Interregional Water Transfers: Projects and Problems

Shortage of water is one of the constraints for economic development in many regions of the world. One of the ways to alleviate the situation is the transfer of water from places with surplus to areas with deficit of water. Now very large projects exist implying diversions of big amounts of water from one distant basin to another one. These projects and their impacts should be regarded as large complex systems. The Resources and Environment Area at IIASA is carrying out systems studies of water problems from the foundation of the Institute. These studies deal with the resource, use and management of water. A task on "Interregional Water Transfers and their Geophysical, Ecological and Economic Aspects" lies along the lines of activity mentioned above. It was carried out at IIASA in 1977. The final task force meeting was held at IIASA 11-14 October 1977. This volume is the proceedings of the meeting and includes a bibliography on interregional water transfer problems