This article reviews and contrasts two approaches that water security researchers employ to advance understanding of the complexity of water-society policy challenges. A prevailing reductionist approach seeks to represent uncertainty through calculable risk, links national GDP tightly to hydro-climatological causes, and underplays diversity and politics in society. When adopted uncritically, this approach limits policy-makers to interventions that may reproduce inequalities, and that are too rigid to deal with future changes in society and climate. A second, more integrative, approach is found to address a range of uncertainties, explicitly recognise diversity in society and the environment, incorporate water resources that are less-easily controlled, and consider adaptive approaches to move beyond conventional supply-side prescriptions. The resultant policy recommendations are diverse, inclusive, and more likely to reach the marginalised in society, though they often encounter policy-uptake obstacles. The article concludes by defining a route towards more effective water security research and policy, which stresses analysis that matches the state of knowledge possessed, an expanded research agenda, and explicitly addresses inequities.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:arizona.edu/oai:arizona.openrepository.com:10150/621212 |
| Date | 07 1900 |
| Creators | Zeitoun, Mark, Lankford, Bruce, Krueger, Tobias, Forsyth, Tim, Carter, Richard, Hoekstra, Arjen Y., Taylor, Richard, Varis, Olli, Cleaver, Frances, Boelens, Rutgerd, Swatuk, Larry, Tickner, David, Scott, Christopher A., Mirumachi, Naho, Matthews, Nathanial |
| Contributors | Univ Arizona, Sch Geog & Dev |
| Publisher | ELSEVIER SCI LTD |
| Source Sets | University of Arizona |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Article |
| Rights | © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. |
| Relation | http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0959378016300541 |
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