Visit the Water Shelf main page
Listen to this review:
I have never taken a water management course, but I can imagine the topics such a course might cover: the water cycle and hydrology basics, the history of water management (a.k.a. the history of civilization itself), agricultural versus urban uses, “hard” versus “soft” water management practices, “one water” principles, and impacts of climate change — to name only a few. In his new book Water Management: Prioritizing Justice and Sustainability (Island Press, 2024), Dr. Shimon Anisfeld provides a comprehensive overview of these and other important topics, while seeking to de- and re-construct the discourse on water management and release it from the classroom to the streets.
Water Management has all the attributes of a college textbook — its size (both length and weight), pedagogical structure (preview, content, summary-review), highlighted key terms with definitions in the glossary, study questions — all geared to make the reading easier and of practical value to both student and teacher. In the Preface, Anisfeld helpfully points to the modularity of his book, where readers who don’t have time to get through all 400+ pages can focus on particular issues and chapters (I took him up on this). Perhaps due to it being a paperback, Water Management is relatively inexpensive as textbooks go ($50) and is supplemented by a free companion website that provides a water science primer, companion materials, and updated data. In short, this book is definitely a bargain and well worth purchasing even if no instructor tells you to.
Anisfeld begins by introducing the basic concept of managing “water as a resource for human use,” placing it in the current context of change and limits. He then splits the water resource universe into sections on instream management and offstream use, sandwiching a third on water governance. As advertised, Anisfeld clearly prioritizes environmental justice and “green” practices over “grey” infrastructure-focused water supply development. His approach aligns well with a movement to prioritize “soft path” over “hard path” water management practices — a movement pioneered by Maude Barlow and most fully articulated by Peter Gleick, documented and incorporated into the “slow water” movement by Erica Gies, given respectful treatment from an engineering perspective by David Sedlak, and strenuously countered by the infrastructure-philic “abundance” movement promoted by Edward Ring.
Regardless of where the reader lands in this debate, Water Management has much to teach practitioners and students alike. For example, I was surprised and enlightened by the potential political benefit of desalination in reducing international tensions due to limited, shared, and fought over water supplies. I knew about the high energy use of desalination plants, but their challenge in removing boron was news to me. Similarly, I was aware of the problems “too clean” desalinated water created in corroding pipes, but I was unaware that its consumption may increase the risk of heart disease and iodine deficiency. I also learned a great deal about other water management topics, such as “green water” (i.e., water in the soil available to plants but not people); the difference between droughts, megadroughts, and aridification; and the danger of global greening. I’ll admit that I got lost at times with the use of unfamiliar (or differently familiar) acronyms like “PDF” (probability density function, a representation of the probability of events of different magnitudes, like flooding), though his use of “BuRec” for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation is a spiffy alternative to the more familiar “USBR.”
Anisfeld’s book is unique not only in how much information it delivers but also in the clarity of its presentation. He supplements descriptions with conceptual diagrams that, combined, make difficult topics understandable — such as a figure (reproduced on the companion website) showing every possible planned and unplanned way that wastewater is reused as water supply. I was particularly impressed by his comprehensive yet succinct and highly readable review of urban water systems, pointing out both their accomplishments and challenges, including the tremendous health benefits of public drinking water and the status of 2.2 million miles of distribution pipelines that are collectively reaching their end of useful life. One of the most shocking facts he skillfully summarizes is that “[w]e collectively spend over $18 billion per year on a product [bottled water] that would cost about $20 million if drawn from the tap” (his emphases; Manny Teodoro et al go into depth on this travesty). And I had never heard of the term “hydro-illogical cycle” — drought panics followed by apathy when it rains — but the phrase aptly describes a phenomenon I have lived through many times in my career.
One realizes in reading how complicated, diverse, conflictual, historical, and difficult the topic of water management is to understand. One might consider the book’s overall structure — the near-biblical dividing of the waters between instream and offstream — as an attempt to prioritize by starting with the natural environment and ending with the world’s largest water extractor, agriculture. However, not only does this structure make it difficult to situate water management practices like offstream reservoirs or to address resources like percolating groundwater, but it also creates a linear literary form without a satisfying end. Perhaps in future editions, Anisfeld will consider adding a short conclusion that attempts to close the loop on the future of water management, with pragmatic ideas about how to integrate offstream demands into reclaimed watersheds.
With Water Management, Anisfeld has accomplished a feat that will benefit a broad audience, and hopefully the biosphere we call home. I am left to wonder how a student taught out of this book would apply their learning when they enter the water management workforce. While Anisfeld provides guidance and comprehensive general knowledge, its application will be left to his students in the real world of water management itself. Their lived experience of inserting environmental justice principles into the daily management of dams, canals, pipelines, farm fields, power plants, and school yards will be a challenge, to say the least.
On the whole, Anisfeld’s fundamental and clearly articulated call for resilience, based on the end of stationarity and backed up by his comprehensive assessment of the field, survives any debate:
“In short, we need a new water management based on resilience. We need water management that takes seriously the possibility of unusual events that individual water managers have not previously experienced. We need water management with a diverse array of supply, demand, and storage solutions. We need water management that builds in a margin of safety rather than allowing water demand to push up against the limits of water availability. We need water management that responds nimbly and creatively to changing conditions.”