Bruce R. Roberts
By seizing upon a crucial problem facing arid land research, the author poignantly reveals the complex role of water management within the context of environmental crisis. A complex model portrays the subject matter as a system of interlocking subsystems covering the management structure, the inventory and the urban hydrological conditions. The system itself is also viewed within its wider urban ecological context of interaction between urban and industrial development, land use and the physical environment. This analytical grid also provides the framework for the evaluation of water management reforms, remedial strategies, programs and plans.The choice of the urban regions - Ürümqi, Xinjiang, and Phoenix, Arizona - within systems as culturally and politically different as the PR of China and the United States, provides an up-to-date presentation of the main issues within a global perspective. The evident socioeconomic contrast between the two systems also allows the reader to explore the opportunities - but also the limitations - involved in the transfer of Western know-how.
