Water Ethics

Professor Neelke Doorn is distinguished Antoni van Leeuwenhoek professor ‘Ethics of water engineering’ at the Ethics and Philosophy of Technology Section of Delft University of Technology. She holds degrees in civil engineering (BSc MSc), philosophy (BA MA PhD) and law (LLB LLM). Her current research concentrates on moral issues in water engineering and climate policy, with a special focus on how a resilience approach affects the distribution of responsibilities in water governance and climate policy.

Often books fall distinctly into one category or another: general readership or scholarly research. This needed introductory book, however, is successful at satisfying at least three categories: general readership, self-directed course textbook, and scholarly research/reference publication. It embodies the well-known structural features of a textbook: chapter summaries indicating what the reader should learn, summary conclusions or takeaways for each chapter, boxed text outlining issues of particular importance, a glossary of terms, and extensive notes and references for further reading. The last two satisfy requirements of a research text for scholars. Doorn (Delft Univ. of Technology) employs a writing style that minimizes technical language, rendering the text accessible to general readers and introductory students. The author’s extensive background in civil engineering, philosophy, and law shows clearly as she argues diverse controversial ideas related to water uses. Among these are distributive/procedural justice, economic issues, human rights, and communitarian and intergenerational responsibility. While introducing ethical issues of water engineering design and implementation, Doorn maintains a genuine openness, empowering readers’ informed disagreement. The concluding chapter identifies strategic decision-making challenges related to water management/governance from bottom-up and top-down governance approaches, well integrated with critical considerations brought forward from earlier chapters. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers.

• List of Text boxes / List of Tables / Acknowledgments / 1. The nature of the world’s water challenges / 2. Water and its different uses / 3. Water and justice / 4. Water and economic valuation / 5. Water and rights / 6. Water and responsibilities / 7. Water and engineering / 8. Inserting ethics into water governance / Glossary / References / Index