Water, Cultural Diversity, and Global Environmental Change

This book examines the complex role water plays as a force in sustaining, maintaining  and threatening the viability of culturally diverse peoples. It argues that water is a core sustaining element in biodiversity and cultural diversity.

Co-published with UNESCO

A product of the UNESCO-IHP project on Water and Cultural Diversity, this book represents an effort to examine the complex role water plays as a force in sustaining, maintaining, and threatening the viability of culturally diverse peoples. It is argued that water is a fundamental human need, a human right, and a core sustaining element in biodiversity and cultural diversity. The core concepts utilized in this book draw upon a larger trend in sustainability science, a recognition of the synergism and analytical potential in utilizing a coupled biological and social systems analysis, as the functioning viability of nature is both sustained and threatened by humans.

1. Water and cultural diversity.- 2. Culture and Water in Diverse Environments.- 3. Water value, access, use, and control: sociocultural contexts of water scarcity.- 4. Hydrodevelopment, Cultural Diversity and Sustainability.- 5. The Ways Forward.- 6.Water, Cultural Diversity and Biodiversity: United Nations statements, resolutions and treaties.