Program in Water Conflict Management and Transformation

April 24, 2023

In a recent interview with Radio Canada, PWCMT Co-Director Dr. Wolf shares insights on transboundary water conflict and cooperation. He highlights basins such as Kura-Araks that are at a higher risk of developing future tensions and explains the importance of treaties in mitigating tensions such as those that arise during the construction of large dams. The importance of engaging in dialogue and creating formal agreements over shared waters is highlighted by Dr. Wolf in his argument that "You have to talk about it before you get into trouble. We do not want to have to sit down and negotiate when we get to the tipping point."

Read the whole story here (note original is in French).

PWCMT Co-Director Dr. Aaron Wolf recently participated in a briefing to the UN General Assembly on the economics of water, climate, conflict and cooperation, and early warning for pandemic preparedness. The informal briefing offered scientific decision support for Member States to contribute to the UN 2023 Water Conference in March 2024, the pandemic preparedness negotiations, and preparations for the SDG Summit in September 2023. A video of the entire briefing is available here. Dr. Wolf's presentation on international water conflict and cooperation begins at 1hr 40min.

On November 2, members of the TFDD team co-hosted an interactive online session with GWP focusing on the role of data in transboundary water management. The event was the 14th session of the Transboundary Freshwater Security Governance Train, which is part of the MOOC on Governance for Transboundary Freshwater Security. The session was chaired by PWCMT Co-Directors Ms Lynette da Silva and Dr. Aaron Wolf, with panelists including former TFDD manager Dr. Melissa McCracken. A lively panel discussion was moderated by OSU PhD students Alexandra Caplan and Zoe Rosenblum. The event focused on the role of data in water conflict management, highlighted important gaps in existing datasets, and explored how datasets such as those provided by the TFDD can be used to inform transboundary water management and negotiations. For a complete summary of the event, please go here. You can also find a recording of the session on Youtube.

November 29, 2021

Resolving Water Conflicts Workbook is a new release co-edited by Program Co-Director, Lynette de Silva. The book description states that it “works to build trust, consensus, and capacity to enhance understanding through a water conflict management framework designed to bolster collaborative skills. Built on case-studies analysis and hands-on real-life applications, it addresses issues of water insecurity of marginalized systems and communities, global water viability, institutional resilience, and the inclusion of faith-based traditions for climate action. The authors assess the complexities of climate challenges and explain how to create sustainable, effective, and efficient water approaches for an improved ecological and socioeconomic future within the UN's Sustainable Development Goals.”

Read More

Program Co-Director Dr. Aaron Wolf was joined by Dr. Peter Gleick, co-founder of the Pacific Institute, in a discussion on the potential linkages between water, climate change, and conflict. Moderated by Dr. Susanne Schmeier of IHE-Delft, the video is part of the larger K4D Water Security Learning Journey led by the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex. Drs. Wolf and Gleick discuss different opportunities and challenges for water conflict and diplomacy from the sub-national to transboundary scales. To watch the full video, please use this link.

Program Co-Director Lynette de Silva has taken a new look at the Vanport disaster of 1948 through the lens of transformative conflict analysis. In 1948, the community of Vanport, Oregon, home to a large Black community, was washed away by a historic flood event. In her new research, de Silva tests the utility of the transformative water conflict analysis framework in the Vanport context by constructing a situation map and placing the Vanport story into one of the four stages of water conflict transformation. In doing so, she highlights the importance of the agency displayed by Vanport residents. To learn more about how racism, bad weather, community history, and poor urban planning and flood management contributed to the Vanport disaster, read more here.

In this webinar hosted by the American Water Resources Association, PWCMT Director Aaron Wolf discusses how wisdom, constructs, and practices from the world's faith traditions and indigienous communities can be applied toward deep interactions around contentious issues, including water. Topics explored include cross-cultural models of understanding the sources of conflict and anger, deep listening skills, methods for evaluating and nuancing dialogue as a pathway to understanding, and techniques for self check-ins for potential conflicts within.

Watch here.

July 6, 2020
IHE Delft Institute has recently welcomed Prof. Aaron Wolf as a part-time professor of water cooperation and diplomacy. Prof. Wolf is Co-Director of the Program in Water Conflict Management and Transformation at Oregon State University and is a professor of Geography in the College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences. Prof. Wolf's expertise in water diplomacy and conflict resolution will contribute to the IHE Delft water diplomacy team's teaching, research, and advisory approach to understanding the dynamics of water conflict and cooperation. 
Read more

January 21, 2020
Researchers at King's College, London and Michigan Technological University have developed the GlObal geOreferenced Database of Dams (GOODD), a global dataset of more than 38,000 georeferenced dams. GOODD will enable improved global analyses of the impact dams have on society and the environment, and also advances understanding of the effect of environmental change on dam cactchments.
Read more

August 24, 2019
OSU Water Policy and Management graduate and current Ph.D. student at the University of Delaware, Mehmet Altingoz, has published a new article investigating cooperation occurring in conflict zones, specifically in the Armenian–Turkish Border.  The paper explored the example of the Arpacay/Akhuryan Dam.
Read More

May 23, 2019
PWCMT Director Lynette de Silva has released her newly published book on Resolving Environmental Conflicts: Principles and Concepts. The book summary, opens with, “Resolving a conflict is based on the art of helping people, with disparate points of view, find enough common ground to ease their fears, sheath their weapons, and listen to one another for their common good, which ultimately translates into social-environmental sustainability for all generations. Written in a clear, concise style, Resolving Environmental Conflicts: Principles and Concepts, Third Edition is a valuable, solution-oriented contribution that explains environmental conflict management….”
Read More

May 5, 2019
Created by researchers and students, this database is intended to help policymakers, researchers, community members and others find information on a selection of dams from around the world. Our aim is to better understand how hydropower dams affect the individuals and communities who live near them, with a particular focus on population displacement and resettlement.  Currently, more than 500 dams from most of the world’s major river systems are included in the database, with information drawn from more than 700 published references. 
View the database