Water, Knowledge and the Environment in Asia

Water, Knowledge and the Environment in Asia
Author: Ravi Baghel
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 279
Release: 2017-03-31
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1134863330

The dramatic transformation of our planet by human actions has been heralded as the coming of the new epoch of the Anthropocene. Human relations with water raise some of the most urgent questions in this regard. The starting point of this book is that these changes should not be seen as the result of monolithic actions of an undifferentiated humanity, but as emerging from diverse ways of relating to water in a variety of settings and knowledge systems. With its large population and rapid demographic and socioeconomic change, Asia provides an ideal context for examining how varied forms of knowledge pertaining to water encounter and intermingle with one another. While it is difficult to carry out comprehensive research on water knowledge in Asia due to its linguistic, political and cultural fragmentation, the topic nevertheless has relevance across boundaries. By using a carefully chosen selection of case studies in a variety of locations and across diverse disciplines, the book demonstrates commonalities and differences in everyday water practices around Asia while challenging both romantic presumptions and Eurocentrism. Examples presented include class differences in water use in the megacity of Delhi, India; the impact of radiation on water practices in Fukushima, Japan; the role of the King in hydraulic practices in Thailand, and ritual irrigation in Bali, Indonesia.

Water, Knowledge and the Environment in Asia

Water, Knowledge and the Environment in Asia
Author: Ravi Baghel
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 355
Release: 2017-03-31
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1134863403

The dramatic transformation of our planet by human actions has been heralded as the coming of the new epoch of the Anthropocene. Human relations with water raise some of the most urgent questions in this regard. The starting point of this book is that these changes should not be seen as the result of monolithic actions of an undifferentiated humanity, but as emerging from diverse ways of relating to water in a variety of settings and knowledge systems. With its large population and rapid demographic and socioeconomic change, Asia provides an ideal context for examining how varied forms of knowledge pertaining to water encounter and intermingle with one another. While it is difficult to carry out comprehensive research on water knowledge in Asia due to its linguistic, political and cultural fragmentation, the topic nevertheless has relevance across boundaries. By using a carefully chosen selection of case studies in a variety of locations and across diverse disciplines, the book demonstrates commonalities and differences in everyday water practices around Asia while challenging both romantic presumptions and Eurocentrism. Examples presented include class differences in water use in the megacity of Delhi, India; the impact of radiation on water practices in Fukushima, Japan; the role of the King in hydraulic practices in Thailand, and ritual irrigation in Bali, Indonesia.

Asian Water Development Outlook 2020

Asian Water Development Outlook 2020
Author: Asian Development Bank
Publisher: Asian Development Bank
Total Pages: 331
Release: 2020-12-01
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 9292626175

The Asian Water Development Outlook (AWDO) 2020 assesses national water security across Asia and the Pacific, focusing on five key dimensions: rural, economic, urban, environmental, and water-related disaster. Despite considerable achievements in Asia and the Pacific since the AWDO 2013 edition, 1.5 billion people in rural areas and 0.6 billion in urban areas still lack adequate water supply and sanitation. Sound water management and access to reliable service delivery remain vital to inclusive economic growth and social well-being, especially after the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. This edition includes two new sections highlighting the importance of finance and governance to water security as well as case studies demonstrating how the AWDO has influenced policy development in four countries.

Water, Knowledge and the Environment in Asia

Water, Knowledge and the Environment in Asia
Author: Jayanti Kumari
Publisher: Socialy Press
Total Pages: 332
Release: 2017-06
Genre:
ISBN: 9781681178264

Water is must for the endurance of life, yet only 2.5% of the worlds water supply is readily available for consumption, and that percentage is rapidly decreasing due to pressures from population growth, climate change and poor water management. All of those three pressure points converge in South Asia, where some of the fastest-growing populations in the world grapple with melting ice caps, rising sea levels and depleting groundwater, that are further exacerbated by mismanagement from public and private actors. Understanding the various ways in which knowledge about water is shaped and communicated, the so-called epistemologies of water, in the Asian context are essential to tackling the looming water crisis in the region. In Asia, water is subject to a great diversity of knowledge systems and practices. Some of these appear to be allied to scrupulous spaces -- when related with unambiguous local cultures or religions -- while others are ordered by functional and symbolic differentiations, like expert, political or sacred knowledge. Water, Knowledge and the Environment in Asia: Epistemologies, practices and locales attempts to outline the exchange and renovation of environmental knowledge fragments and practices across the boundaries of varied knowledge systems. From the glaciers of the Himalaya to the rivers and water utilization systems of Asia, from the highland Southeast Asia to the ocean surrounding the Indonesian archipelago, the project examines how varied forms of knowledge pertaining to water flow, encounter and entangle with each other. Specifically in Asia, well-tested practices surrounding water and ice are frequently indivisible from ritual or cosmological representation and performance. This work focuses on the nodes through which certain knowledge items, facts and practices travel across cultural boundaries, creating a transcultural network of differentially connected meanings. This Monograph will be of interest for graduate students, practitioners and early career researchers.

Basic Studies in Environmental Knowledge, Technology, Evaluation, and Strategy

Basic Studies in Environmental Knowledge, Technology, Evaluation, and Strategy
Author: Takayuki Shimaoka
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 295
Release: 2016-02-22
Genre: Science
ISBN: 4431558195

This book covers diverse environmental issues such as climate change; biodiversity preservation; prevention of air, water, and soil pollution; and resource recycling. Readers can acquire these four practical interdisciplinary abilities: 1. knowledge; 2. technology; 3. evaluation; and 4. strategy in the diverse issues related to the environment. These abilities are fundamental to identifying the core essence of economic and ecological interdependence, to look at and analyze problems from an overarching perspective, and to consider countermeasures to be taken. Each chapter of this book corresponds to a lecture in the East Asia Environmental Strategist Training Program at Kyushu University and is excellent reading as a sourcebook.

Asian Water Development Outlook 2016

Asian Water Development Outlook 2016
Author: Asian Development Bank
Publisher: Asian Development Bank
Total Pages: 225
Release: 2016-08-01
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9292575449

The Asian Water Development Outlook charts progress in water security in Asia and the Pacific over the past 5 years. This 2016 edition of the report uses the latest available data to assess water security in five key dimensions: household access to piped potable water and improved sanitation, economic water security, providing better urban water services to build more livable cities, restoring healthy rivers and ecosystems, and resilience to water disasters. The region shows a positive trend in strengthening water security since the 2013 edition of the report, when 38 out of 49 countries were assessed as water-insecure. In 2016, that number dropped to 29 out of 48 countries. This study was supported by ADB’s Water Financing Partnership Facility.

Informing Water Policies in South Asia

Informing Water Policies in South Asia
Author: Anjal Prakash
Publisher: Routledge Chapman & Hall
Total Pages: 252
Release: 2019-05-14
Genre: Water resources development
ISBN: 9780367253035

This book analyzes water policies in South Asia from the perspective of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM). It seeks to address the problems of water scarcity, conflict and pollution resulting from the gross mismanagement and over-exploitation of this finite resource. Highlighting the need for IWRM in mitigating abuse and ensuring sustainable use, it discusses issues relating to groundwater management; inter-state water conflicts; peri-urban water use; local traditional water management practices; coordination between water users and uses; and water integration at the grassroots level. With case studies from India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Nepal, the innovative, painstaking and transnational researches presented in the volume deal with questions of equity, gender, sustainability, and democratic governance in water policy interventions. It will interest researchers and students of development studies, environmental studies, natural resource management, water governance, and public administration, as also water sector professionals, policymakers, civil society activists and governmental and nongovernmental organizations.

Gender and Sustainability

Gender and Sustainability
Author: Mar’a Luz Cruz-Torres
Publisher: University of Arizona Press
Total Pages: 266
Release: 2012-11-08
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0816530017

Gender and Sustainability deals with women's struggles to contend with global forces—environmental change, economic development, discrimination and stereotyping about the roles of women, and diminishing access to natural resources—not in the abstract but in everyday life. It addresses the lived complexities of the relationship between gender and sustainability.

Attitudes to Water in South Asia

Attitudes to Water in South Asia
Author: Gareth Price
Publisher: Chatham House (Formerly Riia)
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2014
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9781784130121

Drawing on interviews with hundreds of policymakers and key stakeholders in five countries in South Asia, this report assesses current thinking toward domestic water management and transboundary water issues and suggests strategies that could help to reframe water as a shared resource rather than a potential source of conflict.

A Region at Risk

A Region at Risk
Author: Asian Development Bank
Publisher: Asian Development Bank
Total Pages: 329
Release: 2017-07-01
Genre: Science
ISBN: 9292578529

Asia and the Pacific continues to be exposed to climate change impacts. Home to the majority of the world's poor, the population of the region is particularly vulnerable to those impacts. Unabated warming could largely diminish previous achievements of economic development and improvements, putting the future of the region at risk. Read the most recent projections pertaining to climate change and climate change impacts in Asia and the Pacific, and the consequences of these changes to human systems, particularly for developing countries. This report also highlights gaps in the existing knowledge and identifies avenues for continued research.