Global Challenges in Water Governance ─ Environments, Economies, Societies

This book presents a historically situated explanation of the rise of global water governance and the contemporary challenges that global water governance seeks to address. It is particularly concerned with connecting what are often technical issues in water management with the social and political structures that affect how technical and scientific advice affects decisions. Schmidt and Matthews are careful to avoid the pitfalls of setting up opposing binaries, such as ‘nature versus culture’ or ‘private versus public’, thereby allowing readers to understand how contests over water governance have been shaped over time and why they will continue to be so.

Co-written by an academic and a practitioner, Global Challenges in Water Governance combines the dual concerns for both analytical clarity and practical applicability in a way that is particularly valuable both for educators, researchers, decision-makers, and newcomers to the complexities of water use decisions.

Jeremy J. Schmidt is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography at Durham University, UK. His research focuses on the normative aspects of water governance, particularly the 20^th century dynamics that connect large projects for land and energy to growing concerns over human impacts on the Earth.

Nathanial Matthews is an international development professional and a Senior Visiting Fellow at King’s College London, UK. He is a multidisciplinary scientist that has managed more than 200 environmental and development projects across 30 countries. Matthews is also a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.