Water: Histories, Cultures, Ecologies ‐ Edited by M. Leybourne and A. Gaynor

[Extract] A successful international symposium of the same title was held at the University of Western Australia in July 2003 and this book arose from the many case studies presented at that event. The editors have done a good job of pulling these diverse cases together into a delightfully readable edited volume. The book is divided into three parts, each consisting of five papers. They are organised approximately as histories, followed by cultures, and finally ecologies. By reading through the parts, the reader will gain an increasingly complex view of the importance of each aspect in water governance. Its publication in late 2006 is timely as increasing water scarcity around the world has highlighted the cultural, historical, and ecological aspects of water as a subject of increasing importance