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Scarcity of water, floods and erosion caused by climate change have made the management of water resources a challenge to national and international actors worldwide. States have also initiated water projects to improve social welfare, often with significant impacts on the environment. This book combines close analysis of the legal structures of water rights with consideration of the modes of water management projects to illustrate current water-related problems in terms of practical solutions in a global context.
Water resource development and management in the United States have created twelve thousand miles of waterways, irrigated thirty million acres of land (and drained an even larger area), provided water supplies for countless cities and industries, directed tons of concrete and earth at thousands of streams which from time to time overflow their banks and harnessed more than thirty million kilowatts of electric power capacity. Assuming the main objective of these federal expenditures is to contribute to the national welfare, two issues require clarification: the definition of "national welfare"; and the measurement of contributions to that welfare made by water resource development.
This book is the result of a joint research effort led by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and involving the Royal Scientific Society of Jordan, the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, and the Palestine Health Council. It discusses opportunities for enhancement of water supplies and avoidance of overexploitation of water resources in the Middle East. Based on the concept that ecosystem goods and services are essential to maintaining water quality and quantity, the book emphasizes conservation, improved use of current technologies, and water management approaches that are compatible with environmental quality.