This course provides an overview of the wide range of controversies that together make up the international water debate. The institutional systems used to manage large hydrological systems are the main focus. The Colorado, Danube, Nile, Jordan, Euphrates, Ganges, Amazon, Yangtze, Mekong and Murray-Darling river systems as well as the vast groundwater basins of northern India, China and the high plains of the United States are just a few examples among many of hydrological systems where environmental conditions and resource security continue in long term decline as a result of institutional inadequacy. Participants will be able to focus on a theme of their choice (subject to consultation with the course coordinator).

Essay on a topic of the participant's choice (but requiring agreement of the course convener) outline 5%, completed essay an additional 50%.

Presentation to the class (10 min) in one of the workshop sessions Monday to Wednesday. 25%. (The presentation could deal with the same theme as the essay or something different)

Discussant contribution - a five minute comment on a presentation or presentations by other participants in one of the Monday to Wednesday workshop sessions 10%

Fred Pearce, 2006, When the rivers run dry - water the defining crisis of the twenty first century. Beacon Press.

In addition to the reading brick:-

Barnett, Jon, 2001, The meaning of environmental security: ecological politics and policy in the new security era, Zed books.

Connell Daniel, 2007, Water politics in the Murray-Darling Basin, Federation Press.

Dolsak N, Ostrum E, 2003, The commons in the new millennium: challenges and adaptations, MIT Press.

Flannery Tim, 2005, The Weather Makers - how man is changing the climate and what it means for life on earth, Atlantic Monthly Press.

Fradkin, Phillip L., 1995, A River no more - the Colorado river and the west, University of California Press.

Homer-Dixon Thomas, 1999, Environment, scarcity and violence, Princeton University Press.

Homer-Dixon Thomas, 2007, The upside of down, Text Publishing.

Hundley NJR, 2001, The great thirst: Californians and water: a history, revised edition, University of California Press.

Lant C, (Ed) 2006 Dec, ‘Integrated water Resources Management - new governance, tools and challenges' (special issue 135) Journal of Water Research and Education

Young Oran, 2002, The institutional dimension of environmental change. Fit. Interplay and scale, MIT Press.

Lee Kai N, 1993, Compass and Gyroscope - integrating science and politics for the environment, Island Press.

McDonald Bernadette, Jehl Douglas, (Eds) 2003, Whose water is it - the unquenchable thirst of a water-hungry world, National Geographic.  

Postel Sandra, Pillar of Sand - Can the irrigation miracle last? W W Norton & Company.
World Commission on Dams, 2000, Dams and Development - a new framework for decision making - the report of the World Commission on Dams, Earthscan Publications.

Postel Sandra, Richter Brian, 2003, Rivers for Life - Managing water for People and Nature, Island Press.

Reid WV, (Ed) 2005, Millennium ecosystem assessment: Ecosystems and human well being, - synthesis report, World Resources Institute, Island Press.

Delivery Mode:

A workshop based intensive course offered in semester 1 in 2009.