Browsing by Author "Falkenmark, Malin"

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Agriculture, Water, and Ecosystems
(2007) Falkenmark, Malin; Galaz, Victor
"Agriculture depends on ecosystem functions such as pollination. This means it is closely linked with the health of surrounding ecosystems and should be considered an agro-ecosystem. Crop production systems have been managed as though they were disconnected from the landscape in general. Since the complex systems that make up the landscape are interconnected, this approach threatens the processes that make agriculture sustainable. Past agricultural management has caused wide scale changes in land cover, stream-flow, and groundwater systems. This has undermined the processes that support ecosystems and the services that they provide. Agriculture will continue to be a key driver of ecosystem change in the future."
Aral Sea Basin Heads for a Brighter Future
(2003) Falkenmark, Malin
"A recent Unesco study observed that the Aral Sea basin has everything necessary for a bright future. Water availability is not a limiting factor for reaching the socio-economic development objectives in terms of health, nutrition and wealth. This article examines why."
Drainage Basin Security: Prospects for Trade-offs and Benefit Sharing in a Globalised World
(2009) Lundqvist, Jan; Falkenmark, Malin; Jägerskog, Anders; Malmqvist, Per-Arne; Rogers, Peter; Bahri, Akiça; Savenije, Hubert; Martinsen, Cecilia; Granit, Jakob; McWilliams, Michael; Moore, Michael R.; Berntell, Anders
From p. 6: "The purpose of this report is to consolidate and reflect upon the knowledge, experience and lessons learned over the course of the five years. Several basic messages have emerged that encapsulate a perspective aimed to provoke further thought and action amongst the target audience: the World Water Week speakers and participants, the decision-makers, the experts, and the students that have a voice in how our water resources are managed."
Ecohydrosolidarity: Towards Better Balancing of Humans and Nature
(2009) Falkenmark, Malin
"For decades, humanity has been stuck at a conceptual standstill. The serious failures through three or four decades to come to grips with environmental degradation have undermined the life support system for our and all other species. Dry rivers, severely polluted water bodies and land systems pushed beyond the ecological thresholds have created a continuous decline of ecosystem services. Since ecosystems are water dependent, they are easily impacted when water's functions in the life support system are being disturbed."
Ecosystem Approach and Governance: Contrasting Interpretations
(2005) Falkenmark, Malin; Tropp, Håkan
"Since the 2nd World Water Forum in The Hague in 2000, water professionals have been working to develop a 'land/water integration in a catchment-based ecosystem approach.' As part of the development, it is important to realise that there is an existing dichotomy in the understanding of the concept of the 'ecosystem approach.' The two approaches might best be described as the socio-economic user-oriented approach, and the ecosystem-oriented approach."
Feeding Eight Billion People Time to Get Out of Past Misconceptions
(2001) Falkenmark, Malin
"The water necessary to produce the food required for an expanding human population is usually discussed only as an issue of blue water (the water we use from rivers and aquifers). This discussion neglects all the food produced from rainfed farming, which is critical not least in hunger and poverty stricken areas with rapid population growth, areas that depend not on blue water but on green water (the soil moisture used by plants and returned as vapor flow). A shift in water thinking is essential in order to find realistic and sustainable options to feed the world of tomorrow."
Global Warming: Water the Main Mediator
(2007) Falkenmark, Malin
"The climate change foreseen in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Fourth Assessment has major implications for the water sector. In this article, a followup to our report in the April 2007 Water Front, a set of policy-relevant impacts of the warming on natural and human systems considered to be of key interest to the water community are presented."
Global Warming: What Can We Expect?
(2007) Falkenmark, Malin
"This article summarises the Report’s main findings. Scientific projections of future climate change are now available in the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). It discusses climate change in relation to the amount of greenhouse gases and aerosols in the atmosphere, solar radiation and the properties of the world’s land surfaces. It also estimates future climate change for different scenarios of greenhouse gas emissions. This article summarises the Report’s main findings."
Humans and Ecosystems Share the Same Water
(2003) Falkenmark, Malin
"For some 30 years water managers have been told by environmentalists that they have to protect ecosystems. But what does that really mean in practice? What exactly has to be protected?"
Integrated Water Resources Management
(2000) Agarwal, Anil; de los Angeles, Marian S.; Bhatia, Ramesh; Chéret, Ivan; Davila-Poblete, Sonia; Falkenmark, Malin; Gonzalez-Villarreal, Fernando; Jønch-Clausen, Torkil; Aït Kadi, Mohammed; Kindler, Janusz; Rees, Judith A.; Roberts, Paul; Rogers, Peter; Solanes, Miguel; Wright, Albert
"The paper has been divided into two main parts. The first part puts forward a strong case for applying IWRM globally and defines the IWRM concept and process. The second part provides additional advice and guidance on how IWRM could be implemented in different conditions. Readers with limited time may decide to concentrate on the first part and use the second part for reference when needed. The paper is structured in such a way that an executive summary is not required. However, as a separate publication providing a short and popular summary the folder 'IWRM at a glance' is available."
Linkages Among Water Vapor Flows, Food Production, and Terrestrial Ecosystem Services
(1999) Rockström, Johan; Gordon, Line; Folke, Carl; Falkenmark, Malin; Engwall, Maria
"Global freshwater assessments have not addressed the linkages among water vapor flows, agricultural food production, and terrestrial ecosystem services. We perform the first bottom-up estimate of continental water vapor flows, subdivided into the major terrestrial biomes, and arrive at a total continental water vapor flow of 70,000 km3/yr (ranging from 56,000 to 84,000 km3/yr). Of this flow, 90% is attributed to forests, including woodlands (40,000 km3/yr), wetlands (1400 km3/yr), grasslands (15,100 km3/yr), and croplands (6800 km3/yr). These terrestrial biomes sustain society with essential welfare-supporting ecosystem services, including food production. By analyzing the freshwater requirements of an increasing demand for food in the year 2025, we discover a critical trade-off between flows of water vapor for food production and for other welfare-supporting ecosystem services. To reduce the risk of unintentional welfare losses, this trade-off must become embedded in intentional ecohydrological landscape management."
No Freshwater Security Without Major Shift in Thinking: Ten-Year Message from the Stockholm Water Symposia
(2000) Falkenmark, Malin
"The water issue is by no means an issue only for experts. It constitutes nothing less than a major question of human survival and is closely related to both the eradication of poverty and the need to secure health as well as adequate food supplies...While the water that moves through a landscape mirrors the integrated result of a whole set of parallel societal activities, it constitutes at the same time the life-sustaining bloodstream of the biosphere. The neglect, through past policy making, of the water cycle implications of human activities is difficult to understand. The water issue is by no means an issue only for experts. It constitutes nothing less than a major question of human survival, closely related to eradication of poverty, and the need to secure health as well as adequate food supplies...This publication gives an integrated overview of the conclusions arrived at in the Stockholm Water Symposia 1991-1999."
On the Verge of a New Water Scarcity: A Call for Good Governance and Human Ingenuity
(2007) Falkenmark, Malin; Berntell, Anders; Jägerskog, Anders; Lundqvist, Jan; Matz, Manfred; Tropp, Håkan
From p. 3: "The 2006 Human Development Report, 'Beyond Scarcity: Power, Poverty and the Global Crisis,' (United Nations Development Programme 2006) considered water scarcity from two points of view: (1) as a crisis arising from a lack of services that provide safe water and (2) as a crisis caused by scarce water resources. It concluded that the world’s water crisis is not related to the physical availability of water, but to unbalanced power relations, poverty and related inequalities. The focus now being placed on the importance of governance makes clear the importance of issues such as unfair power structures, and weakly defined roles, rights and responsibilities. These, it is felt, exacerbate natural water scarcity. This way of thinking has been useful in that it has increased our understanding of the need to manage demand as well as to increase supply. However, while governance remains a key challenge, we also need to better understand the issue of 'water crowding' – as increasing pressure is being placed on finite, erratically available and vulnerable water resources. Recognising this is the key to proper policy formulation. Rather than addressing management/governance problems, many countries still instinctively reach for supply-side solutions such as desalination or the use of reservoirs and other large-scale infrastructure. Such an approach is often the most politically feasible option within the context of a country or region’s water problems."
Peak Water: Entering an Era of Sharpening Water Shortages
(2008) Falkenmark, Malin
"A new concept, 'peak water' has emerged. It indicates that the era of easy access to blue water is coming to an end in many regions of the world. Expanding water pollution, depleted river streamflow, overdrawn groundwater, water usability threatened by salinisation, and water for ecosystems sinking below the acceptable minimum all point to a peaking of blue water resources, a theme highlighted in 'The World’s Water 2008-2009' from the Pacific Institute. Green water scarcity through soil and land degradation has been discussed as drought and desertification. Human ingenuity, coping strategies and fundamental rethinking on water management are urgently needed to mitigate the drivers of peak water and adapt to their effects on freshwater and natural resources."
Planetary Boundaries: Exploring the Safe Operating Space for Humanity
(2009) Rockström, Johan; Steffen, Will; Noone, Kevin; Persson, Åsa; Chapin, F. Stuart; Lambin, Eric; Lenton, Timothy M.; Scheffer, Marten; Folke, Carl; Schellnhuber, Hans Joachim; Nykvist, Björn; de Wit, Cynthia A.; Hughes, Terry; van der Leeuw, Sander; Rodhe, Henning; Sörlin, Sverker; Snyder, Peter K.; Costanza, Robert; Svedin, Uno; Falkenmark, Malin; Karlberg, Louise; Corell, Robert W.; Fabry, Victoria J.; Hansen, James; Walker, Brian H.; Liverman, Diana; Richardson, Katherine; Crutzen, Paul; Foley, Jonathan
"Anthropogenic pressures on the Earth System have reached a scale where abrupt global environmental change can no longer be excluded. We propose a new approach to global sustainability in which we define planetary boundaries within which we expect that humanity can operate safely. Transgressing one or more planetary boundaries may be deleterious or even catastrophic due to the risk of crossing thresholds that will trigger non-linear, abrupt environmental change within continental- to planetary-scale systems. We have identified nine planetary boundaries and, drawing upon current scientific understanding, we propose quantifications for seven of them. These seven are climate change (CO2 concentration in the atmosphere <350 ppm and/or a maximum change of +1 W m-2 in radiative forcing); ocean acidification (mean surface seawater saturation state with respect to aragonite ³ 80% of pre-industrial levels); stratospheric ozone (<5% reduction in O3 concentration from pre-industrial level of 290 Dobson Units); biogeochemical nitrogen (N) cycle (limit industrial and agricultural fixation of N2 to 35 Tg N yr-1) and phosphorus (P) cycle (annual P inflow to oceans not to exceed 10 times the natural background weathering of P); global freshwater use (<4000 km3 yr-1 of consumptive use of runoff resources); land system change (<15% of the ice-free land surface under cropland); and the rate at which biological diversity is lost (annual rate of <10 extinctions per million species). The two additional planetary boundaries for which we have not yet been able to determine a boundary level are chemical pollution and atmospheric aerosol loading. We estimate that humanity has already transgressed three planetary boundaries: for climate change, rate of biodiversity loss, and changes to the global nitrogen cycle. Planetary boundaries are interdependent, because transgressing one may both shift the position of other boundaries or cause them to be transgressed. The social impacts of transgressing boundaries will be a function of the social–ecological resilience of the affected societies. Our proposed boundaries are rough, first estimates only, surrounded by large uncertainties and knowledge gaps. Filling these gaps will require major advancements in Earth System and resilience science. The proposed concept of 'planetary boundaries' lays the groundwork for shifting our approach to governance and management, away from the essentially sectoral analyses of limits to growth aimed at minimizing negative externalities, toward the estimation of the safe space for human development. Planetary boundaries define, as it were, the boundaries of the 'planetary playing field' for humanity if we want to be sure of avoiding major human-induced environmental change on a global scale."
Rain: The Neglected Resource: Embracing Green Water Management Solutions
(2005) Falkenmark, Malin; Rockström, Johan
"The water necessary to produce the food required for an expanding human population is usually discussed only as an issue of blue water for irrigation (the water we use from rivers and aquifers). This discussion neglects that most food production is from rain fed farming. This is critical not least in hunger and poverty stricken areas with rapid population growth, areas that depend not on blue water but on green water from infi ltrated rain (the soil moistures used by plants and returned as vapour flow). A shift in water thinking which considers soil moisture is essential in order to fi nd realistic and sustainable options to feed the world of tomorrow. Rain: The Neglected Resource elucidates how a shift in thinking can change how we view the world’s water resources."
Taking from the Top: Looking Upstream in India
(2007) Falkenmark, Malin
"River basin closure has developed into a sizeable challenge of extreme importance. Over the past 50 years, many of the river basins that support the world’s breadbaskets have already or will soon become closed basins. Like the basins themselves, the world’s eye on this critical issue seems to be closing at a time when it can least afford to look away. Applying the findings of a groundwater use case from India, this article sheds some light on this blind spot in water resource management to see what is going on downstream in the great sub-continent."
Towards Hydrosolidarity: Ample Opportunities for Human Ingenuity
(2005) Falkenmark, Malin
"Water was one of five priority issues at the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg. It is recognised increasingly as an essential component in the dynamics of poverty; poor water management can indeed create and perpetuate poverty. Not only is secured access to water essential for poverty alleviation, but water development is closely linked to food production and hunger alleviation, and to energy development."
Water and Development in the Developing Countries: A Study Commissioned by the European Parliament
(2000) Björklund, Gunilla; Brismar, Anna; Ehlin, Ulf; Falkenmark, Malin; Lundqvist, Jan; Rockström, Johan; Swain, Ashok
"The aim of the study is to assist the European Parliament in formulating long term strategies and short term policies to aid developing countries to prepare and implement policies leading to efficient, equitable and ecologically sound water resources management. A policy and strategy must be possible to translate into feasible programmes and projects that can be executed."
Water and the Millennium Development Goals: Meeting the Needs of People and Ecosystems
(2003) Molden, David; Falkenmark, Malin
"When viewed in terms of water, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) targeting poverty and hunger seem to be in direct conflict with the goal on environmental sustainability. It is becoming increasingly clear that ensuring people access to water for growing food and earning a living will be necessary to end extreme poverty and hunger in rural areas."
Water for the Next 30 Years: Averting the Looming Water Crisis
(1997) Biswas, Asit; Björklund, Gunilla; Davis, Denis A.; Falkenmark, Malin; Kadi, Mohamed Ait; Kelman, Jerson; Klohn, Wulf; Kuylenstierna, Johan L.; Lindh, Anna; Mendiluce, Martin J. M.; Naljis, Pierre; Pérez del Rio, Julio P.; Rogers, Peter
"The Mar del Plata Anniversary Seminar used the occasion that twenty years have now past since the 1977 UN Water Conference. The aim was to analyze the impact that the Mar del Plata Conference has had on improving water management, and in what way ensuing thinking has continued to change our water perception, and to address the main issues of the next 30 years. The Seminar was to build a bridge between on the one hand successes and failures of past decades, and on the other the conceptual development, efforts and strategies needed for the next thirty years, and policy options available to avert the looming water crisis. This introductory article gives an overview over the contributions to the Seminar and an analysis of the results."
Water Harvesting for Upgrading of Rainfed Agriculture
(2001) Falkenmark, Malin; Fox, Patrick; Persson, Gunn; Rockström, Johan
"The report is mainly divided into three parts. The first part presents the hydroclimatic constraints and challenges facing farmers, and gives a brief presentation of water harvesting and farmers coping strategies to manage water scarcity. In the second part of the report regional approaches from sub-Saharan Africa, India and China are presented. Based on the financial support available and the possibility to obtain information from literature, it was decided to base the India chapter on literature and the China chapter on a short study visit to Gansu and Hebei provinces. Most knowledge in the field of water harvesting, among the authors of the report, is from sub-Saharan Africa. Therefore the sub-Saharan Africa chapter gives a comprehensive description of water harvesting experiences with emphasis on floodwater harvesting and storage systems supplementary irrigation. The last part of the report reflects knowledge gaps that need to be filled, both regarding technical -, process - and systems research."
Water is the Entry Point to Better Ecosystem Management
(2006) Falkenmark, Malin
"Ecosystems are living parts of the physical environment, building up the life support system for all living creatures. This makes human-induced ecosystem destruction all the more hazardous for those living today and, especially, for the coming generations. Since water is the 'bloodstream' of the biosphere, good water management can help protect ecosystems. In this article, SIWI Professor Malin Falkenmark looks at where we are in terms of entering ecosystem protection into Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM)."
Water Management and Ecosystems: Living with Change
(2003) Falkenmark, Malin
"This report, based on the links between water and ecosystems, outlines how ecosystem-focused approaches may be incorporated into integrated water resources management (IWRM). It analyses to what degree water is involved in the relationship between society and the surrounding ecosystems, clarifies how humans and ecosystems are sharing the same water, and shows how ecosystem sustainability may be strengthened within the IWRM process. The report will provide a conceptual background to support land/water integration in a catchment based ecosystem approach to human activities. It indicates how, within the framework of IWRM, the needed ecosystem perspective has to be combined with adequate social and economic perspectives to a broader, more holistic approach to management of fundamental livelihood components in a catchment. The main message of the report is that, by benefiting from the shared dependence of humans and ecosystems on water, IWRM can integrate land, water and ecosystems and promote the three E’s of IWRM – two human-related E’s (social equity, economic efficiency) and one ecosystem-related E (environmental sustainability)."
Yellow River Shows Signs of Life: The Future of Northern China As Region of Extreme Water Scarcity
(2003) Falkenmark, Malin; Guterstam, Björn
"The water predicament of the Yellow River, including Hai and Huai, its two water-starved neighbouring basins, has problems on a massive scale. It also has degrees of freedom which are limited in several senses: rural development has to be secured to avoid unwanted urban migration, irrigation water has to be secured to raise the income level of the rural population and avoid social conflicts, and food self-sufficiency on an improved nutritional level has to be secured for the rising population. At the same time, large scale sedimentation has to be avoided, otherwise flood risks to the densely populated neighbouring plains will be exacerbated."