peet and M. Watts (eds) Liberation Ecologies. Environment, Development (p. 46-68),
Falkenmark, M., Lundqvist, J., & Widstrand, C. (1989, November). Macro‐scale water scarcity requires micro‐scale approaches: Aspects of vulnerability in semi‐arid development. In Natural resources forum (Vol. 13, No. 4, pp. 258-267). Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations [FAO] (2016). AQUASTAT Retrieved March 17, 2020 from http://www.fao.org/nr/water/aquastat/water_use/index.stm
Gleick, P. H. (2003). Global freshwater resources: soft-path solutions for the 21st century. Science, 302(5650), 1524-1528.
Gough, S., Scott, W., & Stables, A. (2000). Beyond O’Riordan: balancing anthropocentrism and ecocentrism. International Research in Geographical and Environmental Education, 9(1), 36-47.
Groat, L., & Wang, D. (2002). Systems of Inquiry and standards of research quality. Architectural Research Methods, 21-43.
Guppy, L., & Anderson, K. (2017). Global Water Crisis: The facts. Hamilton, UNU-INWEH.
Hoekstra, A. Y. (2003). Virtual water: An introduction. Virtual water trade, 13.
Hou, J., Spencer, B., Way, T., & Yocom, K. (Eds.). (2014). Now urbanism: The future city is here. Routledge.
Howe, C., & Mitchell, C. (Eds.). (2011). Water sensitive cities. IWa Publishing.
Hussein, H. (2017). Politics of the Dead Sea Canal: A historical review of the evolving discourses, interests, and plans. Water International, 42(5), 527-542.
Hussein, H. (2017b). Whose ‘reality’? Discourses and hydropolitics along the Yarmouk River. Contemporary Levant, 2(2), 103-115.
Hussein, H. (2018). Lifting the veil: Unpacking the discourse of water scarcity in Jordan. Environmental Science & Policy, 89, 385-392.
Hussein, H. (2018). Tomatoes, tribes, bananas, and businessmen: An analysis of the shadow state and of the politics of water in Jordan. Environmental Science & Policy, 84, 170-176.
Ide, T. (2016). Critical geopolitics and school textbooks: The case of environment-conflict links in Germany. Political Geography, 55, 60-71.
International Water Management Institute [IWMI]. IWMI Strategy 2019-2023: Innovative water solutions for sustainable development (Food, Climate, Growth). Colombo, Sri Lanka:.
Karr, J. R., & Dudley, D. R. (1981). Ecological perspective on water quality goals. Environmental management, 5(1), 55-68.
Kuylenstierna, J., Najlis, P., & Björklund, G. (1998). The comprehensive assessment of the freshwater resources of the world-policy options for an integrated sustainable water future. Water International, 23(1), 17-20.
Langhelle, O. (2000). Why ecological modernization and sustainable development should not be conflated. Journal of environmental policy and planning, 2(4), 303-322.
Liemberger, R., & Wyatt, A. (2019). Quantifying the global non-revenue water problem. Water Supply, 19(3), 831-837.
Mehta, L. (2001). The manufacture of popular perceptions of scarcity: Dams and water-related narratives in Gujarat, India. World Development, 29(12), 2025-2041.
Mehta, L. (2003). Contexts and constructions of water scarcity. Economic and political weekly, 5066-5072. Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/4414344 Accessed: 17-12-2020
Mekonnen, M. M., & Hoekstra, A. Y. (2016). Four billion people facing severe water scarcity. Science advances, 2(2), e1500323.
Naess, A. (1973). The shallow and the deep, long‐range ecology movement. A summary. Inquiry, 16(1-4), 95-100.
Naess, A. (1990). Ecology, community and lifestyle: outline of an ecosophy. Cambridge university press.
O'Farrell, P., Anderson, P., Culwick, C., Currie, P., Kavonic, J., McClure, A., ... & Audouin, M. (2019). Towards resilient African cities: Shared challenges and opportunities towards the retention and maintenance of ecological infrastructure. Global Sustainability, 2.
O'Riordan, T. (1981). Environmentalism (Vol. 2). Taylor & Francis.
Pieterse, J. N. (1992). Empancipations, modern and postmodern. Development and change, 23(3), 5-41.
Rijsberman, F. R. (2006). Water scarcity: fact or fiction?. Agricultural water management, 80(1-3), 5-22. doi:10.1016/j.agwat.2005.07.001.
Rockström, J., Steffen, W., Noone, K., Persson, Å., Chapin III, F. S., Lambin, E., ... & Nykvist, B. (2009). Planetary boundaries: exploring the safe operating space for humanity. Ecology and society, 14(2).
Sharma, A., Gardner, T., & Begbie, D. (Eds.). (2018). Approaches to Water Sensitive Urban Design: Potential, Design, Ecological Health, Urban Greening, Economics, Policies, and Community Perceptions. Woodhead Publishing.
Shiklomanov, I. A. (1991). The world’s water resources. In International symposium to commemorate the (Vol. 25, pp. 93-105).
Shiva, V. (2001) Water Wars. Privatisation, Pollution and Profit. Pluto Press, London.
Shiva, V. (2006, March). Resisting water privatisation, building water democracy. In World Water Forum in Mexico, http://www. globalternative. org/downloads/shiva-water. pdf (03.10. 2011).
Sisolak, J., & Spataro, K. (2011). Toward net zero water: best management practices for decentralized sourcing and treatment. Cascadia Green Building Council.
Smakhtin, V., Revenga, C., & Döll, P. (2004). A pilot global assessment of environmental water requirements and scarcity. Water International, 29(3), 307-317.
Taing, L., Chang, C. C., Pan, S., & Armitage, N. P. (2019). Towards a water secure future: reflections on Cape Town’s Day Zero crisis. Urban Water Journal, 16(7), 530-536.
United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division (2019). World Urbanization Prospects: The 2018 Revision (ST/ESA/SER.A/420). New York: United Nations.
United Nations (2015). Wastewater management-A UN-water analytical brief. New York.
United Nations (2017). Sustainable Development Goals-17 goals to transform our world. United Nations [Online]. Retrieved June 04, 2018 from https://www. un. org/sustainabledevelopment/energy/.
United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) (2020) The United Nations World Water Development Report 2017: Wastewater the Untapped Resource. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Paris. Retrieved from http://unesdoc.unesco.org/ images/0024/002471/247153e.pdf
United Nations International Children Fund [UNICEF] and World Health Organisation [WHO] (2015). Progress on sanitation and drinking water: 2015 update and MDG assessment: World Health Organization.
Vié, J. C., Hilton-Taylor, C., & Stuart, S. N. (Eds.). (2009). Wildlife in a changing world: an analysis of the 2008 IUCN Red List of threatened species. IUCN.
Vörösmarty, C. J., Green, P., Salisbury, J., & Lammers, R. B. (2000). Global water resources: vulnerability from climate change and population growth. science, 289(5477), 284-288.
Vörösmarty, C. J., Osuna, V. R., Cak, A. D., Bhaduri, A., Bunn, S. E., Corsi, F., ... & Marcotullio, P. J. (2018). Ecosystem-based water security and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Ecohydrology & Hydrobiology, 18(4), 317-333.
Webber, M. M., & Rittel, H. W. (1973). Dilemmas in a general theory of planning. Policy sciences, 4(2), 155-169.
Weitz, N., Nilsson, M., & Davis, M. (2014). A nexus approach to the post-2015 agenda: Formulating integrated water, energy, and food SDGs. SAIS Review of International Affairs, 34(2), 37-50.
Wolski, P. (2018). How severe is Cape Town's “Day Zero” drought?. Significance, 15(2), 24-27.
Wong, T. H., & Brown, R. R. (2009). The water sensitive city: principles for practice. Water science and technology, 60(3), 673-682.
Wong, T. H., & Eadie, M. L. (2000). Water sensitive urban design: a paradigm shift in urban design. In 10th World Water Congress: Water, the Worlds Most Important Resource (p. 1281). International Water Resources Association.
World Economic Forum [WEF]. (2019). The Global Risks Report 2019 (14th Edition). [Insight Report].
World Health Organisation [WHO] (2019a). Factsheets. Retrieved from https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/drinking-water
World Health Organisation [WHO] (2019b). Factsheets. Retrieved from https://www.who.int/en/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/sanitation
Yorke, V. (2016). Jordan’s shadow state and water management: prospects for water security will depend on politics and regional cooperation. In Society-Water-Technology (pp. 227-251). Springer, Cham.
Authors
Copyright (c) 2020 International Journal of Environmental Science & Sustainable Development
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
- The Author shall grant to the Publisher and its agents the nonexclusive perpetual right and license to publish, archive, and make accessible the Work in whole or in part in all forms of media now or hereafter known under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License or its equivalent, which, for the avoidance of doubt, allows others to copy, distribute, and transmit the Work under the following conditions:
- Attribution: other users must attribute the Work in the manner specified by the author as indicated on the journal Web site;
With the understanding that the above condition can be waived with permission from the Author and that where the Work or any of its elements is in the public domain under applicable law, that status is in no way affected by the license.
- The Author is able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the nonexclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the Work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), as long as there is provided in the document an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post online a pre-publication manuscript (but not the Publisher's final formatted PDF version of the Work) in institutional repositories or on their Websites prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (see The Effect of Open Access). Any such posting made before acceptance and publication of the Work shall be updated upon publication to include a reference to the Publisher-assigned DOI (Digital Object Identifier) and a link to the online abstract for the final published Work in the Journal.
- Upon Publisher's request, the Author agrees to furnish promptly to Publisher, at the Author's own expense, written evidence of the permissions, licenses, and consents for use of third-party material included within the Work, except as determined by Publisher to be covered by the principles of Fair Use.
- The Author represents and warrants that:
- The Work is the Author's original work;
- The Author has not transferred, and will not transfer, exclusive rights in the Work to any third party;
- The Work is not pending review or under consideration by another publisher;
- The Work has not previously been published;
- The Work contains no misrepresentation or infringement of the Work or property of other authors or third parties; and
- The Work contains no libel, invasion of privacy, or other unlawful matter.
- The Author agrees to indemnify and hold Publisher harmless from Author's breach of the representations and warranties contained in Paragraph 7 above, as well as any claim or proceeding relating to Publisher's use and publication of any content contained in the Work, including third-party content.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.