The Atlas of Water: Mapping the World's Most Critical Resource (The Earthscan Atlas) - Softcover

Black, Maggie; King, Jannet

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1844078272 ISBN 13: 9781844078271

Publisher: Routledge, 2009

Synopsis

The planet's finite supply of fresh water is under such pressure that soon it may be the most valuable commodity on earth. The new edition of this crucial and timely atlas shows water distribution worldwide, and reflects the latest thinking and emerging issues. With updated data throughout, the atlas covers a wide range of topics to map how our limited water resources are shared and used around the world, as well as the challenges posed to their management by today's unprecedented population and environmental pressures. It includes completely new maps on climate change, water for tourism, dam construction, biodiversity, and water management, commerce and legislation. With snapshots of especially vulnerable areas and major polluters as well the global picture, this is a unique resource for general readers as well as policy makers and students. Divided into six parts, each prefaced with an introductory essay, the atlas investigates the nature of the resource itself, through its uses in all kinds of human activity, to the vexed questions of how to manage water well and avoid the threat of 'water conflicts'.

About this title

Review

'An indispensable guide to a vital issue.' Scientific and Medical Network Review

"Visually ingenious." OXFAM Development Resources Review

"A very attractive and useful book...Highly recommended." New Agriculturalist

"Provides a fascinating look at the state of water in our world and can be considered a must-read for anyone grappling with this complex topic." The Sierra Club Green Life Blog

"I hope - if only in a small way - that I can encourage people to read and learn from this book. It is accessible to a wide range of readers from school children upwards and presents information and analysis in a clear and attractive 'atlas' format [and is] clearly of great value for researchers, practitioners such as myself, water policy makers and their advisers. [...] The contents of the book are [...] all one could hope for" Mike Woolgar, Waterlines

"Attractively presented and easy to understand... all the maps an associated texts are interesting and pertinent." HealthMatters

"An excellent handbook" The Economist

"It is a pioneering work unraveling the water world comprehensively in a unique format of fascinating analysis and illustrated by data charts, figures, photographs with lucid narration. [...] such a book was an urgent necessity." Subhajyoti Das in the Journal of the Geological Society of India

About the Author

Maggie Black is a writer on international issues and the author of several books on water and sanitation. These include Water: A Matter of Life and Health (with Rupert Talbot), OUP and Unicef, New Delhi, 2004; Water, Life Force and The No-Nonsense Guide to Water, New Internationalist Publications, both 2005; and The Last Taboo: Opening the Door on the Global Sanitation Crisis (with Ben Fawcett), Earthscan 2008. Jannet King was co-author, with Robin Clarke, of the first edition of the atlas. She has spent many years researching and editing political and historical atlases, including the award-winning Atlas of Food, Atlas of Endangered Species,The State of the World Atlas, and the World Bank series of mini-Atlases on global development, the environment and human security.

About this edition

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 1844078272
• ISBN 13: 9781844078271
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 128