Water resilience for human prosperity / Johan Rockstrom, Johan, Malin Falkenmark, Carl Foilke

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Part I. A New Perspective: -- 1. The role played by water in the biosphere -- The fundamental role of water in sustaining life on earth -- Water in the era of the great acceleration of human enterprise -- Recognising the boundaries of water use -- The role of water in social-ecological resilience -- Water resilience -- A new conceptual framework: water resilience for human prosperity in the Anthropocene era -- Part II. Living in a Human-Dominated World: -- 2. Human modification of the Earth system Humans have altered jthe earth system through multiple drivers of change -- Interacting anthropogenic drivers, impacts and feedbacks in the earth system -- We now live in the Anthropocene era, and are approaching various water-related tipping points -- 3. Balancing on a threshold of alternate development paths: regime shifts, traps and transformations -- Rapid, accelerating and surprising changes in the Anthropocene era -- What are regime shifts? -- Regime shifts can happen across the whole hydrological cycle -- Regime shifts involve both social and ecological processess -- Enhancing resilience in the face of regime shifts -- Traps: highly resilient but undersirable situations -- 4. Crucial functioning of and human dependence on the global water system -- The role of water as the bloodstream of the biosphere -- The global water system as part of the earth system -- Changes, interactions, feedbacks, teleconnections and resilience in the global water system -- Water-related indicators for water security and food security -- Comparative analysis of water scarity in a number of large river basins -- Part III. Food Production Globally: in Hotspot Regions and in the Landscape: -- 5. Food production: a mega water challenge -- Food demand trajectories and water preconditions -- Consumptive food water requirements by 2050 -- Preconditions at the system level: sustaining the ability to produce food for humanity -- 6. Closing the yield gap in the Savannah zone -- Challenges and opportunities in the Savannah zone -- Agricultural water management interventions to increase productivity -- Making small-scale green water management technologies work in a cmplex, turbulent world

7. Water resources and functions for agro-ecological systems at the landscape scale Social-hydrological-ecological systems at the landscape scale -- Agricultural expansion and intensification affects landscape multifunctionality -- Three examples of landscape transformations and possible transitions -- Part IV. Governance and Pathways: -- 8. Governance for navigating the novel freshwater dynamics of the Anthropocene -- The Anthropocene era requires novel governance and management -- IWRM: the dominant paradigm -- Governance frontiers -- Signs of a paradigm shift and managing change -- Governance of transformation: a multi-level challenge -- 9. Pathways to the future -- Bloodstream management -- A new global water situation in the Anthropocene era -- The need to reconnect with the biosphere -- Towards'water stewardship for resilience'.

'The world's human population now constitutes the largest driving force of changes to the biosphere. Emerging water challenges require new ideas for governance and management of water resources in the context of rapid global change. This book presents a new approach to water resources, addressing global sustainability and focusing on socio-ecological resilience to changes. Topics covered include the risks of unexpected change, human impacts and dependence on global water, the prospects for feeding the world's population by 2050, and a pathway for the future. The book's innovative and integrated approach links green and blue freshwater with terrestrial and aquatic ecosystem functions and use. It also links changes arising from land-use alteration with the impacts of those changes on social-ecological systems and ecosystem services. This is an important, state-of-the-art resource for academic researchers and water resource professionals, and also a key reference for graduate students studying water resource governance and management'-- Provided by publisher.