From Catchment Management to Managing River Basins: Science, Technology Choices, Institutions and Policy (Current Directions in Water Scarcity Research)

From Catchment Management to Managing River Basins: Science, Technology Choices, Institutions and Policy synthesizes key scientific facts crucial for catchment assessment, planning and river basin water accounting. The book presents extensive reviews of international literature on catchment hydrology, forest hydrology and other hydrological processes, such as groundwater-surface water interactions. It discusses not only the science of catchment assessment and planning, but also the catchment planning process. It documents several of the positive international experiences with integrated catchment management and integrated basin management, distilling key learnings. Case studies from India and other parts of South Asia are also included, along with new pilot studies.

Finally, the book discusses the theoretical and operational aspects of integrated catchment management and integrated water management in river basins using international best practices and case studies.

Dr Dinesh Kumar is the Executive Director of the Institute for Resource Analysis and Policy in Hyderabad, an Indian think-tank on water management founded by him in 2008. He holds a degree in Civil Engineering (focus on water resources management) and a Ph. D in Water Management. He works on water, agriculture, and energy related issues in India and internationally, heading several research and consultancy projects and training assignments of the organization. He is the author of nearly 300 research publications, including nine academic books, nine edited volumes, and several international, peer-reviewed journal articles. He is on the editorial board of four prestigious international journals, Viz., Water Policy, International Journal of Water Resources Development, PLOS Water journal and Frontiers in Water. In a career spanning 30 years, Kumar has visited 21 countries, for conferences and official work.

V Ratna Reddy is an economist by training with experience in the fields of environmental economics and natural resource management, climate change, livelihoods and institutions. He is an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow at South Asian Institute, Germany. Visiting fellow at the Institute of Development Studies, Sussex and the University of Leeds, UK. Served as consultant to organisations like: The World Bank; ADB; UNDP; DFID; EC; WWF, IWMI, ICRISAT, UNU, etc. He had served as a working group member in the preparation of 11th and 12th Plans for the Government of India. He has published 12 books and more than 150 research papers in international and national peer reviewed journals. He has a Ph. D in Economics (1992, Institute for Social and Economic Change, Bangalore through University of Mysore); Post. Doc- Alexander von Humboldt research Fellow, South Asian Institute, Heidelberg University, Germany. Since 2009, he is Director of Livelihoods and Natural Resource Management Institute, Hyderabad. During 1999-2008, he served as Professor at Centre for Economic and Social Studies, Hyderabad. During 1998-1999, he was reader, Dept of Economics at Hyderabad Central University. Prior to that since 1992, he was Fellow, Institute of Development Studies, Jaipur and Lecturer, Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics, Pune during 1988-92. He has experience working in India, Somalia; Ghana and Sri Lanka

A J James holds a PhD in Economics (University College London); has taught at St. Stephen’s College and the Delhi School of Economics; and has been a Visiting Fellow at the Institute of Economic Growth, Delhi. He has over 20 years of research and work experience in a development issues including water and sanitation, water pollution, watershed development, irrigation & drainage, health, education, adaptation to climate change, natural resource management, agriculture, forestry and poverty alleviation. Another area of specialization is monitoring and evaluation, wherein he had helped to develop innovative methodologies for community-level assessment of qualitative information. Besides India, he has worked in Nepal, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Ethiopia, Tanzania and Afghanistan. His clients funding agencies (World Bank, DFID, UNDP, Unicef, FAO and ADB), research & development institutions (ENTRO, Addis Ababa), IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre (Netherlands), Overseas Development Institute (London), Institute for Arable Crop Research, UK and Natural Resources Institute, UK) consulting firms in India and abroad, non-governmental organisations and Indian government agencies. He has given several invited talks and seminars, besides editing books, contributing book chapters and publishing articles in international peer-reviewed journals. He is an Honorary Visiting Professor at the Institute of Development Studies, Jaipur, since 2011.