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      • Trusted Partner
        April 2023

        The Battle for Water

        In the century of drought

        by Jürgen Rahmig

        — Water as a reason for war and a political instrument of power — Unique overview of global water conflicts — Foreword by Wolfgang Ischinger Every year, droughts in African countries cause hundreds of thousands of deaths and much suffering. Europe also experienced drought in 2022's summer of record temperatures. Without water, there can be no life. More and more people are suffering from water shortages. Climate change is fuelling the distribution battles for water; violent conflicts over this precious resource are the order of the day. Whether the protests in Iraq, the war in Syria, in the Himalayas, the Nile conflict and in many other places, water is already a reason for war and is being misused as a political instrument of power. The construction of huge dams, the targeted closure of locks, river diversions, water and land grabbing bring wars over the "blue gold" with them. In a unique overview, journalist Jürgen Rahmig describes the struggle for water in the 21st century. Where do dangers lurk today; where will they be tomorrow, and how can we prevent wars over precious water?

      • Trusted Partner
        July 2024

        Conservation of Dragonflies

        Sentinels for Freshwater Conservation

        by Michael J Samways

        Dragonflies are among the most familiar and popular of all insects, deeply embedded in human cultural history. They are iconic and tell us much about the environments in which we and they live. Their conservation is an important part of biodiversity conservation. One modern dragonfly species is listed as extinct, with many others currently threatened. It is now essential to increase conservation efforts towards saving these threatened species, with strategies now available for doing this. Recovery of dragonfly populations goes hand in hand with improvements to both freshwater conditions and bank vegetation quality. In contrast, some other dragonfly species have benefitted greatly from human transformation of the landscape, with artificial ponds in particular, increasing the population levels of many species. In turn, climate change is seeing many geographical range shifts. Dragonflies are variously sensitive to the health of freshwater systems, and the quality of vegetation along rivers and around ponds. Dragonflies are excellent indicators in these times of great concern over the quality of our freshwater supplies. Their wide range of sensitivities enables us to measure the extent to which freshwater ecosystems are either deteriorating or are improving when we undertake restoration. They enable us to gauge how well we are conserving freshwaters, whether ponds and lakes, streams or rivers. They are also good umbrellas for many other freshwater inhabitants, which altogether reflect the health of a freshwater system. Conservation of Dragonflies: Sentinels for Freshwater Conservation is for naturalists, citizen scientists, entomologists and conservation scientists, as well as practitioners and policy makers around the world.

      • Trusted Partner
        Children's & YA

        La fille de l'eau (The water girl)

        by Yves Pinguilly, Sarang Seck

        West African mythical tale. Yves Pinguilly and Saran Seick introduce you to the world of love and beauty of the African woman.

      • Trusted Partner
        Business, Economics & Law
        September 2024

        Global solidarities against water grabbing

        by Caitlin Schroering

      • Trusted Partner
        August 2021

        Water Town

        by Can Xue

        Can Xue's latest novel "Water Town" is an artistic display of the complex history of human experience. What kind of survival is free survival? These thousand years of questioning have become extremely urgent in this era. The individual lives created by the writer are squeezed like a magic one by one, forcing themselves, fighting hard amidst the revelation of a grand and dim allegory background, and unanimously following the vague call to the magic after a long journey. Water town. In this wonderland, people will realize their dreams as long as they act. Everything is possible, the power of life rushes to the peak of ideals in the carnival... and the earth responds to the heartbeat in calmness. The free survival of man is a performance art activity, which is also the ancient essential impulse of man. "Water Village" is not only a display of artistic life, but also an advocacy of this kind of life.

      • Trusted Partner

        Water Margin for Children

        by Bao Pengshan

        Water Margin, one of the Four Great Classical Chinese Novels, is a very important part of Chinese traditional culture. This series of books (5 volumes) is the teen version of Water Margin, telling the stories of the heroes in Water Margin through vivid characters and intriguing plots. This series will allow more people to learn about the Chinese classical novel and traditional culture.

      • Trusted Partner
        Fertilizers & manures
        August 2003

        Water Productivity in Agriculture

        Limits and Opportunities for Improvement

        by Edited by Jacob W Kijne, Randolph Barker, David J Molden

        First title in a major new seriesAddresses improving water productivity to relieve problems of scarcity and competition to provide for food and environmental securityDraws from scientists having a multitude of disciplines to approach this important problemIn a large number of developing countries, policy makers and researchers are increasingly aware of the conflicting demands on water, and look at agriculture to be more effective in its use of water. Focusing on both irrigated and rain-fed agriculture, this book gives a state of the art review of the limits and opportunities for improving water productivity in crop production. It demonstrates how efficiency of water use can be enhanced to maximize yields. The book represents the first in a new series of volumes resulting from the Comprehensive Assessment of Water Management in Agriculture, a research program conducted by the CGIAR's Future Harvest Centres, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and partners worldwide. It will be of significant interest to those working in areas of soil and crop science, water management, irrigation, and development studies.

      • Trusted Partner
        Geography & the Environment
        July 2008

        Conserving Land, Protecting Water

        by Deborah Bossio, Deborah Bossio, Frits W T Penning de Vries, Kim Geheb, Kim Geheb, Line J. Gordon, Antonio Trabucco, William Critchley, Pay Drechsel, Hanspeter Liniger, Francis Gichuki, Lech Ryszkowski, Jules Pretty, Andrew Noble

        The degradation of land and water resources resulting primarily from agricultural activities has had enormous impact on human society. In order to alleviate this problem an advanced understanding of the state of our resources and the process of degradation is needed. Conserving Land, Protecting Water includes an overview of existing literature focusing on global patterns of land and water degradation and discussions of new insights drawn from successful case studies on reversing soil and water degradation and their impact on food and environmental security. ; Conserving Land, Protecting Water includes an overview of existing literature focusing on global patterns of land and water degradation and discussions of new insights drawn from successful case studies on reversing soil and water degradation and their impact on food and environmental security. ; Part 1: Land and Water Degradation: Assessment and Issues1.1: Learning from bright spots to enhance food security and to combat degradation of water and land resources.1.2: Land degradation and water productivity in agricultural landscapes.1.3: Land Degradation, ecosystem services and resilience of smallholder farmers in Makanya catachment, Tanzania.1.4: Political ecologies of bright spots1.5: Large scale fluxes of crop nutrients in food cause environmental problems at the sources and at sinks1.6: Carbon sequestration, land degradation and waterPart 2: Towards Better Land and Water Management2.1: Local Innovation in ‘Green Water’ Management2.2: Sustainability and Resilience of the Urban Agricultural Phenomenon in Africa2.3: Safeguarding water resources by making the land greener: knowledge management through WOCAT2.4: Bright basins - do many bright spots make a basin shine?2.5: The influence of plant cover structures on water fluxes in agricultural landscapes2.6: Investments in collective capacity and social capitalPart 3: ‘ Bright Spots’3.1: ‘Bright spots’: Pathways to ensuring food security and environmental integrity3.2: Ecosystem benefits of ‘Bright Spots’

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        January 2023

        Living with water

        by Kate Moles, Charlotte Bates

      • Trusted Partner
        Management of land & natural resources
        August 2013

        Managing Water and Agroecosystems for Food Security

        by Edited by Eline Boelee

        Water protection, food production and ecosystem health are worldwide issues. Changes in the global water cycle are affecting human wellbeing in many places, while widespread land and ecosystem degradation, driven by poor agricultural practices, is seriously limiting food production. Understanding the links between ecosystems, water, and food production is important to the health of all three, and sustainably managing these connections is becoming increasingly necessary. This book shows how sustainable ecosystems, especially agroecosystems, are essential for water management and food production.

      • Trusted Partner
        Geography & the Environment
        October 2021

        Key Questions in Hydrology and Watershed Management

        A Study and Revision Guide

        by Leon Bren, Patrick Lane

        This book provides a series of exercises of various types covering matters of hydrology and watershed management. The exercises include true/false questions, multiple choice questions, and numeric, graphical, and analytical exercises. The questions draw on the basic disciplines of hydrology and physics, with some stress placed on correct or appropriate units. The questions reflect the authors' many years of teaching watershed management at undergraduate and graduate levels. Questions cover: 1. Terminology and measurement of flow (and units) 2. Quantifying stream networks 3. Concepts of water balance and evapotranspiration 4. Slope recharge, groundwater hydrology, and water-table/phreatic aquifers 5. Single and paired watershed experiments 6. Impacts of fires on watersheds 7. Concepts and measurements of water quality 8. Flooding forests 9. Valuation of water 10. Protection of forest stream by buffers 11. Urban watershed concepts The book is self-contained, and designed to be used at any time in any place, either for revision or as source material for teaching. The work is graded so that easier questions are presented early, followed by harder questions. Answers are concise but contain enough information to help students study and revise on a topic-by-topic basis. The book concludes with suggestions for student exercises and projects and is an invaluable resource for both students and instructors.

      • Trusted Partner
        Agriculture & related industries
        November 2007

        Community-Based Water Law and Water Resource Management Reform in Developing Countries

        by B van Koppen, Mark Giordano. Edited by J Butterworth.

        The lack of sufficient access to clean water is a common problem faced by communities, efforts to alleviate poverty and gender inequality and improve economic growth in developing countries. While reforms have been implemented to manage water resources, these have taken little notice of how people use and manage their water and have had limited effect at the ground level. On the other hand, regulations developed within communities are livelihood-oriented and provide incentives for collective action but they can also be hierarchal, enforcing power and gender inequalities. This book shows how bringing together the strengths of community-based laws rooted in user participation and the formalized legal systems of the public sector, water management regimes will be more able to reach their goals.

      • Trusted Partner
        The environment
        May 1997

        Phosphorus Loss from Soil to Water

        by Edited by H Tunney, P C Brookes, A E Johnston

        Phosphorus is an essential element for plant growth and its input has long been recognised as necessary to maintain profitable crop production. However, phosphorus inputs can also increase the biological activity of surface waters and this can lead to the destruction of such aquatic ecosystems. Advanced eutrophication of surface water leads to problems with its use for fisheries, recreation, industry and drinking, due to the increased growth of undesirable algae and aquatic weeds, and oxygen shortages caused by their death and decomposition. It is therefore important to have a good understanding of the causes and mode of phosphorus loss from soil to water, to enable the problems to be controlled and managed. This book has been developed from an international workshop held in Ireland in late 1995. It is the first comprehensive consideration of the topic, and many leading researchers in the area have contributed to it. It is essential reading for all soil scientists and freshwater biologists, as well as for environmentalists, ecologists and agriculturalists concerned with sustainable land management and pollution. The book is also recommended to fisheries managers, fertilizer manufacturers and biologists working for water utilities.

      • Trusted Partner
        Soil science, sedimentology
        October 2007

        Irrigation Water Pricing

        The Gap Between Theory and Practice

        by Edited by François Molle, Jeremy Berkoff

        Much hope has been vested in pricing as a means of helping to regulate and rationalize water management, notably in the irrigation sector. The pricing of water has often been applied universally, using general and ideological policies, and not considering regional environmental and economic differences. Almost fifteen years after the emphasis laid at the Dublin and Rio conferences on treating water as an economic good, a comprehensive review of how such policies have helped manage water resources an irrigation use is necessary.The case-studies presented here offer a re-assessment of current policies by evaluating their objectives and constraints and often demonstrating their failure by not considering the regional context. They will therefore contribute to avoiding costly and misplaced reforms and help design water policies that are based on a deeper understanding of the factors which eventually dictate their effectiveness.

      • Trusted Partner
        March 2021

        Collector's Edition of Illustrations of Yan Zhen's Works: The Water of Canglang

        by Yan Zhen

        "The Canglang Water" is a full-length novel. The protagonist Chi Dawei is a rural college student with no background. He spent eight years of college life in the atmosphere of strong idealism in the early 1980s. After graduation, he entered the Provincial Department of Health as the first master's degree. In this small health hall, Chi Dawei experienced a mental journey from confrontation to retreat to surrender. This journey allowed him to become a hard-hearted and capable workplace man from a simple youth full of edges and corners with a mission. This whole process of transformation is long and painful. In the scorching cold and warm human world, in the turbulent workplace stage, in the bizarre world, how persistent a fresh person persists, persists to the point of breaking his blood. How can a kind and persistent young man hesitate, hesitate, doubt and suffer when faced with the great contrast between his humble soul and the huge and mysterious worldly power.

      • Trusted Partner
        August 2016

        Water Margin(Digital Edition)

        by Shi Nai An

        In the final years of the Song dynasty,China was in a state of political and social turmoil.Besides frequent foreign invasion and a large number of man made and natural disasters there were also constant peasants rebellion.In order to transform society and make it more equitable and human, 108 heroes joined together in Liang Shan to oppose the local officials and genitures.Thus began the corsages and moving drama on which the novel water margin is based.

      • Trusted Partner
        Children's & YA
        January 2022

        Little Economy

        by Ryta Lymanova (Author), Dmytro Kosteniuk (Illustrator)

        This  book will teach children the basics of rational economic thinking. The book presents important economic concepts and laws in an easily accessible and artistic form.Little Economy will inspire readers to dream of their own profitable business, and give them the foundations of entrepreneurial behavior. And maybe - who knows? — will raise a future outstanding economist.This work is ideal to be read by children of primary school age, and can be a useful support for their parents, educators, and teachers.   From 5 to 8 years, 5339 words Rightsholders:info@bukrek.net

      • Trusted Partner
        Limnology (freshwater)
        October 2002

        Agriculture, Hydrology and Water Quality

        by Edited by Philip Haygarth, Steven C Jarvis

        This book is a collection of state-of-the-art reviews on the global problems of diffuse water pollution from agriculture, which affects the water quality of rivers, lakes, reservoirs and the oceans. It includes chapters on eutrophication, phosphorus, nitrogen, manure, heavy metals, carbon/persistent organic pollutants and soil/siltation problems. The book is broken down into three parts and reflects the opinions of the world's experts in these subjects.

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