In Asia and the Pacific, climate change is now a well-recognised risk to water security but responses to this risk are either under reported, or continue to be guided by the incremental or business as usual approaches. Water policy still tends to remain too narrow and fragmented, compared to the multi-sectoral and cross-scalar nature of risks to water security. What’s more, current water security debates tend to be framed in discipline specific or academic ways, failing to understand decision making and problem-solving contexts within which policy actors and partitioners have to operate on a daily basis. Much of the efforts to date has focussed on assessing and predicting the risks in the context of increasing levels of uncertainty. There is still limited analysis of emerging practices of risks assessment and mitigation in different contexts in Asia and the Pacific.
Going beyond the national scales and focussing on several socio-ecological zones, this book captures stories written by engaged scholars on recent attempts to develop cross-sectoral and cross-scaler solutions to assess and mitigate risks to water security across Asia and the Pacific. Identifying lessons from successes and failures, it highlights management and strategic lessons that water and climate leaders of Asia and the Pacific need to consider. This book showcases reflective and analytical thought pieces written by key actors in the climate and water spaces. Several critical socio-ecological zones are covered – from Pakistan in the west to pacific islands in the east. The chapters clearly identify strategies for improvement based on the analysis of emerging responses to climate risks to water security and gaps in current practices. The book will include an editorial introduction and a final synthesis chapter to ensure clear articulation of common themes and to highlight the overall messages of the book.
Hemant Ojha is the Principal Advisor of Institute for Study and Development Worldwide (IFSD) in Sydney and Associate Professor at University of Canberra, Australia. As a public policy and governance scientist, and he takes interdisciplinary approach to research and policy engagement in the area of forest, water, land, and agriculture. His scholarly work on community-based forest governance and policy is well known globally. At IFSD, he is creating innovative knowledge partnership on water and natural resources management, connecting various Australian and international agencies with national partners in India, Pakistan, and Nepal in South Asia.
Nick Schofield recently retired as the Chief Executive of the Australian Water Partnership, with over 35 years’ experience in the water and natural resource management sector. He has led 14 major research programs across Australia at the intersections of water, agriculture, forestry, mining, urbanisation, biodiversity and climate change. Nick has developed national policies and pioneered methods in research prioritisation, evaluation and futures analysis. Nick was formerly Director of the Global Water Institute at the University of New South Wales, CEO of the International RiverFoundation, and CEO of the Western Australian Ministerial Water Resources Council. He has also held senior positions in government, industry, consulting, academia and the not-for-profit sectors.
Jeff Camkin holds tertiary qualifications in science and natural resources law, and has worked in water, irrigation, fisheries and other natural resources research, management, policy and governance for the last 25 years. He is currently Adjunct Professor (Water Resource Management) at the University of Western Australia’s Institute for Agriculture, Adjunct Prof at the International Water Centre, Griffith University, Brisbane, visiting Professor at the Laboratório Nacional de Engenharia Civil in Lisbon, Portugal, Senior Fellow (Water Policy and Management) at the Institute for Study and Development Worldwide, and Editor-in-Chief of World Water Policy Journal. Jeff's work is focussed on integrated water resource management and governance and, in particular, promoting transdisciplinary strategic thinking, improved utilisation of local knowledge and effective collaboration for better policy outcomes.
