Abstract:
Water is of fundamental importance to life on
Earth. It also has huge economic and cultural
significance. This book examines water and water
resources from scientific, economic and social
perspectives. It is aimed at university students
of all levels and water practitioners and policy
makers who want to obtain a good grounding in
the subject of water across the disciplines. The
world faces grand challenges for water as popu -
lation continues to grow, as emerging econ omies
develop and as climate change alters the global
and local water cycles. There are major questions
to be answered about how we supply water
in a sustainable and safe manner to fulfil our
needs, while at the same time protecting vulner -
able eco systems from disaster. These grand
challenges require an interdisciplinary approach
to address them because there are scientific and
technological issues to be addressed, there are
economic and political issues to be addressed
and there are social and cultural issues to be
addressed and these all interconnect. Solving a
technological problem on water supply may be
futile if there is no political or social will, nor the
economic means to utilise that technology
