32nd International Geographical Congress: CfP for integrative approaches to water resource management, IGU 2012

The 32nd International Geographical Congress in Cologne focuses scientific attention on the core themes of humanity. Researchers from around the world are expected in Cologne in 2012.
Geographers bring the wide-ranging perspectives and methodology of their subject to bear on four major thematic complexes and contribute to the solution of urgent scientific and socio-political issues – bringing research down to earth:

• Global Change and Globalisation
• Society and Environment
• Risks and Conflicts
• Urbanisation and Demographic Change

Both climate change and socio-economic development will significantly modify the supply and consumption of water in future, and consequently stress existing management patterns and regulations of conflicts of interest. Against this background, water management practices and strategies have to be fundamentally revisited.

Water management is regarded as the expression of a historically evolving interaction between biophysical properties and social relations.

The regulation of these socio-ecological dynamics is the core of water management, which shapes the waterscape, i.e. where water is tapped and stored, and how it is distributed to the different water users according to socially negotiated rules. The aim of this session is to provide space to discuss more integrative and alternative approaches to water management.

We especially welcome conceptual or theoretical contributions to the following areas:

-          Interdisciplinary studies tackling questions of water management in times of global change, which focus on the integration of physical and human geographical perspectives: What are suitable approaches to integrate research on water resources, water use systems, and water governance (from integrative modeling to qualitative bridging concepts) -          Scales of water management: What are appropriate scales of water management – river basins vs political units? What are potential and limitations to governance approaches such as IWRM?
-          Stakeholder dialogue: How can stakeholders be fruitfully involved in research or projects related to more sustainable water management? What are enabling or hindering factors in processes of transdisciplinary co-production of knowledge and social learning?

Empirical case studies can be from the Global North or South in order to enable a comparison of approaches, experiences and best practices.