Hydropolitics of Dams

Dr Mark Everard's work in all four sectors of society - private, public, academic and voluntary - has taken him across five continents to undertake applied research, policy development and capacity-building relating to the ways in which people connect with ecosystems. The author of twelve other books, including Common Ground (Zed Books, 2011), over sixty peer-reviewed scientific papers and over two hundred technical magazine articles, Mark is also a communicator on sustainability and wider aquatic matters on TV and radio. He has served on numerous government advisory and expert groups in the UK, as well as advising other governments and multinational corporations on sustainability matters. His specialty is on the water environment, land uses across the catchments that influence it, the pressures that people impose upon it and the many often unrecognised benefits that they derive from it. Mark's work includes environmental ethics and economics as a means to bring our intimate interdependencies with ecosystems into the mainstream of public awareness and government thinking.

The Hydropolitics of Dams tackles the conflicts we face in managing our increasingly pressurized water resources both globally and locally. It highlights the need for a way forward centred on knowledge and people, using the best of both engineering and ecosystem-based solutions to develop a more sustainable relationship with the water cycle. Rich in examples from all continents, this book inspires new thinking and explores the practical delivery of sustainable water management.

• IntroductionPart I: Development, water and dams1. Replumbing the modern world2. Temples of the modern world3. Stemming the flow4. A changing mindset5. The World Commission on Dams and beyond6. The state of play with dams7. Dams and ecosystem services8. A new agenda for damsPart II: Water in the postmodern world9. Water in the postmodern world10. Managing water at landscape scale11. Catchment production and storage12. Water flows through society13. Markets for water services14. Nature's water infrastructurePart III: Rethinking water and people15. Living within the water cycle16. Governance of water systems17. Towards a new hydropoliticsAnnexe: Principles for sustainable water sharing