Open AccessHuman needs and environmental rights to water: a biocultural systems approach to hydrodevelopment and management
Author(s) -
Johnston B. R.
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
ecosphere
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.255
H-Index - 57
ISSN - 2150-8925
DOI - 10.1890/es12-00370.1
Subject(s) - environmental resource management , sustainability , environmental degradation , environmental planning , watershed management , praxis , resource management (computing) , water scarcity , adaptive management , food security , integrated water resources management , environmental ethics , business , water resources , political science , geography , watershed , ecology , environmental science , computer science , computer network , philosophy , archaeology , machine learning , law , biology , agriculture
Large‐scale hydrodevelopment involves synergistic processes and generates cumulative effects that include the degradation of rivers and the complex human environmental systems they support. To avert impending crises in water scarcity and food security many nations are reshaping the priorities, regimes, and praxis of fresh water resource management to explicitly recognize and address diverse human and ecological needs. A recent United Nations sponsored study documenting the linkages between water, cultural diversity, and global environmental change argues that a coupled bio/social systems approach to watershed management prioritizing biocultural health over other concerns is needed to achieve sustainability goals, address the complex and protracted conflicts that characterize river basin management, and halt biocultural degeneration. Praxis implications include (1) the need for greater respect for and recognition of the rights, values, and contributions of culturally diverse peoples in the management and use of river systems, (2) expansion of the integrated water resource management model to include prioritized allocation of water to meet environmental and cultural flows.