Rethinking Water Sustainability With Indigenous Land-Based Knowledge and Practice

As global water and energy systems face pressure from climate change, resource depletion, and inequitable access, traditional approaches to sustainability are challenged. Rethinking these systems requires turning toward Indigenous land-based knowledge and practices, which emphasize reciprocity, balance, and stewardship. Rooted in deep relationships with ecosystems, Indigenous perspectives offer holistic frameworks that integrate environmental, cultural, and spiritual dimensions of sustainability. By valuing these knowledge systems alongside scientific and technological innovation, societies can develop more resilient, ethical, and land-based solutions to the challenges of water and energy sustainability. Rethinking Water Sustainability With Indigenous Land-Based Knowledge and Practice explores Indigenous perspectives that contribute to Indigenous environmental sustainability. It advocates for socio-environmental justice and cross-cultural sustainability for Indigenous language revitalization, intercultural bridge-building, and relational networks that honor Indigenous sovereignty and foster deep, land-based connections. This book covers topics such as sustainable development, cultural studies, and water management, and is a useful resource for engineers, sociologists, academicians, researchers, and environmental scientists.

Ranjan Datta, PhD. Canada Research Chair in Community Disaster Research at Department of Humanities, Mount Royal University, Calgary. Alberta, Canada. Ranjan's research interests include advocating for environmental sustainbilities, responsibilities for decolonial research, water and energy justice, critical anti-racist climate change resilience, and cross-cultural community research. He has 65 peer-reviewed publications, including 4 books, five edited books, two journal special issues on decolonial research, traditional story sharing, Indigenist community-based participatory action research, Indigenous land-water and sustainabilities issues. His current research program is supported by his existing network of Indigenous, visible minority immigrants and refugees, Black communities, scholars, students, practitioners, and professionals in Bangladesh, India, Canada, the USA, the UK, Ghana, and Malawi.