ABSTRACT
The recent discourse on water security has emerged against a backdrop of increasing human demand for, and struggle over, scarce water resources across the globe (e.g., UN Development Programme, 2006; World Water Assessment Programme, 2009). The socioeconomic dimensions of water scarcity and water security have been extensively documented (see, for instance, most of the other chapters in this book). In contrast, the consequences of water policy and management decisions for freshwater ecosystems, and the potential knock-on effects on society from changes to those ecosystems, have often either been implicit in academic and policy debates about water security or they have been overlooked. This is despite fact that dams, over-abstraction of water, and other pressures have led to high-profile failures of freshwater ecosystems, such as the Murray-Darling River and the Aral Sea, with very substantial socioeconomic and political impacts. In fact, rivers and wetlands are now among the most threatened of all ecosystems globally (Finlayson et al., 2005; Vörösmarty et al., 2010; WWF, 2012). More broadly, the magnified political and media profile of environmental sustainability issues, dating back to the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development, suggests that sustainable management of natural resources requires specific attention to environmental, as well as socioeconomic, concerns.
