Sustainable Development and Integrated Water Resources Management

Sustainable development integrates economic development, social development, and environmental protection, with three overarching objectives and essential requirements: (1) poverty reduction, (2) changing unsustainable patterns of production and consumption, and (3) protecting and managing the natural resource base of economic and social development. Integrated water resources management (IWRM) is capable of promoting all three objectives by providing stakeholders with a framework for integrating and coordinating the various aspects of water management in a sustainable and holistic manner. This chapter relates the concept of IWRM to development in the context of the international community’s sustainable development paradigm.