Milano, Marianne; Reynard, Emmanuel --- "The role of geography in fresh water management" [2018] ELECD 1253; in Tignino, Mara; Bréthaut, Christian (eds), "Research Handbook on Freshwater Law and International Relations" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2018) 457

Book Title: Research Handbook on Freshwater Law and International Relations

Editor(s): Tignino, Mara; Bréthaut, Christian

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN: 9781785360640

Section: Chapter 19

Section Title: The role of geography in fresh water management

Author(s): Milano, Marianne; Reynard, Emmanuel

Number of pages: 24

Abstract/Description:

After a brief historical note, the chapter discusses the respective contributions of physical and human geography to water science. The first contribution of geography to water management was the comprehension of the water cycle during Antiquity. Another important step was the development of the watershed concept during the 17th century AD. Advances in physical geography principally concerned the fluvial hydrosystem concept, addressing water, hydraulics, land use and sediment fluxes in a systemic way, progress in methods and indicators assessing the water basin at various territorial scales, and sediment transfer issues. In human geography, the main contributions were in the field of political geography (water conflict analyses) and spatial implications of Integrated Water Resource Management. The last section presents recent progresses of integrated approaches for water management: consideration of anthropogenic impacts on the water cycle, methods to evaluate water stress, and development of two emerging concepts, water footprint and water security.