Globalization of Water is a first-of-its-kind review of the critical relationship between globalization and sustainable water management. It explores the impact of international trade on local water depletion and pollution and identifies “water dependent” nations.

• Examines the critical link between water management and international trade, considering how local water depletion and pollution are often closely tied to the structure of the global economy
• Offers a consumer-based indicator of each nation’s water use: the water footprint
• Questions whether trade can enhance global water use efficiency, or whether it simply shifts the environmental burden to a distant location
• Highlights the hidden link between national consumption and the use of water resources across the globe, identifying the threats facing ‘water dependent’ countries worldwide
• Provides a state-of-the-art review and in-depth data source for a new field of knowledge

Arjen Y. Hoekstra has academic and professional experience in the field of integrated water resources management in various countries and is currently Professor of Multidisciplinary Water Management at the University of Twente, the Netherlands.

Ashok K. Chapagain has been an irrigation engineer in Nepal, received his PhD degree at the UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education in Delft, the Netherlands, was employed as researcher at the University of Twente, and currently works for the World Wide Fund for Nature in the UK.