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Book Title: Research Handbook on International Water Law
Editor(s): McCaffrey, C. Stephen; Leb, Christina; Denoon, T. Riley
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
ISBN: 9781785368073
Section Title: Introduction to the Research Handbook on International Water Law
Author(s): McCaffrey, Stephen C.; Leb, Christina; Denoon, Riley T.
Number of pages: 9
Extract:
Introduction to the Research Handbook on International Water Law Stephen C. McCaffrey, Christina Leb and Riley T. Denoon
CURRENT WATER CHALLENGES Water is an essential and unevenly distributed resource. Although the amount of water on earth has not changed
significantly in billions of years, pressures exerted on this essential resource have increased exponentially. With the rapid expansion
of the global population and the increasing demands of industry and agriculture, the global competition for water has increased as
has its relative scarcity per capita. There are more than 270 international watercourses in the world, with more than 2.8 billion
people (roughly 41 per cent of the world's population) living within transboundary river basins that cover more than 40 per cent
of the earth's total land area.1 The number of transboundary aquifers that have been mapped so far and the people living in the respective
recharge areas is even higher. Regional tensions over shared watercourses are likely to increase as the global per-capita share of
water decreases, leading countries toward either greater cooperation or greater conflict. Global water resources and their management
also face increasing uncertainty caused by global climate change or climate disruption. Where water resources will be found, the
predictability of these sources and the demands placed upon them have all become less stable and predictable. This uncertainty makes
governing and planning with respect to these resources increasingly difficult. Against this backdrop, governance frameworks that
provide for peaceful, stable and predictable management of water resources, ...
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URL: http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/ELECD/2019/61.html