Contested Waters: Conflict, Scale, and Sustainability in Aquatic Socioecological Systems

Abstract

Adequate interpretations of the complex social processes that contribute to the transformation of aquatic ecosystems and subsequent conflicts over water demand an interdisciplinary perspective. In this special issue, we focus on the multiple causes of conflicts over water, sensitive to the complex interrelations between and within social and ecological phenomena that result in transformed and contested environments. The cases presented here--representing research carried out in Bangladesh, Pakistan, Thailand, Turkey, and the United States--emphasize three interrelated themes: the need to account for multiple spatial and temporal scales in analyzing conflicts over water and water-related resources; the complex character of environmental (or ecological) conflict; and questions of sustainability. Ultimately, more incisive understandings of the multiple causes of conflicts over water and aquatic resources are contingent on the integration of multiple disciplinary perspectives. This understanding will in turn promote uses of water and water-related resources that sustain rather than degrade aquatic socioecological systems.

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