New Thinking on the Path to Sustainable Freshwater Management

Addressing the myriad and complex freshwater problems that face the planet will require new thinking in the 21^st century. Old solutions, old technologies, and old policies must be updated to help us solve unresolved issues associated with the failure to meet basic human and ecosystem needs for water, growing political conflicts over shared water resources, and the threat of climate changes to the hydrologic cycle and human-build water systems. Science and technology must play a key role in identifying and solving freshwater problems, but we must also learn lessons from economics and the social sciences as well. This talk will describe the “soft path” to sustainable water management and use and offer guidance to scientists and the policy community for moving more rapidly to prevent water-related tragedies from worsening. In particular, new approaches to water supply, water demand, and water institutions will all be necessary. Examples of success stories in each of these areas will be offered to highlight progress along this new path.