Article
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A New Dialectical Model of Water Security under Climate Change
Version 1
: Received: 13 June 2023 / Approved: 13 June 2023 / Online: 13 June 2023 (08:26:41 CEST)
A peer-reviewed article of this Preprint also exists.
Ganoulis, J. A New Dialectical Model of Water Security under Climate Change. Water 2023, 15, 2672. Ganoulis, J. A New Dialectical Model of Water Security under Climate Change. Water 2023, 15, 2672.
Abstract
The way humans use natural resources and especially freshwater, reflects their relationship with nature. It also influences the conceptual Water Resources Management (WRM) model. A historical review shows that the interplay between Humans and Nature is diachronically in constant change between two opposites: conflict and cooperation. Lessons from the past 20.000 years indicate that the WRM model is a function of two main parameters: (1) socio-economics, and (2) climate conditions. Three different Eras of the Humans-Nature relationship have been distinguished: (1) Naturalistic: Nature dominating Humans during the Last Glacial Period (100-10) kyr BC, (2) Dualistic: Nature-Humans cooperation and competition from 10 kyr BC to 1800 AD, and (3) Anthropocentric: Humans dominating Nature from 1800 AD to now. Since 2000, the Integrated WRM (IWRM) model is promoted as state-of-the-art and remains anthropocentric producing huge externalities. Its assessment during the last 20 years has given mixed results and needs to be reformulated. The new model we suggest is based on the dialectical tool for conflict resolution. It unifies Humans and Nature and enhances the social dimension of WRM. After identifying conflicts between stakeholders and the natural laws (eristic part), opposite objectives are unified to harmonize Humans with Nature (dialectical resolution). A case study of flood mitigation illustrates the eristic-dialectical methodology.
Keywords
water management; climate history; humans-nature cooperation; conflict resolution; dialectics
Subject
Environmental and Earth Sciences, Water Science and Technology
Copyright: This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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