In 2011 this course is only available to students in the Mekong Alliance program.

Water management is a major issue for climate change adaptation and achievement of the Millennium Development Goals, the United Nations program designed to improve the lives of the one million people living on less than one dollar a day.  This course looks at the many ways in which humans interact with water. The institutional systems used to manage large hydrological systems are a major theme. 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 an issue of their choice (subject to consultation with the course coordinator).

Themes include the governance of major hydrological systems, management of common resources, environmental sustainability, public participation in environmental policy development and management, environmental and water law, water markets, equity and justice issues, climate change impacts and adaptation, foreign aid policy, international relations and definitions of national security.

At the end of this course participants will have an overview of the wide range of controversies that together make up the international water debate and a good understanding of the one or two issues that they choose to explore in-depth.

The course will be assessed on the basis of student performance in three modes of assessment:

Essay, 3,000 words - 50%

Presentation to class - 20%

Six commentaries, each 300 words, to be handed in before the session when the relevant subject is discussed - 30%

Please see the timetable on the Crawford School website

Students should have completed the requirements for entry to a masters degree at the Crawford School

Reading brick

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

Elizabeth Constance Hunt, 2004, Thirsty planet: strategies for sustainable water management, Zed Books.

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.

Young Robert A, 2005, Determining the economic value of water: concepts and methods, Resources for the Future.

Competent but basic computer skills

Delivery Mode:

Semester-long, on campus.