Mountains: Sources of Water, Sources of Knowledge (Advances in Global Change Research (31))

This book addresses the major challenges in assuring globally sustainable water use. Paradoxically, water resources have been identified both as too plentiful, producing major disasters, and increasingly vulnerable to shortages. Addressing both of these aspects requires attention to physical hydrological processes as well as human activities that affect water supply and demand. Mountains regions are the sources of many great water systems and often have long traditions of effective water management and therefore provide special insights into general problems of water use, including upstream-downstream and transboundry relations as well as natural hazard management. This volume will address critical contemporary and global issues through the lens of global change processes and with a focus on mountain regions to bring state of the art science from numerous disciplines to examine important environmental and policy questions related to water resources. 140206747X......Page 1 Contents......Page 7 Preface......Page 6 General Concepts and Processes; Mountain Specificities......Page 10 1. Framing the Study of Mountain Water Resources: An Introduction......Page 11 2. "Water Towers"—A Global View of the Hydrological Importance of Mountains......Page 22 3. The History of Irrigation and Water Control in China's Erhai Catchment: Mitigation and Adaptation to Environmental Change......Page 28 4. Scarcity, Equity, and Transparency: General Principles for Successfully Governing the Water Commons......Page 50 5. From Principles to Action: Incentives to Enforce Common Property Water Management......Page 69 Multiple Uses and Competition for Mountain Water......Page 86 6. Hydroelectric Resources Between State and Market in the Alpine Countries......Page 87 Box: Example of Water Rights: Concessions in the Valais, Switzerland......Page 106 7. Crans-Montana: Water Resources Management in an Alpine Tourist Resort......Page 107 Water Conflicts and Conflict Resolution Mechanisms......Page 124 8. Water Value, Water Management, and Water Conflict: A Systematic Approach......Page 125 9. Evolutionary Explanations of Syrian–Turkish Water Conflict......Page 151 10. Water Use and Risk: The Use of Prospect Theory to Guide Public Policy Decision-Making......Page 162 Indigenous Knowledge; Technical Solutions......Page 180 11. Disasters, Development, and Glacial Lake Control in Twentieth-Century Peru......Page 181 12. Wetlands and Indigenous Knowledge in the Highlands of Western Ethiopia......Page 197 13. A New Ancient Water Mill: Remembering Former Techniques......Page 211 14. Water-Related Natural Disasters: Strategies to Deal with Debris Flows: The Case of Tschengls, Italy......Page 221 15. Flood Volume Estimation and Flood Mitigation: Adige River Basin......Page 242 16. Hydrological Assessment for Selected Karstic Springs in the Mountain Regions of Bulgaria......Page 264 Policy Implications for Efficient and Equitable Water Use......Page 280 17. Water and Mountains, Upstream and Downstream: Analyzing Unequal Relations......Page 281 18. Creating a Policy Environment for Sustainable Water Use......Page 302 Bibliography......Page 324 F......Page 377 R......Page 378 W......Page 379 Z......Page 380