Social Aspects of Water Scarcity and Drought

Water scarcity and droughts are socio-environmental hazards that affect the lives of millions of people every year. This chapter examines the multi-faceted dimensions of these phenomena and their implications to human societies. Various aspects will be considered, including the relation with climate change, economic and socio-political dimensions, under the main focus of development studies. The introductory section discusses water scarcity and drought in the light of the international development goals and global environmental change. The second part will provide some popular definitions of concepts and measures, i.e., water scarcity/stress indicators and management strategies, water poverty and drought. The third part will consider relevant social-environmental concepts that are discussed in literature such as vulnerability, resilience, and adaptation. The fourth part will present case studies especially from Europe, Africa and the Middle East, to illustrate the relevance of human (including socio-cultural-political) structures shaping adaptation to drought. In this line, water scarcity and drought will be studied: 1) as a normal condition in some areas of the world (e.g., in the Saharan and Sahelian belts of Africa), where populations have established resilient socio-ecological systems; 2) in terms of climate change and progressive deterioration of the environment to which communities have either been able to adapt to (e.g., in southern Europe), or have been forced to experience crises, poverty and migrations (e.g., in Sudan, Morocco, Kenya); and 3) in terms of conflicts and residential segregation that makes water inaccessible to certain groups (e.g., in the West Bank). Finally, this chapter will conclude with some international conventions and regulations, like the UNFCCC and the European guidelines for drought risk management, addressing social problems related to drought.Peer reviewe

Local ecological knowledge in deteriorating water catchments : Reconsidering environmental histories and inclusive governance in the Taita Hills, Kenya

In many developing countries, formal natural resource management is still largely based on top-down approaches that rely on professional ecological knowledge and bureaucratic procedures. Despite general support for community participation in the context of decentralised governance, perspectives of local people are often neglected in management planning and decision-making. At the same time, local people are considered responsible for environmental degradation, while historical political, economic and other structural changes, which have led to unsustainable land and water uses, are overlooked. This dissertation focuses on examining the challenges and possibilities of enhancing community participation and the role of local ecological knowledge in environmental management through a case study from the Taita Hills, Kenya. Political ecology provides the overall framework for the study and both theoretical and ethical guidance are drawn from postcolonial and decolonial thinking. The dissertation consists of one review and four case study articles that are tied together by a “pathway” towards decolonizing environmental governance and building of symmetric dialogues between local people and state authorities. The material for the case studies was largely collected through a multi-method participatory mapping process in 2013-2014. The process is methodologically important because it highlights the significance of the historical perspective for understanding socio-environmental problems and respects local ways of knowing and thus provides the possibility to move towards decolonizing knowledge production. This study shows how the causes of increasing vulnerability and decreasing resilience to water scarcity and droughts can be traced back to changes in land use policies, the impacts of the neoliberalization of environmental governance, and ultimately, the subalternization of local people and their ecological knowledges. Furthermore, the dissertation locates the roots of the asymmetric environmental dialogues between local people and management authorities to the diverging framings of the environmental problems. Prioritization of the state’s economic interests in local environmental negotiations, instead of local perspectives and historical injustices, reproduces the coloniality of power. To overcome this vicious circle, societal learning and transformation are needed.Monissa kehittyvissä maissa luonnonvarojen hallinta perustuu suurelta osin virkamiestietoon ja byrokraattisiin toimintamalleihin. Vaikka vallitseva uusliberaalin ympäristöhallinnan lähestymistapa onkin edistänyt paikallisyhteisöjen osallistamista, jätetään paikalliset näkökulmat usein huomiotta suunnittelussa ja päätöksenteossa. Paikallisten ihmisten nähdään kuitenkin usein olevan vastuussa ympäristön tilan heikkenemisestä, koska he eivät resurssipulan vuoksi pysty aina noudattamaan kaikkia ympäristösäädöksiä ja hallinnallisia käytäntöjä. Tämä tarkastelutapa ei kuitenkaan huomioi historiallisia poliittisia, taloudellisia ja sosiaalisia tekijöitä, jotka ovat johtaneet kestämättömään maa- ja vesivarojen käyttöön ja, joita tarkastelemalla, voitaisiin vastuita arvioida uudelleen. Tämä väitöskirja tarkastelee mahdollisuuksia ja haasteita, jotka liittyvät paikallisyhteisöjen osallistamiseen ja paikallistiedon tuomiseen ympäristövarojen hallinnan prosesseihin Kenian Taitavuorille sijoittuvan tapaustutkimuksen kautta. Poliittinen ekologia tarjoaa tutkimukselle teoreettisen viitekehyksen, jonka ohessa teoreettista ja eettistä opastusta on etsitty jälkikoloniaalisesta ja dekoloniaalisesta ajattelusta. Väitöskirja perustuu neljään tutkimusartikkeliin, jotka on sidottu toisiinsa ”polulla”, joka tarjoaa aineksia ympäristöhallinnon valta-asetelmien purkamiseen ja eri toimijoiden välisen symmetrisen vuoropuhelun rakentamiseen. Tapaustutkimus-aineisto kerättiin pääosin useita laadullisia menetelmiä yhdistävän osallistavan kartoitusprosessin avulla vuosina 2013-2014. Tutkimus osoittaa kuinka paikallisyhteisön haavoittuvuuden kasvun ja heikentyvän resilienssin sekä niiden aiheuttamien vesiongelmien juuret ulottuvat muutoksiin maankäyttöpolitiikoissa, ympäristöhallinnan uusliberalisaatioon sekä paikallisten ihmisten ekologisen tiedon alisteiseen asemaan Taitavuorilla. Lisäksi tulokset osoittavat kuinka epäsymmetrinen vuoropuhelu kytkeytyy paikallisten ihmisten ja hallintoviranomaisten erilaisiin tapoihin ymmärtää ympäristöongelmien lähtökohdat. Valtiontasolla muotoiltujen taloudellisten tavoitteiden asettaminen etusijalle paikallisympäristöä koskevassa päätöksenteossa johtaa kulttuuristen näkökulmien ja epäoikeudenmukaisen resurssienjaon kysymysten sivuuttamiseen sekä uusintaa koloniaalista valtasuhdetta. Tämän muuttaminen vaatii yhteiskunnallista oppimista ja siirtymistä kohti tasa-arvoisempaa, eri toimijaryhmät tunnistavaa vuoropuhelua

Osallistuva kartoitus ympäristösuhteiden tutkimuksessa

Peer reviewe

Political ecology of asymmetric ecological knowledges : diverging views on the eucalyptus-water nexus in the Taita Hills, Kenya

Environmental resource management policies worldwide have long insisted on the need to involve local communities and their diverse ecological knowledges in management planning and decision-making. In SubSaharan post-colonial countries, however, formal resource management is still largely dominated by bureaucratic governance regimes that date back to colonial power structures and that rely mainly on professional or formal knowledge. In this study, we use a political ecology approach to analyze disputes over eucalyptus plantations in the Taita Hills, Kenya. The approach recognizes the plurality of socially constructed and powerladen perceptions of environmental resources. We found that local people regard eucalyptus plantations not only as a threat to local water resources but they also highlight historical injustices and the loss of control over, and cultural relationships to their land. Bureaucratic resource management institutions, however, support the planting of eucalyptus to meet national demands for commercial forestry. Management officials also plead a lack of "valid" evidence for the negative impacts of eucalyptus on local water resources, diverting attention away from the formal environmental governance system which has unequal sharing of benefits, unclear policies, and internal incoherence. Recognition of historically rooted asymmetries of knowledge and power provides a step towards social transformation, ending a long-standing reproduction of subalternity, and promoting environmental justice and pluralism in decision-making. Keywords: bureaucratic knowledge; environmental justice; eucalyptus; Kenya; knowledge asymmetries; local ecological knowledge; political ecology; resource managementPeer reviewe

Laser scanning applications in fluvial studies

Peer reviewe

Occurrence of meteorological summer dry spells and dry days in northern Europe during the 20th century

Abstract In spite of the relatively humid climate of Northern Europe, prolonged meteorological dry spells do occasionally cause problems for the water supply in different sectors of society. During recent decades, total annual precipitation has increased in the region, especially during winter. A linear change in total precipitation does not necessarily indicate a change in the occurrence of meteorological drought across different time scales. In this study, temporal changes of meteorological summer (May-August) dry spells (MDS) and dry days (MDD) are analysed using measured precipitation observations from 12 weather stations located around Northern Europe. The statistics studied are the number of MDDs (&lt;1.0 and &lt;0.1 mm) per selected periods, plus the lengths of the longest MDSs during which the total accumulated precipitation remains under certain thresholds, namely 10 and 100 mm. The results suggest that, in general, the lengths of the longest MDSs and the numbers of MDDs do not differ remarkably between the stations, median value being 26/80 days (&lt;10/&lt;100 mm rain) and 87/70 days (&lt;1.0/&lt;0.1 mm/day), respectively. A distinct exception is Bergen, in Norway, where the lengths of the longest MDSs are shorter (19 and 41 days, on average) and the numbers of MDDs lower (ca. 64 and 50 days) than at the other stations. During the period of homogeneous instrumental precipitation observations, the occurrence of summer MDSs and MDD have remained the same at most of the stations. Only a few statistically significant increasing temporal trends appear in the time series of MDDs in the southern parts of the region. In the north, one statistically significant decreasing trend has been detected. In spite of the relatively humid climate of Northern Europe, prolonged meteorological dry spells do occasionally cause problems for the water supply in different sectors of society. During recent decades, total annual precipitation has increased in the region, especially during winter. A linear change in total precipitation does not necessarily indicate a change in the occurrence of meteorological drought across different time scales. In this study, temporal changes of meteorological summer (May-August) dry spells (MDS) and dry days (MDD) are analysed using measured precipitation observations from 12 weather stations located around Northern Europe. The statistics studied are the number of MDDs (&lt;1.0 and &lt;0.1 mm) per selected periods, plus the lengths of the longest MDSs during which the total accumulated precipitation remains under certain thresholds, namely 10 and 100 mm. The results suggest that, in general, the lengths of the longest MDSs and the numbers of MDDs do not differ remarkably between the stations, median value being 26/80 days (&lt;10/&lt;100 mm rain) and 87/70 days (&lt;1.0/&lt;0.1 mm/day), respectively. A distinct exception is Bergen, in Norway, where the lengths of the longest MDSs are shorter (19 and 41 days, on average) and the numbers of MDDs lower (ca. 64 and 50 days) than at the other stations. During the period of homogeneous instrumental precipitation observations, the occurrence of summer MDSs and MDD have remained the same at most of the stations. Only a few statistically significant increasing temporal trends appear in the time series of MDDs in the southern parts of the region. In the north, one statistically significant decreasing trend has been detected.</div

Community and institutional perspectives on water management and environmental changes in the Taita Hills, Kenya

Water resources are declining in the Taita Hills, but what do local residents say about it? This report presents the outcome of the field research that was conducted in Kenya in 2013-2014, as part of the TAITAWATER project funded by the Academy of Finland. The study aims to understand the current status of water-related ecosystem services from the perspective of local people, to analyse the driving forces behind the declining water resources and to map the roles of different stakeholders and institutions involved in the management of water resources and related ecosystems. The study employs qualitative and participatory research methods, such as semistructured interviews, participatory mapping and timelines, targeting local water users, community groups and management institutions. The philosophy of this work is to enact inclusive science as a starting point for a more participatory dialogue between all stakeholders involved in natural resource management in the Taita Hills