Freshwater and its allocation between competing users and uses has always been conflict ridden, but the intensity of these conflicts has escalated in recent history because of increased urbanization, changes in diet, increased population and several local factors (Dirksen, 2002). The escalation...

Freshwater availability to meet the growing needs of humankind has raised serious concerns in the recent past. Two immediate responses to counter this challenge are efficient allocation of the scarce resources, and development and use of alternative sources of water. While ‘water markets’...

This chapter describes and analyzes Australian surface water and groundwater policies and laws, particularly in relation to agriculture. Building on the historical perspective provided by Musgrave in Chapter 3, I offer a legal perspective of the development phases in Australian water history....

Sustainable development is expressed in a number of statements for example the UNESCO Draft Law of Transboundary Aquifers and the Rio Declaration. Since 1992 many Australian acts of parliament at State and federal level such as the recent Water Act 2007 (Cth) require implementation of...

Participatory research approaches have gained popularity within the natural resource management domain, particularly irrigation management since 1980s. Some of these methods allow the examination of values and emotions with regard to the management of natural resources and hence can supplement...

The concept of sustainable development has emerged over the last 30 years and its development and articulation has a number of antecedents and it can be interpreted in many ways. But the idea of sustainability, as we now understand it, was articulated in the 1987 Brundtland Report as the...