Water: Science, Society and Sustainability in a Changing World

This open access book presents a timely, urgent, and comprehensive exploration of water from multiple disciplinary perspectives. Framed by the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021–2030), the EU’s Water Resilience Strategy, and the growing climate and water crisis, it offers critical insights into the challenges and opportunities shaping the future of water governance, sustainability, and resilience.

Climate change is intensifying water-related challenges globally—affecting water availability, exacerbating extreme weather events, and undermining the predictability and safety of water supplies. As such, this book argues that the climate crisis is fundamentally a water crisis, and that an integrated, systems-level approach is critical to understanding and addressing it.

The book will explore the interconnected roles of chemistry, biology, engineering, social sciences, governance, and economics in managing and protecting water resources. It emphasises how shifts in water systems have profound implications for human health, biodiversity, economic development, and global security. This book highlights the urgent need to incorporate water education in primary and secondary schools to increase society's water and ocean literacy.