Water for Life

Water is a precious resource essential for all forms of life, and although there is plenty of water to meet the demand for the present population – and even for a projected population of 9 billion – there is significant spatial and temporal variation in its distribution. This results in water rich and water poor countries, water-related conflicts, and unsafe drinking water, a major killer identified by the World Health Organization (WHO). Water for Life: Drinking Water, Health, Food, Energy Nexus covers these issues, highlighting the multi-facted uses and importance of water in life: water resources, chemistry of water, drinking water, and the links between water and health, food, irrigation, soil, energy, transport, industry, recreation, disasters, and conflicts.

The book is accessible and clear, with technical elements. It is ideal as a background supplementary text to support more specialist study across civil engineering, geography, and social sciences, and will guide readers to see the big picture of environmentally sustainable water management for all human and other biotic lives.

Author Biography

A. W. Jayawardena is currently an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering of the University of Hong Kong where he has been teaching for many years. He has also been a Visiting Professor, Chu Hai College of Higher Education, Hong Kong; a Technical Advisor to the Research and Development Centre, Nippon Koei Co. Ltd, Japan; Research and Training Advisor to the International Centre for Water Hazard and Risk Management (ICHARM) under the auspices of UNESCO and concurrently a Professor in the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS), Japan; a Guest /Visiting Professor of Beijing Normal, Hohai and Tsinghua Universities, China; Honorary Professor in the Department of Statistics and Actuarial Sciences of the University of Hong Kong; an Adjunct Professor of Vellore Institute of Technology, India; Senior Engineer, Howard Humphrey & Sons, Consulting Engineers, UK; and an Engineer in the Irrigation Department of Sri Lanka. His awards include Visiting International Fellowship of the Environmental and Water Resources Institute (EWRI), American Society of Civil Engineers; International Award, Japan Society of Hydrology and Water Resources, and, Invitational Fellowship, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS). He has authored the books ‘Environmental and Hydrological Systems Modelling’, ‘Fluid Mechanics, Hydraulics, Hydrology and Water Resources for Civil Engineers’, and, authored/co-authored over 200 publications.