ECONIS Select – Preparing for the Blue Revolution

07/2009

Water shortages are cropping up around the world – from Australia to South Africa, from Brazil to the Sahel. Many of the world’s mightiest rivers run dry before reaching the sea. Perhaps half the world’s wetlands have been damaged or destroyed in the past century as salt water has displaced fresh water. These facts are striking, in view of the fact that the world’s population withdraws less than a tenth of the water that falls to the ground and that – unlike our fossil fuels – the world’s water supplies cannot be used up.

Although some regions suffer chronic water shortages whereas others are repeatedly flooded, water shortages are not merely a local problem to be solved locally. There are powerful world-wide forces at work that are making water a global problem. The first is climate change, which accelerates the rate at which water evaporates and falls and thereby increases our water management problems. The second is demography: in the last half century, the world’s population has grown by 2.5 billion, and it is expected to grow by another three billion in the next half century.

And the third is diet: as people around the world become wealthier, vegetarian diets are replaced by meat, requiring much more water input. To meet these challenges, we require more than local initiatives; what is called for is a “blue revolution.”

How can we reduce the flagrant waste of our water supplies? How can we discourage dry regions and countries from highly water-intensive agricultural products? How can we allocate water efficiently among our various uses – food, industry, services, personal use? How can we ensure that access to water is not inequitably distributed, amplifying the misery of the poor? What is the role of water pricing and sale of water rights in supporting a blue revolution? What role can business play in this revolution? How can the political obstacles to a reform of water management be overcome?

Literature selected from our database ECONIS:

• Title: Water in a changing world / World Water Assessment Programme
  Institution: Unesco / World Water Assessment Programme
  Year: Paris [u.a.] : UNESCO Publ. [u.a.], 2009
  Series: The United Nations world water development report ; 3
  Link: Table of contents
  Signature: C 258451
• Title: Facing the challenges : case studies volume / World Water Assessment Programme
  Institution: Unesco / World Water Assessment Programme
  Year: Paris [u.a.] : UNESCO Publ. [u.a.], 2009
  Series: The United Nations world water development report ; 3
  Link: Table of contents
  Signature: C 258448
• Paper: Global trade: balancing existing and future regional water resource deficits / Tony Allan
  In: Facing global environmental change . - Berlin [u. a.] : Springer, ISBN 978-3-540-68487-9. - 2009, S. 575-587
  Keywords: Wasserversorgung / Wassermangel / Wasserpolitik / Internationale Zusammenarbeit / Welt
• Title: Economics of water resources / ed. by R. Quentin Grafton Teil: Vol. 1
  Year: Cheltenham [u.a.] : Elgar, c 2009
  Series: The international library of critical writings in economics ; 234 An Elgar reference collection
  Keywords: Natürliche Ressourcen / Wasserwirtschaft / Wasserversorgung / Wasserpolitik / Umweltschutz / Gewässerbelastung / Welt
  Link: Table of contents
  Signature: C 258701
• Title: Economics of water resources / ed. by R. Quentin Grafton Teil: Vol. 2
  Year: Cheltenham [u.a.] : Elgar, c 2009
  Series: The international library of critical writings in economics ; 234 An Elgar reference collection
  Keywords: Natürliche Ressourcen / Wasserwirtschaft / Wasserversorgung / Wassermangel / Wasserpreis / Wasserpolitik / Umweltschutz / Welt
  Link: Table of contents
  Signature: C 258702
• Paper: Water management and water scarcity perspectives in the Mediterranean / Atef Hamdy
  In: New medit . - Bari: Dedalo, ISSN 1594-5685, ZDB-ID 20822467. - Bd. 7.2008, 1, S. 13-17
  Keywords: Wassermangel / Wasserpolitik / Mittelmeerraum
• Paper: Water reallocation: drivers, challenges, threats, and solutions for the poor / Ruth Meinzen-Dick and Claudia Ringler
  In: Journal of human development . - Abingdon : Routledge, ISSN 1464-9888, ZDB-ID 20614810. - Bd. 9.2008, 1, S. 47-64
  Keywords: Wasserversorgung / Wassermangel / Allokation / USA (Weststaaten) / Asien
• Title: Water scarcity and the impact of improved irrigation management : a CGE analysis / by Alvaro Calzadilla, Katrin Rehdanz and Richard S.J. Tol
  Year: Kiel : Kiel Inst. for the World Economy, July 2008
  Series: Kiel working paper ; 1436
  Keywords: Bewässerung / Wassermangel / Wasserpolitik / Wirtschaftliche Effizienz / Bewässerungslandwirtschaft / Allgemeines Gleichgewicht / Theorie / Welt
  Links:
  http://www.ifw-members.ifw-kiel.d...ent-a-cge-analysis/KWP%201436.pdf
  Download: 24.07.2008
• Title: Economics of irrigation water management : a literature survey with focus on partial and general equilibrium models / Hasan Dudu; Sinqobile Chumi
  Year: Washington, DC : World Bank, Development Research Group, Sustainable Rural and Urban Development Team, Mar. 2008
  Series: Policy research working paper ; 4556
  Keywords: Wassermangel / Wasserpolitik / Bewässerung
  Link: http://www-wds.worldbank.org/exte...13093333/Rendered/PDF/wps4556.pdf
• Title: The relationship between rainfall and human density and its implications for future water stress in Sub-Saharan Africa / David Le Blanc and Romain Perez
  Year: New York, NY : United Nations, Dep. of Economic and Social Affairs, Oct. 2007
  Series: DESA working paper ; 57 Economic and social affairs
  Keywords: Wetter / Klimaveränderung / Bevölkerungsdichte / Wassermangel / Afrika südlich der Sahara
  Link: http://www.un.org/esa/desa/papers/2007/wp57_2007.pdf
  Signature: W 1637 (57)
• Paper: Potential impacts of water scarcity on the world economy / Sonja Peterson & Gernot Klepper
  In: Global change - enough water for all? . - Hamburg : "Wiss. Auswertungen" [u.a.], ISBN 3-9809668-2-8. - 2007, S. 263-267
  Keywords: Wassermangel / Makroökonomischer Einfluss / Weltwirtschaft
  Link: Autorenversion
• Title: Virtual water trade : a realistic concept for resolving the water crisis? / Lena Horlemann; Susanne Neubert
  Year: Bonn : Dt. Inst. für Entwicklungspolitik, 2007
  Series: Studies / Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik ; 25
  Keywords: Wasserpolitik / Agraraußenhandel / Wasserversorgung / Wassermangel / Welt
  Link: Table of contents
  Signature: A 249820
• Title: Making the most of scarcity : accountability for better water management results in the Middle East and North Africa / The World Bank. [Prep. by a team led by Julia Bucknall]
  Institution: International Bank for Reconstruction and Development
  Year: Washington, DC : World Bank, 2007
  Series: MENA development report
  Keywords: Wassermangel / Wasserversorgung / MENA-Staaten
  Links:
  Table of contents
  http://bibpurl.oclc.org/web/17465
  Signature: C 251400
• Title: Scarcity, entitlements and the economics of water in developing countries / P. B. Anand
  Year: Cheltenham [u.a.] : Elgar, 2007
  Series: New horizons in environmental economics series
  Keywords: Wasserversorgung / Wassermangel / Wasserpolitik / Entwicklungsländer
  Link: Table of contents
  Signature: B 355433
• Paper: Integration in the management of international waters : economic perspectives on a global policy discourse / Ines Dombrowsky
  In: Global governance . - Boulder, Colo. : Rienner, ISSN 1075-2846, ZDB-ID 1231139x. - Bd. 14.2008, 4, S. 455-477
  Keywords: Wasserpolitik / Wasserversorgung / Internationale Zusammenarbeit / Integration / Coase-Theorem / Ressourcenökonomik / Welt
• Title: Conceptualizing cooperation on Africas transboundary groundwater resources / Waltina Scheumann ... (eds.)
  Year: Bonn : Dt. Inst. für Entwicklungspolitik, 2008
  Series: Studies / Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik ; 32
  Keywords: Grundwasser / Wasserpolitik / Internationale Zusammenarbeit / Entwicklungskooperation / Deutsch / Afrika
  Link: Table of contents
  Signature: A 252667
• Title: Water : a source of conflict or cooperation? / ed. Velma I. Grover
  Year: Enfield, NH [u.a.] : Science Publ., 2007
  Keywords: Wasserversorgung / Politischer Konflikt / Internationale Zusammenarbeit / Wettbewerb / Wasserwirtschaft / Wasserpolitik / Welt
  Link: Table of contents
  Signature: B 357110
• Title: Water resources in the Middle East : Israel-Palestinian water issues - from conflict to cooperation / Hillel Shuval; Hassan Dweik (Ed.)
  Year: Berlin [u.a.] : Springer, 2007
  Series: Hexagon series on human and environmental security and peace ; Vol. 2
  Keywords: Wasser / Wasserpolitik / Internationale Zusammenarbeit / Mittlerer Osten / Israel / Palästina
  Link: http://deposit.d-nb.de/cgi-bin/do...5490&prov=M&dok_var=1&dok_ext=htm
  Signature: C 252903
• Title: Conflict, cooperation and institutions in international water management : an economic analysis / Ines Dombrowsky
  Year: Cheltenham [u.a.] : Elgar, c 2007
  Series: Advances in ecological economics
  Hochschulschrift: Zugl.: Halle, Univ., Jur. u. Wiwi Fak., Diss., 2006
  Keywords: Wasserpolitik / Wasserversorgung / Internationale Zusammenarbeit / Politischer Konflikt / Institutionalismus / Theorie / Welt
  Link: Table of contents
  Signature: B 351946
• Title: Governing water : contentious transnational politics and global institution building / Ken Conca
  Year: Cambridge, Mass. [u.a.] : MIT Press, 2006
  Series: Global environmental accord
  Keywords: Wasserversorgung / |stw| Wasserpolitik / |stw| Internationale Umweltpolitik / |stw| Internationale Politik / |stw| Internationale Wirtschaftsbeziehungen / |stw| Fluss / |stw| Welt
  Link: Table of contents
  Signature: B 344562