The Atlas of Water
Mapping the World's Most Critical Resource
By Maggie Black and Jannet King
Second Edition
'An indispensable guide to a vital issue.'
Scientific and Medical Network Review
The planet's finite supply of fresh water is under such pressure that soon it may be the most valuable commodity on earth. The new edition of this crucial and timely atlas shows water distribution worldwide, and reflects the latest thinking and emerging issues.
With updated data throughout, the atlas covers a wide range of topics to map how our limited water resources are shared and used around the world, as well as the challenges posed to their management by today's unprecedented population and environmental pressures.
It includes completely new maps on climate change, water for tourism, dam construction, biodiversity, and water management, commerce and legislation. With snapshots of especially vulnerable areas and major polluters as well the global picture, this is a unique resource for general readers as well as policy makers and students.
Divided into six parts, each prefaced with an introductory essay, the atlas investigates the nature of the resource itself, through its uses in all kinds of human activity, to the vexed questions of how to manage water well and avoid the threat of 'water conflicts'.
'Visually ingenious.'
OXFAM Development Resources Review
'A very attractive and useful book...Highly recommended.'
New Agriculturalist
'Provides a fascinating look at the state of water in our world and can be considered a must-read for anyone grappling with this complex topic.'
The Sierra Club Green Life Blog
'I hope - if only in a small way - that I can encourage people to read and learn from this book. It is accessible to a wide range of readers from school children upwards and presents information and analysis in a clear and attractive "atlas" format [and is] clearly of great value for researchers, practitioners such as myself, water policy makers and their advisers.'
Mike Woolgar, Waterlines
'Attractively presented and easy to understand... all the maps an associated texts are interesting and pertinent.'
HealthMatters
'An excellent handbook'
The Economist
CONTENTS
Part I: A Finite Resource
1 The Global Water Pot
2 Water Shortage
3 Rising Demand
4 Dwindling Supply
5 Competition and Conflict.
6 Climate Change
Part II: Environmental Pressures
7 Urbanization
8 Altered Flows
9 Draining Wetlands
10 Drylands and Droughts
11 Floods
Part III: Water for Living
12 Water for Drinking
13 Water for Sanitation
14 Water at Home
15 Water and Disease
16 Harbouring Disease
17 Water for Food
18 Dispossession by Water
Part IV: Water for Economic Production
19 Irrigation
20 Water for Industry
21 Water for Energy
22 Water for Fisheries
23 Transport and Leisure
24 Water for Sale
Part V: Damaged Water
25 Water Pollutants
26 Water Pollution
27 Damaged Waterways
28 Threatened Ecologies
Part VI: Water for the Future
29 MDGs
30 Treaties and Obligations
31 Deepening Cooperation
32 Managing Water Resources
33 Water Footprint
34 Water at a Price
35 Technological Fixes
Part VII: Data Tables
Needs and Resources
Uses and Abuses
Glossary
Useful Conversions
Useful Sources
References
Index
Maggie Black is a writer on international issues and the author of several books on water and sanitation. These include Water: A Matter of Life and Health (with Rupert Talbot), OUP and Unicef, New Delhi, 2004; Water, Life Force and The No-Nonsense Guide to Water, New Internationalist Publications, both 2005; and The Last Taboo: Opening the Door on the Global Sanitation Crisis (with Ben Fawcett), Earthscan 2008.
Jannet King was co-author, with Robin Clarke, of the first edition of the atlas. She has spent many years researching and editing political and historical atlases, including the award-winning Atlas of Food, Atlas of Endangered Species,The State of the World Atlas, and the World Bank series of mini-Atlases on global development, the environment and human security.