Globally, availability of water of acceptable quality is under stress and only less than half of the predicted demand is likely to be addressed by improvements in water productivity and new water supply systems. In addition, climate change is having a significant impact on water resources and could cause catastrophic water related disasters. Water security is thus becoming a major pressing issue within the emerging global resource crisis. However, significant inconsistencies with the definition of water security have halted its use in practice, impeding the formation of a consensus on many water related issues. Water Security as a concept needs to contain and highlight several features including economic and other related risks. This thesis investigated the dual (economic-physical) nature of water security and introduced Economic Water Availability (EWA) as a term to complement its definition. Findings indicated that EWA dominates water withdrawal under conditions of severe physical water scarcity. They also demonstrated that there is a range where strong relationships between water related disasters and two selected economic factors, GNI per capita and GINI index, exist. These selected indices, which have been commonly accepted and well established, are advantageous in achieving social consensus on water security issues as well as providing adaptation solutions. Several desirable features of water security indices were also proposed including consideration of catastrophic events which are aggravated by climate change, simplicity ensuring effective communication, physical and economic variability, economic considerations and inequality. A simplified framework for water security assessment has been developed by adopting all those desirable features. The proposed framework is practical, simple and as it is based on research trend and requirements for interpreting current issues, it aims to allow policy makers to communicate these effectively to the general public. The findings of this study will also help many countries uncover critical areas in terms of water security and change their political priority.

Water resources in many parts of the world, but particularly in Africa, face multiple pressures. These growing pressures, along with rainfall variability, pose significant risks to water resources and livelihoods. Over the past two decades the concept of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) has been presented as a panacea, but subscription to this model has not delivered the results expected. Despite a massive endeavour there is extensive evidence that IWRM remains difficult to implement, particularly in fragile states. In contrast, at local level the responsibility of communities to manage water supply systems forms a central component of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) sector policy. But WASH programmes are focused primarily on the supply of services, and not enough on water resources. Consequently, remarkably little has been written about the role of communities in monitoring and managing water resources. Also, few studies have examined the transitions fragile government institutions need to undertake to move from one (inferior) situation, to a much better one. This study used Action Research (AR) to investigate the role community-based institutions can play in monitoring water resources, alongside government authorities. Initial field research was conducted in Darfur and Niger before further work in Burkina Faso and Sierra Leone. It found that communities could monitor water resources with high degrees of success; however, continued external support is also required from responsible government institutions. Community-Based Water Resources Management (CBWRM) is considered a realistic and plausible approach for strengthening the water component in WASH programmes. This research argues that in fragile states there is greater potential to develop national water security plans from local- level initiatives. Adopting a “localised” approach is particularly important for countries that face the pervasive obstacles of short rainfall seasons: negligible hydrometeorological monitoring, limited water infrastructure and weak institutions. CBWRM warrants greater attention from the WASH sector and further research is needed to identify how effectively communities can manage water resources and scale up this approach once Water Resource Assessments (WRAs) have been conducted.

The task of reconciling competing water demands is made more complex by the urban transition occurring in many of the world’s river basins. As rising populations and economic development lead to the overexploitation of available water supplies, the largest water-using sector, agriculture, becomes the source of water for growing towns and cities. Yet, urbanisation is accompanied, not only by the movement of water from the agricultural sector, but also by the migration of people from rural areas, the conversion of agricultural land, and wider socioeconomic change. In this context, this thesis argues agricultural-to-urban water transfers are only partially explained by the institutional mechanisms of water policy and the politics of allocation, and that the movement of water from agriculture is also subject to the influence of ‘the urban’ –processes of urbanisation and the different attributes of urban areas that characterise towns and cities. To examine the role of ‘the urban’ in shaping water agricultural-to-urban water transfers, the thesis applies two methodologies. The first is systematic mapping, which evaluates the water transfer literature to understand the scope and content of the evidence-base. The second is an empirical comparative case study of water transfers to three growing cities: Hyderabad in the Krishna River Basin; Coimbatore in the Cauvery River Basin (both in India); and Kaifeng City in the Yellow River Basin (China). The thesis explores three research areas. The first is the influence of urban attributes – groundwater availability, urban planning, urbanisation rates and urban water governance – on the ways that growing cities obtain additional water resources. The second, is the problem of water transfer impact estimation in the context of rapidly urbanising river basins. The third is the relationship between urban wastewater irrigation and the mitigation of agricultural-to-urban water transfer impacts. The thesis concludes that to understand how a growing city gains water share from the agricultural sector, and releases it again as wastewater, it is imperative to understand the nature of the city and its growth, in tandem with more conventional analysis of institutional mechanisms of water allocation and the political contexts in which these mechanisms operate.

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The project draws on ethnographic approaches to explore the practices in/through which modern water (see: Linton, 2010) is abstracted, naturalised, rendered governable, circulates as a political devise, and both constitutes and is constituted by a multiplicity of agencies that problematise the boundedness of the territorial, institutional, and embodied state normatively defined. The historical-geographical context Central Asia represents the focus of the project, as much as takes-up the question of precisely what it is to speak of Central Asia water (geo-)politics, and to what extent Soviet socio-technical regimes of water management continue to inflect upon present day water government, governance, and politics. Water is understood as an archetypical onto-political matter (Mol, 1999), in as much as it, in its modern singular rendering, represents a particular contested matter and set of discourses both at the basis of political contestation and shaped by it; and as matter in/through which (geo-)politics itself has been and continues to be at stake in extremely consequential ways. The project draws on rich empiricism in the empirical-conceptual space of Central Asia water (geo-)politics to extend engagements with scholars commonly (Bruno Latour), and less commonly (Antonio Gramsci, Hannah Arendt) brought to bare, by geographers, on questions of the spaces of politics and the political. In particular (following Ekers and Loftus (2009)), the research seeks to contribute to recent efforts by geographers to place Gramsci and Foucault into conversation with each other, and to ameliorate understandings of the ways in which their various theoretical insights may productively be used in parallel to enable richer understandings of government, the political, and space.

Environmentally sustainable intensification of agriculture is needed to achieve both global food security and water quality objectives under international agri-environmental legislation. Amongst a suite of possible measures, effective mitigation of critical source areas (CSAs) of diffuse phosphorus (P) transfers is necessary to reduce eutrophication and water quality impairment. To improve CSA identification and mitigation, CSAs were modelled using ‘big data’ from advanced remote sensing and water quality monitoring in four intensively monitored Irish agricultural catchments (—7.5-12 km2). In these complex landscapes, delineation was constrained by digital elevation model (DEM) resolution and the influence of microtopographic features. To address this, optimal DEM resolutions of 1-2 m and bare-earth point densities of 2-5 points m'2 were identified (derived from high resolution Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) data) for spatially modelling hydrologically sensitive areas (HSAs) and surface runoff pathways. An HSA Index was then developed, based on optimal 2 m LiDAR DEMs and a soil topographic index (STI), which also considers the hydrological disconnection of overland flow via topographic impediment from flow sinks (e.g. depressions or hedgerows). A ‘next generation’ GIS-based CSA index of dissolved P losses from legacy soil P sources was also developed, by integrating the HSA Index with mobile soil P data (water extractable P; WEP). CSA maps were validated using high frequency water quality data collected in 2009-2014 by catchment outlet bankside P analysers (r2 = 0.86). HSA and CSA maps identified ‘breakthrough points’ and ‘delivery points’ along surface runoff pathways where diffuse pollutants could be transported between fields or delivered to the open drainage network, respectively. The CSA approach identified 1.1-5.6% of catchment areas at highest risk of legacy P delivery, compared with 4.0-26.5% of catchment areas based on an existing approach that uses above optimum agronomic soil P status. The tools could be used to cost-effectively target mitigation measures and best management practices at the sub­field scale within a ‘treatment-train’ strategy, to reduce diffuse pollution and support sustainable agricultural production.

This research emphasises that quality of our lives is dependent on quality of our environment, which in turn is dependent on the quality of land use as a result of urban planning. In the process of urbanisation, the subsurface environment namely the presence or absence of groundwater is a key factor. This thesis examines role of groundwater in urban development and planning from the point of view of sustainability of the in-situ resource in the long run as an important source to meeting increasing water requirements of urban agglomeration. The study area for the thesis is the National Capital Territory (NCT) Delhi and its peri-urban areas. The existing urban agglomeration of Delhi is already overburdened and is increasing extraction of groundwater to meet the constant demand supply gap resulting in a rapid decline of groundwater table in the NCT Delhi. In terms of the available and utilisable groundwater for domestic and non-domestic requirements the existing city core as well as the peri-urban areas of Delhi has fallen into the category of overdrawn groundwater resources. The thesis examines the stages and patterns of urban evolution in the Delhi metropolis and its peri-urban areas and links the role of groundwater in urban development in the past as well as present. Further with the help of a case study -'Dwarka sub-city' within the immediate urban extensions in NCT Delhi, the thesis establishes the systemic role that groundwater plays in the various stages of urban development and planning in NCT Delhi and its peri-urban areas. Based on the findings, the thesis suggests policy interventions in developing a land use strategy for urban areas reflecting concerns of sustainable use of groundwater in Delhi.

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No description available.

Land, coastal and marine environments are important ecosystems for the provisions of ecosystem services to sustain societal and ecological livelihoods. Critically the growth of climatic and human induced vulnerabilities worldwide are placing the governance regimes of these three individual and interdependent environments at risk in terms of their long-term viability. This research seeks to understand how governance arrangements at the interface between the land, coast and marine environments on the Island of Ireland can adapt to and mitigate against the consequences of such change. The research was conducted utilising seven case study areas from across the devolved UK and Island of Ireland. The case studies were investigated and analysed through the theoretical framework of social-ecological resilience. The thesis advances understandings social-ecological resilience and tests if contemporary governance arrangements are adequate for longer-term future proofing. A wide array of conditions pertinent to resilient governance of the coastal interface were identified including collaboration, cooperation, knowledge sharing, leadership and adaptive capacity building. This research has identified governance arrangements on the island of Ireland are geared and focused on a reactive and engineering resilience approach for anticipating climatic and human induced uncertainty. By contrast, in Scotland and Wales, governance arrangements are focussed on proactive and future proofing planning and management scenarios. The research recommends the application of Strategic Shoreline Management Plans, the adopting of an Irish coastal forum and the development of Planning Advice Notes to bridge the land and marine divide. The contribution of this research is to add new knowledge to the study of collective natural environments and their governance arrangements in periods of risk.