BA, Oberlin College, 2020, Environmental Studies

The Himalaya-Hindu Kush mountain range and the Tibetan Plateau birth ten of Asia's most prominent rivers providing irrigation, energy, and drinking water to over two billion people across several countries today. Therefore, transboundary water sharing is a constant source of conflict for several South Asian countries that rely on rivers to support their primarily agrarian economies.In recent years, climate change has drastically increased global temperatures. As a result, the Indian subcontinent has been plagued with extreme riverine flood and drought events.Climate change-related events like riverine floods and drought, exacerbate the politicization of conflict between nations that share natural resources like water. This politicization is visible in the media coverage of conflict, and the way water-sharing issues are linked with other transboundary conflicts, especially those pertaining to national security. This paper explores the relationship between climate change and water-sharing conflicts in three South Asian nations: India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. Through a quantitative and qualitative analysis of the national media coverage of transboundary river systems, Indus and Ganga-Brahmaputra-Meghna, this honors thesis explores how climate change affects the politicization of water-sharing conflicts between these three nations.

Committee: Swapna Pathak (Committee Member); Md. Rumi Shammin (Committee Member); Laurie Hovell McMillin (Committee Member) Subjects: Environmental Studies; Mass Media

PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2016, Engineering and Applied Science: Environmental Engineering

Water is essential for life, and any lack of this important element in our life leads to problems, physiologically as well as politically and economically. The deficiencies in ground water sources, global climate change, and civil pollution has led to the emergence of a real water crisis in many regions of the world. Non-traditional sources of water represent the promised solution to the scarcity of natural water sources and will represent complementary sources of supply. The main objective of this research is to study the technical, financial, and managerial aspects for transboundary wastewater. The first part of this research concentrates on the situation analysis and on the perspectives of transboundary wastewater management along the Israel/Palestine borders. Results obtained revealed that the current bi-national agreement does not achieve environmental justice and protection. A regional cooperative framework with a clear coordination mechanism considering the international experience with transboundary wastewater management and engagement of NGOs and donor countries is needed. The second part of this research explores the financial challenges facing the Palestinians to manage the transboundary wastewater crossing the Palestinian territories (West Bank) into Israel by examining the main transboundary wastewater stream, Wadi Al-Zomer, in terms of its quantity, quality and comparing the cost and benefit of wastewater being treated in Israel versus being treated in West Bank. The total amount of discharged wastewater in the targeted stream is 11 MCM/year. Discharged wastewater that reaches to Israel is not classified as highly strength wastewater due to the natural treatment adopted in the West Bank. Treating and reusing of the wastewater from all transboundary streams will increase the volume of water available for agricultural in the West Bank by 12%. The third part of this research represents the simulation of transboundary wastewater resource management scenari (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: George Sorial Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Hafiz Salih Ph.D. (Committee Member); Margaret Kupferle Ph.D. P.E. (Committee Member); Makram Suidan Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Environmental Engineering

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2020, Agricultural, Environmental and Developmental Economics

There are many causes of conflict: religious, ideological, political, and economic. In this dissertation, I focus on a subset of the economic factors that can instigate conflicts, such as water scarcity and food insecurity, and those that can mitigate it, like trade liberalization or adding a trade component to peace agreements. In the first essay, I examine the relationship between water scarcity and interstate conflict between upstream and downstream riparian countries. I develop a game-theoretic model that incorporates the river sharing game and a conflict model. I use backward induction to find the probability of either riparian state using force as a function of its scarcity level. I use the complementary log-log model to test the reduced-form probability functions using AQUASTAT water availability data, and the Militarized Interstate Disputes dataset from the Correlates of War Project. I find that water scarcity induces hegemon, downstream countries to initiate conflict against their upstream co-riparian and that a water-scarce upstream country is more likely than a water-abundant upstream country to respond by force. In the second essay, I examine whether experiencing a drought exacerbates the effect of an increase in staple food prices on urban and rural social unrest in Africa and whether liberalizing trade in staple foods mitigates this effect. I use an instrumental variable model to study the impact on social unrest of a change in domestic food prices while experiencing a drought with and without trade liberalization. I use data on anti-government demonstrations from the Social Conflict Analysis Database (SCAD) along with the Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI), the domestic and international staple food prices from the FAO, and tariff data from UNCTAD. I find that an increase in staple food prices while experiencing drought increases social unrest in urban areas and reduces it in rural areas; liberalizing trade in staple foods (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Ian Sheldon (Advisor); Zoë Plakias (Committee Member); Leah Bevis (Committee Member) Subjects: Agricultural Economics; Environmental Economics

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2002, Sociology

The politics of fresh water in international contexts are becoming increasingly contentious. This study analyzes the effects of development, demographics and ecological factors on international disputes over water. From a human ecology approach, I develop a model of water conflict that examines the extent to which population growth and density, urbanization, water scarcity and degradation, social organization, inequitable distribution of water, social inequality, and trade affect the likelihood of conflict over water. Using water event data from the Basins at Risk section of the Transboundary Freshwater Dispute Database (Wolf 1998; Yoffe 2002) and ordinary least squares regression modeling, I tested hypotheses that specified predictors of international water conflict and cooperation. Field notes from a case study of the international dispute between Slovakia and Hungary were also analyzed. The results of the analysis indicate that, of demographic predictors, population density has the clearest and most consistent association with international water conflict and cooperation. Countries with higher population densities have more frequent international water interactions of a more conflictual nature. Population growth and urbanization are also found to be associated with water conflict in various predicted ways. Indicators of development tend to be associated with reduced levels of international water conflict, however, in the case of international inequality of development, water conflict is more likely. Among environmental factors, several indicators of water degradation and depletion were associated with an increase in the level of international water conflict, however these findings were somewhat inconsistent. Inequality in terms of the amount of internally available water was consistently associated with higher levels of conflict. A surprising and counterintuitive finding is that countries that sign international water treaties continue to have water events of a c (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Kazimierz Slomczynski (Advisor) Subjects: