Download or read book Murray River Country written by Jessica K. Weir and published by Aboriginal Studies Press. This book was released on 2009 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Place, country, and care are at the heart of this wise book, which is so astutely responsive to the diverse, active Aboriginal individuals and nations of the Murray-Darling Basin Like the Central Valley of California near where I live, where vast rivers and wetlands have been engineered to produce a precarious and poisoned breadbasket for settler empires, the Murray-Darling Basin cries out for new practices of care from all of its people. Weir's book gives me hope that these blasted places and the lives of so many species, human and not, might again be whole, in new ways and old. Donna Haraway, History of Consciousness Department, University of California at Santa Cruz Murray River Country brings a fresh narrative to Australia's water crisis - the intimate stories of love and loss of the Aboriginal people who know the inland rivers as their traditional country. The Murray River's devastation demands that something fundamental changes in our water philosophies. Weir moves readers beyond questions of how much water will be `returned' to the rivers, to understand that our economy, and our lives, are dependent on river health. She draws on western and Indigenous knowledge traditions to unsettle the boundaries of the current debates. In doing so she shows how powerfully influential yet unacknowledged assumptions continue to trap our thinking and disable us from taking effective action. By engaging with the Murray-Darling Basin, Australia's agricultural heartland, and the Murray River, Australia's greatest river, Murray River Country goes to the heart of our national understandings of how we are to live in this country.
Download or read book The Big Thirst written by Charles Fishman and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2011-04-12 with total page 403 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Praised as “an entertaining and torrential flow of a book” by Nature magazine, The Big Thirst is a startling examination of the passing of the golden age of water and the shocking facts about how water scarcity will soon be a major factor in our lives. The water coming out of your kitchen tap is four billion years old and might well have been sipped by a Tyrannosaurus rex. Rather than only three states of water—liquid, ice, and vapor—there is a fourth, “molecular water,” fused into rock 400 miles deep in the Earth, and that’s where most of the planet’s water is found. Unlike most precious resources, water cannot be used up; it can always be made clean enough again to drink—indeed, water can be made so clean that it’s toxic. Water is the most vital substance in our lives but also more amazing and mysterious than we appreciate. As Charles Fishman brings vibrantly to life in this surprising and mind-changing narrative, water runs our world in a host of awe-inspiring ways, yet we take it completely for granted. But the era of easy water is over. Bringing readers on a lively and fascinating journey—from the wet moons of Saturn to the water-obsessed hotels of Las Vegas, where dolphins swim in the desert, and from a rice farm in the parched Australian outback to a high-tech IBM plant that makes an exotic breed of pure water found nowhere in nature—Fishman vividly shows that we’ve already left behind a century-long golden age when water was thoughtlessly abundant, free, and safe and entered a new era of high-stakes water. In 2008, Atlanta came within ninety days of running entirely out of clean water. California is in a desperate battle to hold off a water catastrophe. And in the last five years Australia nearly ran out of water—and had to scramble to reinvent the country’s entire water system. But as dramatic as the challenges are, the deeper truth Fishman reveals is that there is no good reason for us to be overtaken by a global water crisis. We have more than enough water. We just don’t think about it, or use it, smartly. The Big Thirst brilliantly explores our strange and complex relationship to water. We delight in watching waves roll in from the ocean; we take great comfort from sliding into a hot bath; and we will pay a thousand times the price of tap water to drink our preferred brand of the bottled version. We love water—but at the moment, we don’t appreciate it or respect it. Just as we’ve begun to reimagine our relationship to food, a change that is driving the growth of the organic and local food movements, we must also rethink how we approach and use water. The good news is that we can. As Fishman shows, a host of advances are under way, from the simplicity of harvesting rainwater to the brilliant innovations devised by companies such as IBM, GE, and Royal Caribbean that are making impressive breakthroughs in water productivity. Knowing what to do is not the problem. Ultimately, the hardest part is changing our water consciousness. As Charles Fishman writes, “Many civilizations have been crippled or destroyed by an inability to understand water or manage it. We have a huge advantage over the generations of people who have come before us, because we can understand water and we can use it smartly.” The Big Thirst will forever change the way we think about water, about our essential relationship to it, and about the creativity we can bring to ensuring that we’ll always have plenty of it.
Download or read book Drought in Arid and Semi Arid Regions written by Kurt Schwabe and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-07-08 with total page 510 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Offering a cross-country examination and comparison of drought awareness and experience, this book shows how scientists, water managers, and policy makers approach drought and water scarcity in arid and semi-arid regions of Spain, Mexico, Australia, South Africa and the United States.
Download or read book Floodplain Wetland Biota in the Murray Darling Basin written by Kerrylee Rogers and published by CSIRO PUBLISHING. This book was released on 2010-11-15 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Floodplain wetlands of the Murray-Darling Basin provide critical habitat for numerous species of flora and fauna, yet the ecology of these wetlands is threatened by a range of environmental issues. This book addresses the urgent need for an improved ecohydrological understanding of the biota of Australian freshwater wetlands. It synthesises key water and habitat requirements for 35 species of plants, 48 species of waterbirds, 17 native and four introduced species of fish, 15 species of frogs, and 16 species of crustaceans and molluscs found in floodplain wetlands of the Murray-Darling Basin. Each species profile includes: the influence of water regimes on the survival, health and condition of the species; key stimuli for reproduction and germination; habitat and dietary preferences; as well as major knowledge gaps for the species. Floodplain Wetland Biota in the Murray-Darling Basin also provides an overview of the likely impacts of hydrological change on wetland ecosystems and biota, in the context of climate change and variability, with implications for environmental management. This important book provides an essential baseline for further education, scientific research and management of floodplain wetland biota in the Murray-Darling Basin.
Download or read book Water for Food in a Changing World written by Alberto Garrido and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2011-04-12 with total page 372 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There is not enough water globally for all the things humans need and want water to do for us. Water supply bubbles are bursting in China, the Middle East and India with potentially serious implications for the global economy and for political stability. Even the United States is depleting groundwater on average 25% faster than it is being replenished. Our thirst for water grows with our population, but the amount of fresh water available on Earth is fixed. If we assume "business as usual" by 2050 about 40% of the projected global population of 9.4 billion is expected to be facing water stress or scarcity. With increasing climate variability being predicted by global climate models, we are likely also to have more people without adequate water more of the time, even in water-rich regions. Irrigation productivity rose dramatically over the past 40 years as a result of the Green Revolution. However, even if we disregard the environmental impacts caused by that revolution, we are no nearer to achieving global food security than we were 40 years ago, as every time we come close to filling the food production gap population growth and ecosystem decline associated with water diversions to human purposes set us back. Our natural and agricultural ecosystems are trying to tell us something. This book pursues these overarching themes connecting to water and food production at global and regional scales. The collection offers a comprehensive discussion of all relevant issues, and offers a wide-ranging discussion with the aim of contributing to the global debate about water and food crises.
Download or read book Water Accounting written by Jayne M. Godfrey and published by Edward Elgar Publishing. This book was released on 2012 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This groundbreaking book examines the role that water accounting can play in resolving economic, environmental and social issues. One of the most pressing global issues of the 21st century is the scarcity of water to ensure economic, environmental and social sustainability. In addressing the issue through policy and management, access to high quality information is critically important. But water scarcity has many implications, and it is possible that different reporting approaches, generally called water accounting systems, can be appropriate to addressing them. In this key book, international experts respond to the question: what role can water accounting play in resolving economic, social and environmental issues at individual, organizational, industry, national and international levels? They explore how various forms of water accounting are utilized and the issues that they address. Academics and postgraduate students interested in water scarcity and accounting will find this book invaluable. Policymakers in all areas relating to water as well as environmentalists, water industry managers and water lawyers will find plenty of important insights in this essential resource.
Download or read book Sustainable Irrigation Management Technologies and Policies III written by C. A. Brebbia and published by WIT Press. This book was released on 2010 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fresh water is becoming an increasingly precious commodity. In the near future, control of it could lead to the type of political instability that is now associated with energy shortages. This book addresses the different aspects of irrigation, including not only the management of water resources and scientific and technical aspects, but also matters related to policy and economics. The objective of the Conference Series is to provide a venue for an international presentation and dissemination of papers related to sustainable ways of conducting irrigation. Sustainable irrigation has three key aspects, i.e. i) developing ways of using scarce water resources most efficiently to maximize food production while minimizing the environmental impact of irrigation activities on the affected land and water resources; ii) ensuring that the extraction of water from surface and groundwater sources is set at sustainable levels to maintain healthy aquatic ecosystems to secure a continued supply of quality water for irrigation, recreation and urban/industrial uses; iii) facilitate an equitable distribution of the water available for consumption between competing users, which is essential to maintain sustainable communities. Attracting researchers in academia and industry, as well as professional practitioners and policy makers, the Third International Conference provides a platform for a review of the state of the art from the scientific, technological, political and economic points of view. Papers from the Meeting are published in this volume, and cover the following topics: Irrigation Management; Modelling and Simulation; Sustainable Irrigation - Farmers' Actions, Environmental Benefits and Socio-economic Consequences.
Download or read book Introduction to Water Resources and Environmental Issues written by Karrie Lynn Pennington and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2021-08-19 with total page 441 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Thoroughly updated and expanded new edition introduces students to the complex world of water resources and environmental issues.
Download or read book Drought Policies Case Studies on Mega droughts for the High Level Experts and Leaders Panel on Water and Disasters HELP written by Jerome Delli Priscolli and published by IWA Publishing. This book was released on 2019-11-15 with total page 269 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book focuses on mega-droughts of the past 20 years. Twelve cases from both developed and developing countries are elaborated in the book. Its intention is to draw lessons from the cases of extremely severe water shortages so that countries and stakeholders can be better prepared for extreme drought events in the future. Several recurrent themes emerge from the diverse case studies and descriptions of programs. For example, most chapters discuss the necessity to move from reactive (compensatory) to preventive policies. This theme has implications for use of insurance in developing countries, e.g. is insurance encouraging investments to help countries avoid disasters or is it acting mostly in a humanitarian way to compensate for losses to help people? Several authors point to the importance of risk assessment and to developing risk based policies for drought. This raises statistical issues of how such assessments of uncertainty and risks are done and how they relate to actual occurrence of events. Most chapters call for more inter-sectoral policies, policies which integrate water resources management approaches and to the necessity of raising public awareness of droughts in times of no drought. The issue of structural versus nonstructural is clear in most cases. While often cast as ‘either/or’ the message that emerges is more one of how do you integrate these approaches. Finally, a few chapters bring to light how prevention is needed for national security as well as water security. In Focus – a book series that showcases the latest accomplishments in water research. Each book focuses on a specialist area with papers from top experts in the field. It aims to be a vehicle for in-depth understanding and inspire further conversations in the sector.
Download or read book Flood Country written by Emily O'Gorman and published by CSIRO PUBLISHING. This book was released on 2012-08-01 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Floods in the Murray-Darling Basin are crucial sources of water for people, animals and plants in this often dry region of inland eastern Australia. Even so, floods have often been experienced as natural disasters, which have led to major engineering schemes. Flood Country explores the contested and complex history of this region, examining the different ways in which floods have been understood and managed and some of the long-term consequences for people, rivers and ecologies. The book examines many tensions, ranging from early exchanges between Aboriginal people and settlers about the dangers of floods, through to long running disputes between graziers and irrigators over damming floodwater, and conflicts between residents and colonial governments over whose responsibility it was to protect townships from floods. Flood Country brings the Murray-Darling Basin's flood history into conversation with contemporary national debates about climate change and competing access to water for livelihoods, industries and ecosystems. It provides an important new historical perspective on this significant region of Australia, exploring how people, rivers and floods have re-made each other.
Download or read book Adapting Agriculture to Climate Change written by Chris Stokes and published by CSIRO PUBLISHING. This book was released on 2010-02-15 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Adapting Agriculture to Climate Change is a fundamental resource for primary industry professionals, land managers, policy makers, researchers and students involved in preparing Australia’s primary industries for the challenges and opportunities of climate change. More than 30 authors have contributed to this book, which moves beyond describing the causes and consequences of climate change to providing options for people to work towards adaptation action. Climate change implications and adaptation options are given for the key Australian primary industries of horticulture, forestry, grains, rice, sugarcane, cotton, viticulture, broadacre grazing, intensive livestock industries, marine fisheries, and aquaculture and water resources. Case studies demonstrate the options for each industry. Adapting Agriculture to Climate Change summarises updated climate change scenarios for Australia with the latest climate science. It includes chapters on socio-economic and institutional considerations for adapting to climate change, greenhouse gas emissions sources and sinks, as well as risks and priorities for the future.
Download or read book Challenges and Innovative Solutions in River Sciences written by Thomas Hein and published by Frontiers Media SA. This book was released on 2021-05-12 with total page 185 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Parliamentary Debates Hansard written by Australia. Parliament. Senate and published by . This book was released on 1974 with total page 1492 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Basin Futures written by Daniel Connell and published by ANU E Press. This book was released on 2011-05-01 with total page 500 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This unique book brings together 27 chapters from some of the world's leading practitioners and experts on environmental water, communities, law, economics and governance. Its goal is to understand the many dimensions of water in the Murray-Darling Basin and provide guidance about how to implement a water management plan that addresses the needs of communities, the economy and the environment. The comprehensiveness of topics covered, the expertise of its authors, and the absolute need to take a multidisciplinary approach to resolving the "wicked problem" of governing our scarce water resource makes this volume a must read for all who care about Australian communities and the environment.
Download or read book Out of the Scientist s Garden written by Richard Stirzaker and published by CSIRO PUBLISHING. This book was released on 2010 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Although a practising scientist in the field of water and agriculture, the author has written, in story form accessible to a wide audience, about the drama of how the world feeds itself. The book starts in his own fruit and vegetable garden, exploring the 'how and why' questions about the way things grow, before moving on to stories about soil, rivers, aquifers and irrigation. The book closes with a brief history of agriculture, how the world feeds itself today and how to think through some of the big conundrums of modern food production."--Publisher description.
Download or read book Water Allocation in Rivers under Pressure written by Dustin Evan Garrick and published by Edward Elgar Publishing. This book was released on 2015-07-31 with total page 255 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book compares water allocation policy in three rivers under pressure from demand, droughts and a changing climate: the Colorado, Columbia and MurrayÐDarling. Each river has undergone multiple decades of policy reform at the intersection of water m
Download or read book Renewing Our Rivers written by Mark K. Briggs and published by University of Arizona Press. This book was released on 2021-01-05 with total page 489 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Our rivers are in crisis and the need for river restoration has never been more urgent. Water security and biodiversity indices for all of the world’s major rivers have declined due to pollution, diversions, impoundments, fragmented flows, introduced and invasive species, and many other abuses. Developing successful restoration responses are essential. Renewing Our Rivers addresses this need head on with examples of how to design and implement stream-corridor restoration projects. Based on the experiences of seasoned professionals, Renewing Our Rivers provides stream restoration practitioners the main steps to develop successful and viable stream restoration projects that last. Ecologists, geomorphologists, and hydrologists from dryland regions of Australia, Mexico, and the United States share case studies and key lessons learned for successful restoration and renewal of our most vital resource. The aim of this guidebook is to offer essential restoration guidance that allows a start-to-finish overview of what it takes to bring back a damaged stream corridor. Chapters cover planning, such emerging themes as climate change and environmental flow, the nuances of implementing restoration tactics, and monitoring restoration results. Renewing Our Rivers provides community members, educators, students, natural resource practitioners, experts, and scientists broader perspectives on how to move the science of restoration to practical success.
