Water, Ecosystems and Society

Water, Ecosystems and Society: A Confluence of Disciplines identifies water management as a confluence of disciplines and engages with the needs and challenges of productive water management in India. Such an engagement is path-breaking in terms of its conceptualization, since water management in India has traditionally been associated with heavy engineering, which tries to increase the quantity of water to cater to increasing demands by human settlements, irrigation and industry needs. The author identifies research activities to initiate effective water management and then goes on to address the issues in detail with relation to their ecological and socio-economic implications. As a result, floods, sustainability of river link projects and the economic viability of water systems are analyzed with regard to their ecological dimensions. He also focuses on the need to recognize ecosystem services provided by floods as well as the necessity of environmental flows in such a system. The book reviews the usefulness of economic valuation of water systems in terms of their consumptive use and the ecosystem services provided by them. In this way, the work deals with emerging areas of research-by connecting economics and water management. It also analyzes the proposed river link project of India in the light of the emerging economic and ecological aspects of water management, and thereby provides a new approach to the assessment and appraisal of large water projects. Thus the book engages with the ecological and socio-economical dimensions of different areas of water management, identifies lacunae in the filed and suggests fresh perspectives to address them constructively.