Risk and Water Management

The increasing number of hazards related to water shortage in different parts of the world and the probability of socio-economic crisis, social stresses and even war occurrence as water shortage impacts; shows that water supply challenges will be more important and widespread than energy supply challenges in future decades. During the time, with population growth, resource demand increase and pressure on them, degree and scale of water hazards has changed. These quantitative and qualitative changes in water body has made water supply and distribution to encounter with increasing challenges. In addition to above reasons, phenomenon like climate change, drought, earthquake, flood and … have exacerbated this matter and have impose water risks on societies. Overcoming such challenges in different scales (local, regional and national) would not be possible unless changing our thoughts about water resources and shifting from crisis management to risk management. It is evident that knowing risk management basic concepts accurately will help us to attain better perception around this subject and also to find appropriate solutions. In this paper, basic concepts in this scope has been described (e.g. hazard, risk, vulnerability and …) with an immense depiction of water resource management from the perspective of risk and uncertainty; and also a framework for risk management has been provided.