National Water Security

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xxxiv

   PDF

2. The World Water Issues

   • Mustapha Besbes, Jamel Chahed, Abdelkader Hamdane

   Pages 1-29

3. On the Water Security Concept: State of the Art

   • Mustapha Besbes, Jamel Chahed, Abdelkader Hamdane

   Pages 31-55

4. Fifty Years of Water Policies, 1960–2010

   • Mustapha Besbes, Jamel Chahed, Abdelkader Hamdane

   Pages 57-92

5. The National Water Balance

   • Mustapha Besbes, Jamel Chahed, Abdelkader Hamdane

   Pages 93-123

6. Water Demand Management and Non Conventional Resources

   • Mustapha Besbes, Jamel Chahed, Abdelkader Hamdane

   Pages 125-147

7. Water Security in Tunisia: Debated Issues

   • Mustapha Besbes, Jamel Chahed, Abdelkader Hamdane

   Pages 149-182

8. The Holistic Water Balance: Blue Water, Green Water and Virtual Water

   • Mustapha Besbes, Jamel Chahed, Abdelkader Hamdane

   Pages 183-218

9. Water Security, Food Security and the National Water Dependency

   • Mustapha Besbes, Jamel Chahed, Abdelkader Hamdane

   Pages 219-255

10. Elements for a Conceptual Model of National Water Security

    • Mustapha Besbes, Jamel Chahed, Abdelkader Hamdane

    Pages 257-268

11. Back Matter

    Pages 269-272

    PDF

This book shows how the change of water paradigm has become urgent, and provides evidence for new policies that expand water balance to green and virtual water. The issue of water security concerns drinking water supply but also food safety, linked to agricultural policy. Both rain-fed and irrigated agriculture play complementary roles in food security, and the water issue implies a holistic view of water resources. This view constitutes the book's backstory. The reader will find original ideas that can be applied everywhere because the example of Tunisia is typically a basis to illustrate a universally prevalent situation. The book deals with other important issues: desalination, wastewater recycling, water quality, groundwater overdraft, water savings, governance, knowledge valuing, education, information: upgrading the whole water systems for the future implies emancipation of the whole society.

• water security of Tunisia
• food security of Tunisia
• virtual water
• Hydrogeology
• Green water footprint
• National water resource management
• world regional geography
• water policy

“This book is very clear and easy to read, with an abundance of figures and diagrams. It offers very important information on the planning of water resource developments in arid countries, considering all technical and social alternatives to ‘classical’ water management based on large infrastructures (dams, well-fields, desalination plants, wastewater treatment, etc.). … I recommend this book to anyone interested in water and particularly to students learning about water resources and management.” (Ghislain de Marsily, Euro-Mediterranean Journal for Environmental Integration, Vol. 4, 2019)​

• University of Tunis El Manar, National Engineering School of Tunis, Tunis, Tunisia

  Mustapha Besbes, Jamel Chahed

• Rural Engineering, Water & Forests, Institut National Agronomique de Tunisie, Tunis, Tunisia

  Abdelkader Hamdane

Mustapha Besbes is hydrogeologist, emeritus Professor at the National Engineering School of Tunis, University of Tunis El Manar. He received the PhD in Hydrology (1967) and the Doctorat es sciences from the University Pierre & Marie Curie in Paris (1978). Pr Besbes was elected Foreign Member of the French Academy of sciences in 2009, and member of the Tunisian Academy of Sciences, Letters and Arts in 2013. World leader in arid zone hydrology, he coordinated the NWSAS (North Western Sahara Aquifer System) modeling process in the 2000s. He has published books and articles in hydrogeology and water management. He is chairman, reviewer or associate editor of journals in hydrological sciences. Mustapha Besbes is member or head of numerous scientific commissions, councils, boards and task forces. 

Jamel Chahed is a hydraulics engineer and Doctor es sciences, Professor at the National Engineering School of Tunis, University of Tunis El Manar. His work focuses on transfers in industrial and environmental fluid systems, atmospheric dispersion, water governance and water management. His research has appeared as articles, books, book chapters, conference acts in specialized literature such as hydrology, water resources management, hydraulics, turbulence and transfers, environmental engineering. He actively contributed to the development of long-term vision for water security with a thematic focus on holistic water balance assessment. He has been involved in number of national and international academic research and technical programs. As visiting professor, associate researcher or guest speaker he joined number of international research teams at academic institutes, research laboratories and R&D centres.

Abdelkader Hamdane is graduated from Institut National Agronomique de Paris (1971), and Ecole Nationale du Génie Rural, des Eaux et Forêts de Paris (1973). He is general engineer, formerly General Director of the Medjerda Valley Development Company, General Director of Rural Engineering and Water Management Department of the Ministry of Agriculture and Water Resources of Tunisia. He has been member of several public companies boards operating in the field of water, and led several assessment missions in scientific and technical research institutions. He was a short-term professor of irrigation and drainage at the National Agronomic Institute of Tunis and the National Engineering School of Tunis. He is currently a Scientific Advisor at the National Agronomic Institute of Tunis, University of Carthage, involved in many national and international research programs, and consultant on water management in international organizations.

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