Handbook of Water Resources Management: Discourses, Concepts and Examples

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xxx

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2. Water on Earth: Occurrence, History, Management and Challenges

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1

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   2. Introduction and Guide to the Handbook of Water Resources Management: Discourses, Concepts and Examples

      • Janos J. Bogardi, Tawatchai Tingsanchali, Anik Bhaduri, K. D. Wasantha Nandalal, Ronald R. P. van Nooijen, Joyeeta Gupta et al.

      Pages 3-8

   3. Water: a Unique Phenomenon and Resource

      • Janos J. Bogardi, Balázs M. Fekete

      Pages 9-40

   4. Water and Its Management: Dependence, Linkages and Challenges

      • Janos J. Bogardi, Luna Bharati, Stephen Foster, Sanita Dhaubanjar

      Pages 41-85

3. Water and Society

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 87-87

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   2. A Drop in the Ocean. On Writing Histories of Water Resources Management

      • Maurits W. Ertsen, Ruth A. Morgan

      Pages 89-103

   3. Water Ethics

      • David Groenfeldt

      Pages 105-124

   4. Water Law and Rights

      • Joyeeta Gupta, Joseph Dellapenna

      Pages 125-143

   5. Water Discourses

      • Léna Salamé, Daene C. McKinney, Jerome Delli Priscoli, Toshio Koike, Jack Moss, Mara Tignino et al.

      Pages 145-214

   6. The Water Security Discourse and Its Main Actors

      • Robert G. Varady, Tamee R. Albrecht, Chad Staddon, Andrea K. Gerlak, Adriana A. Zuniga-Teran

      Pages 215-252

   7. Water Governance and Policies

      • Claudia Pahl-Wostl, Ines Dombrowsky, Naho Mirumachi

      Pages 253-272

   8. Economics of Water Security

      • Anik Bhaduri, C. Dionisio Pérez-Blanco, Dolores Rey, Sayed Iftekhar, Aditya Kaushik, Alvar Escriva-Bou et al.

      Pages 273-327

   9. Drivers, Pressures and Stressors: The Societal Framework of Water Resources Management

      • Léna Salamé, Janos J. Bogardi, Zita Sebesvari, Klement Tockner, Burcu Yazici, Fatma Turan et al.

      Pages 329-364

   10. Water Resources Management: Integrated and Adaptive Decision Making

       • Daniel Karthe, Janos J. Bogardi, Dietrich Borchardt

       Pages 365-381

4. Examples of Assessment of Water Resources, Their Protection and Use

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 383-383

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   2. Observations, Monitoring and Data Management

      • Balázs M. Fekete, Ana Andreu, Robert Argent, Tamara Avellán, Charon Birkett, Serena Caucci et al.

      Pages 385-442

   3. Assessment of Water Quantity

      • András Bárdossy, Abbas El Hachem

      Pages 443-469

   4. Assessment of Land/Catchment Use and Degradation

      • Fabrice G. Renaud, Zita Sebesvari, Animesh K. Gain

      Pages 471-487

   5. Freshwaters: Global Distribution, Biodiversity, Ecosystem Services, and Human Pressures

      • Klement Tockner

      Pages 489-501

This book provides an overview of facts, theories and methods from hydrology, geology, geophysics, law, ethics, economics, ecology, engineering, sociology, diplomacy and many other disciplines with relevance for concepts and practice of water resources management. It provides comprehensive, but also critical reading material for all communities involved in the ongoing water discourses and debates.


The book refers to case studies in the form of boxes, sections, or as entire chapters. They illustrate success stories, but also lessons to be remembered, to avoid repeating the same mistakes. Based on consolidated state-of-the-art knowledge, it has been conceived and written to attract a multidisciplinary audience.


The aim of this handbook is to facilitate understanding between the participants of the international water discourse and multi-level decision making processes. Knowing more about water, but also about concepts, methods and aspirations of different professional, disciplinary communities and stakeholders professionalizes the debate and enhances the decision making.

• Agricultural Water Management
• Drinking Water
• Fluvial Flooding
• International Water Law and Treaties
• Pluvial Flooding
• Reservoir Management
• Urban Water Management
• Waste Water
• Water Standards and Regulations
• Watershed and Catchment Management
• water quality and water pollution
• water policy

• Center for Development Research, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany

  Janos J. Bogardi

• University of Amsterdam and IHE-Delft Institute for Water Education, Delft, The Netherlands

  Joyeeta Gupta

• Department of Civil Engineering, University of Peradeniya, Peradeniya, Sri Lanka

  K. D. Wasantha Nandalal

• Lawyer, Conflict Resolution Specialist, Paris, France

  Léna Salamé

• Department of Water Management, Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands

  Ronald R.P. van Nooijen

• Center for Development Research (ZEF), University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany

  Navneet Kumar

• Water Engineering and Management, Asian Institute of Technology, Pathum thani, Thailand

  Tawatchai Tingsanchali

• Sustainable Water Future Programme, Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia

  Anik Bhaduri

• Delft Center for Systems and Control, Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands

  Alla G. Kolechkina

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Dr. h.c. Janos J. Bogardi has been the Director of the United Nations University - Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS) since 2003. Simultaneously he is also Vice-Rector a.i. of the Vice Rectorate in Europe since May 2007. Prof. Bogardi started his professional career as Assistant Professor at the Institute for Water Resources Management of the Technical University of Budapest. Shortly after having relocated to Germany, he became part of the scientific staff in the Federal Institute for Hydraulic Engineering in Karlsruhe, and the University of Karlsruhe, respectively. Between 1971-1973 and 1983-1985 he worked as a consulting engineer amongst others in Africa. He was then seconded by the German Agency for Technical Co-operation (GTZ) to the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) in Bangkok, Thailand, between 1985 and 1988. For the next almost seven years he worked as professor for Hydraulics, and quantitative Water Resource Management at the Agricultural University of Wageningen, the Netherlands. Janos Bogardi started his UN career in 1995 with the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in Paris, France, as a Senior Programme Specialist and soon became the Chief of the Section on Sustainable Water Resources and Management.

Policies and ethics