Terje Tvedt is Professor of Geography at the University of Bergen and Professor of Political Science at the University of Oslo. He is the author of The River Nile in the Age of the British and has co-directed and written two successful television documentaries on water. Richard Coopey is with the Department of History at the University of Aberystwyth. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and the Royal Society of Arts.

• Part I: Water Systems and DevelopmentChapter I: Terje Tvedt and Richard CoopeyA “Water Systems” Perspective on HistoryPart II: Water systems and Agricultural CivilizationsCh. 2 Gregory L. PossehlThe Indus Civilisation and Riverine History in Northwestern India and PakistanCh. 3 Judith BunburyThe Development of the River Nile and the Egyptian Civilisation: A Water Historical Perspective Ch. 4 Terje OestigaardOsiris and the Egyptian Civilisation of Inundation. The Pyramids, the Pharaohs and their Water WorldCh. 5 Richardson P. GillThe Maya Collapse: Water, Drought and VolcanoesCh. 6 Dan PennyThe Mekong River System and the End of the Angkor Civilisation: A Water Historical PerspectiveCh. 7 Qiang Zhang, Chong-Yu Xu, Tao Yang, Zhen-Chun HaoThe historical evolution and anthropogenic influences on the Yellow River from ancient to modern timesCh. 8 Richard C. HoffmanElemental Resources and Aquatic Ecosystems: Medieval Europeans and their RiversCh. 9. Fred H. LawsonNile River Flows and Political Order in Ottoman EgyptCh. 10: Harriet NashThe afl?j of Oman and traditional timing of water sharesPart III: Water systems and Development in the Early Modern EraCh. 11 Jacobus De VriesWater control in the Netherlands Ch. 12 Toon BoschChanging societies produces changing rivers. Managing the Rhine in Germany and Holland in a changing environment Ch. 13 Roderick I. WilsonRiver Regimes: Changing Environmental Relations along the Waterways of the Kanto Plain, JapanCh. 14 Graham ChapmanWater and the British take-over of IndiaCh. 15 Alexei Kraikovski and Julia Lajus The Neva as a Metropolitan River of Russia: Economy, Environment and CultureCh. 16 Miklos DomokosA historic survey of the Danube catchment: From Classical civilisation to the end of the 19th CenturyCh. 17 Richard Coopey The Severn : Nature, Power and RationalisationCh. 18 Eva JakobssonThe history of flowing water policy in Sweden: from natural flow toindustrialised rivers Ch. 19 Leandro del Moral Ituarte The hydraulic paradigm and the production of a new geography in Spain. Origins and Historical Evolution Between the Sixteenth and Twentieth centuries. Ch. 20 Salvatore CiriaconoVenetian rivers after the fall of the republic. French and Austrian HydrologyCh. 21 Martin ReussExploitation and Innovation Along the Lower Mississippi