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Individuals and communities use and value water in multiple and complex ways. In Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), the pluralistic nature of water values is poorly documented, and the existing and potential value trade-offs are unidentified. This study was undertaken in the Central Rift Valley (CRV) of Ethiopia to understand and map water values, priorities, risks, and trade-offs in a multi-stakeholder engagement process to provide the basis for more transparent and accountable decision-making. Integrated assessment methods, combining bio-physical and social methods, were applied. The results show 24 community-perceived and articulated water values that are diverse but interconnected, including values of water, landscapes, the river system, and downstream water bodies. Connections between people and landscape structures are articulated. In terms of priority water values, the overall results reflect the primary but basic need for water for food security and domestic uses. The results further illustrate the pluralistic nature of water values and the dichotomy of preferences among people of different backgrounds. The scenario-based Environmental Flow (EF) assessment exercise integrated into community value preferences and the event calendar that was used show that the river systems in CRV (Ketar, Kulumsa, and Gusha-Temela) have different ecological and socio-cultural flow requirements and that there are marked water value trade-offs. The conclusions of the study suggest that overlapping governance structures are affecting people’s perceptions of water and the way they articulate water values. Policy directions and decision-making need to recognize and acknowledge the multiple water values and competing uses of water in the CRV as a starting point to reconcile trade-offs that will then improve water security. Findings suggest that EF estimation and decision support tools can be customized to local ecological requirements through engaging local stakeholders in the assessment process.

The objectives of the study were to investigate community perception and articulation of diverse and priority water values and examine water value trade-offs in the context of urban–rural interaction. The study applies the socio-ecological system framework and integrates bio-physical and socioeconomic methods into it. These methods include Household Surveys (HHs); Focused Group Discussions (FGD); Key Informant Interviews (KII); Cumulative Pollution Index (CPI); GIS for spatial analysis and literature review. Through HHs, 23 water values were identified in Akaki. Most respondents of the HHs prioritized three water values (water for agriculture, livestock, and domestic use). The stakeholder consultation substantiated the priority for domestic water value but also acknowledged waste assimilation services of rivers that absorb and strew pollutants from industries and households. The result of KII suggests that water system structures (e.g., reservoirs) are the mnemonic value for past events and sustain scenic values of local, national, and global importance. The Cumulative Pollution Index (CPI) based pollution assessment indicates that the Akaki water system lost a significant number of its water value (compared to the actual uses) due to river pollution across its reach and more critically at its outlet. The differences between the CPI value-based recommended water uses and actual water uses reflect a lack of options, awareness gaps, and a low level of policy enforcement. It is concluded that policy directions and decision-making need to acknowledge the multiple water values and competing uses of water, as points of departure, to reconcile water value trade-offs, conserve water and create awareness.

Major environmental functions and human needs critically depend on water. In regions of the world affected by water scarcity economic activities can be constrained by water availability, leading to competition both among sectors and between human uses and environmental needs. While the commodification of water remains a contentious political issue, the valuation of this natural resource is sometime viewed as a strategy to avoid water waste. Likewise, water markets have been invoked as a mechanism to allocate water to economically most efficient uses. The value of water, however, remains difficult to estimate because water markets and market prices exist only in few regions of the world. Despite numerous attempts at estimating the value of water in the absence of markets (i.e., the “shadow price”), a global spatially explicit assessment of the value of water in agriculture is still missing. Here we propose a data-parsimonious biophysical framework to determine the value generated by water in irrigated agriculture and highlight its global spatiotemporal patterns. We find that in much of the world the actual crop distribution does not maximize agricultural water value.

Although a wide body of scholarly research recognizes multiple kinds of values for water, water security assessments typically employ just some of them. In the present article, we integrate value scenarios into a planetary water security model to incorporate multiple water-related social values and illustrate trade-offs among them. Specifically, we incorporate cultural values for environmental flows needed to sustain ecosystem function (rights of waters), the water requirements of a human right to food (rights to water), and the economic value of water to commercial enterprise (commercial water rights). Pairing quantitative hydrological modeling with qualitative systems of valuing, we suggest how to depict the available water for realizing various combinations of the values underlying those rights. We account for population growth and dietary choices associated with different socioeconomic pathways. This pluralist approach incorporates multiple kinds of values into a water security framework, to better recognize and work with diversity in cultural valuation of water.

Economic values have dominated water policy discourse over the last four decades. Very little has been written on social, cultural, and ecological values and their roles in enhancing water security. The primary objective of this paper is to provide a comprehensive analysis of diverse water values with a case study of the National Capital Territory of Delhi, India. To achieve this, a review of the existing scholarship on water values was conducted to develop a set of water values. Field surveys and interviews were conducted to comprehend the water values held by various stakeholders in Delhi. This paper is an attempt to show that viewing water security through the lens of diverse water values (social, cultural, economic and ecological) provides a better understanding of water policies, and enhanced comprehension could potentially result in better policies to promote water security. In the case of Delhi, we additionally found that the claimed predominance of water values such as efficiency, equity, equality, religiosity, and purity does not mean that these values are also actualized in water practices. Another major finding is that all four sets of values are integrated with one another, and policies underpinned by the identified values would be relatively better than policies solely based on economic values.

Connections between people and water have received considerable attention within geographic research. This paper draws on cultural and historical geographies, political ecology and the environmental humanities to extend understandings of the hydrosocial cycle by focusing on the cultural dimensions of society–water relations through the concept of shadow waters. Shadow waters centres attention on the cultures that privilege certain waters while rendering other waters invisible and marginalised. Inspired by Val Plumwood's notion of “shadow places,” shadow waters brings to light the way power intersects with cultural practices. We bring this concept of shadow waters into conversation with Indigenous water knowledges. Shadow waters can be conceptualised vertically, with surface water receiving more policy and research attention than ground water, and also horizontally, as some sub‐catchments, uses and values have been ignored or undervalued in macro‐catchment processes. Temporally, in considering the past, complex and contested histories of human–environment relations are often overlooked in favour of simple historical narratives that ultimately reinforce dominant management structures and trajectories. Shadow waters are thus historically created as particular power structures and narratives are reinforced and “normalised” over time. This paper examines shadow waters in southeastern Australia, elucidating the way two rivers are interwoven and co‐determined in cultures of water use in this context. We show how the rethinking of dominant water cultures, made possible by cross‐cultural engagement, generates new possibilities for reconnection, restoration and protection; a different water ethics based on care and responsibility that addresses power relations and injustices.

Anthropogenic pressures have exacerbated self-sustaining river services, and growing concerns over sustaining river system become global problematic issues that lead us to implement river restoration projects. Of those projects, governing diverse needs and desires from stakeholders for those who have various water values are key elements of identifying the success of the project. In fact, the Korean government has had concern over restoring the rivers which brings to construct 16 weirs in four major rivers and may fail to achieve main goal of the project, which is to ameliorate water quality. In this study, principle component analysis and multinomial logit model were executed to investigate major socioeconomic variables to influence water values in terms of sustainability in Korea. Evitable evidences have been found that age, income, education level, and city dwelling are the most effective variables to estimate water values. In addition, a monotonous water development project and a myopic view could cause major dejection across the nation and may lead to the failure of water governance. Unfortunately, the latter may be observed in Korea as one of the reasons for the recent amplification of major conflicts.

Values of individuals and organizations involved in decision‐making processes form the basis for prioritizing outcomes in water governance. The novelty of this study lies in applying values to a specific decision‐making context. It aims to assess the prioritized water governance outcomes and the underlying value systems shaping the actions of the primary water utility responsible for water governance in Delhi, the Delhi Jal Board (DJB). The paper will critically examine the policies and acts of the DJB that drive water governance in Delhi at present, utilizing a values‐based framework in conjunction with secondary literature and expert interviews, to draw a picture of the values reflected. The study does not substantiate the notion of economic values dominating the water‐related decisions; rather, recent policy guidelines indicate prioritization of equitable and fair distribution of water. Findings of this paper show that making the values explicit is largely disregarded in formulating water acts and policies, and values are never elucidated in the public domain, doing which can encourage water policies and practices that are socially, economically, and ecologically viable in the long run. It is expected that this paper will generate a discussion on water values being an integral part of water governance discourses. Water values in water governance.

Numerous publications on natural resource valuations consider contexts where environmental assets at risk are significant to Indigenous Peoples and their estates. In the last two decades alone, many applied studies have aimed at investigating the ‘value’ of socio-environmental outcomes from the perspectives of the general populations including Indigenous Peoples. The term ‘value’ is often invoked in varying contexts ranging from empirical research to natural resource management (NRM) strategies and policies. Underpinning all valuation exercises is a conceptual approach to defining and analysing value, which is contextual given that different philosophies and worldviews consider nature’s ‘value’ differently. Our objective was to understand value philosophies underpinning diverse NRM ‘value’ paradigms and to evaluate compatibility with Indigenous Peoples’ value attribution. We conducted a systematic search for publications on nature studies from multiple databases using a Boolean strategy. The processes for literature identification and selection are presented in a PRISMA flowchart. The study then critically reviewed and synthesized insights from the literature on the interpretations, conceptualizations, and elicitations of value, particularly in contexts where NRM influences Indigenous estates. We found that philosophical perspectives define how ‘value’ is conceptualised and evaluated. Most studies reviewed rested on the economic paradigm grounded in anthropocentric utilitarian value-framing, and limited studies considered a relational value lens that reflects Indigenous Peoples’ value attribution for the natural environment. A relational lens sits outside of the usual ‘instrumental versus intrinsic’ value dichotomy and deems human-nature connections coupled, and worthy in themselves. The paper demonstrates the commonalities and inconsistencies across diverse value conceptualizations and describes emerging pluralistic approaches consistent with Indigenous value attribution. A novel framework for understanding and bridging the different conceptual and analytical valuation lenses, particularly on water, is presented ensuring that multiple, complex, and distinct value dimensions are empirically bridged in studies involving Indigenous Peoples.