Water as a Human Right and Fugitive Resource

Safe and clean drinking water and sanitation are now recognized by the United Nations as human rights. However, water is a "fugitive" resource with dangerous variability in its quantity and quality over space and time. How does society manage the spatial-temporal variability of the water cycle, and how does the cycle in turn shape society? We will answer these questions through comparative geographic analysis of case studies in the northeast U.S. and east Africa, drawing on evidence from maps and geographic information systems, field trip observations, survey data, published research, and water law and policy. 3 hrs. sem.