Review Extract:

When he surveyed the American West in the latter part of the 1800s, John Wesley Powell famously recommended that irrigation systems and state frontiers be based on watershed contours lest the borders result in “a great deal of contention” among jurisdictions. No more prescient words have ever been spoken (U.S. House of Representatives, 1891, p. 254). Today, states and nations on every continent expend considerable energy disputing water-related boundaries, contesting their neighbours’ water uses and projects, and arguing over water rights. The result is a challenging system of transboundary water management that is politically charged and, all too often, results in mismanagement and waste rather than efficient and cooperative administration of shared water resources.