Water Walls – Invisible Boundaries in Dealing with Water Conflicts

This meta-analysis aims at categorising water conflicts and the way scientists, engineers and decision makers deal with them. It was found that while most publications on water conflicts recognize the complexity and uncertainty in water conflicts the proposed solutions differ widely.

Climate change is mentioned in most newer studies as a strong impact factor in water management and conflicts. The proposed solutions fall mainly into three categories: engineering publications propose models and decision support systems as the main means for conflict resolution. The second and most broad category deals with policies and stakeholder processes. The third category mainly deals with economic and market solutions.

It can be found that DSS and other engineering solutions are mainly proposed for small to medium scale schemes while economical and policy solutions are more often described in larger scale water conflicts. Many of the more social science based studies link water conflicts to power imbalances and minority or women rights. A broad range of publications look into water wars as an outcome of resource conflicts due to climate change. Newer studies shine a more positive light on possible conflict resolution possibilities and stakeholder processes. Education and the introduction of more sustainable agricultural and industrial practises is only linked to possible conflict resolution practises in very few studies. Overall it was found that while most studies describe water conflicts as a multi-facetted problem they often fall short in combining engineering, socio-economical and conflict resolution methods. It can be said that while there is already a wide range of studies and practises in dealing with water resources conflict resolution, real interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary approaches are still lacking. With climate change, economic and population growth it is therefore necessary to strengthen cooperation not only between different stakeholders and parties in water conflicts but just as much between different disciplines working on finding sustainable water distribution solutions.