Managing and Transforming Water Conflicts

Series: International Hydrology Series

Jerome Delli Priscoli

Aaron T. Wolf

What is the one thing that no one can do without? Water. Where water crosses boundaries – be they economic, legal, political or cultural – the stage is set for disputes between different users trying to safeguard access to a vital resource, while protecting the natural environment. Without strategies to anticipate, address, and mediate between competing users, intractable water conflicts are likely to become more frequent, more intense, and more disruptive around the world. In this book, Delli Priscoli and Wolf investigate the dynamics of water conflict and conflict resolution, from the local to the international. They explore the inexorable links between three facets of conflict management and transformation: Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR), public participation, and institutional capacity. This practical guide will be invaluable to water management professionals, as well as to researchers and students in engineering, economics, geography, geology, and political science who are involved in any aspects of water management.

• Covers water disputes on all scales, from the local to the international, rather than restricting discussions to specific local areas or to issues applicable only to international waters • Offers clear applications for those involved in dispute resolution, as well as far-reaching case study analyses, drawn from decades of real-world conflict experience • Provides a wealth of reference material in the appendices, including detailed case studies and treaty components that can be found nowhere else • A skills-building workbook for students that follows the themes and structure of the text will be made available via the Cambridge website, and distributed in hardcopy by UNESCO and the World Bank