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Physical and political impacts

Complex river boundaries at risk

Nature Climate Change volume 4, pages 955–956 (2014)Cite this article

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Many international river basins are suffering from climate-driven impacts, with implications for national security. Now, research highlights the need to analyse shifting river boundaries to better understand potential socio-political threats.

Annual and seasonal water variability is already affecting the flow of international river basins. Yet the effects of climate change are likely to intensify water variability beyond the bounds of previously observed runoff events1. Such physical effects may have socio-political consequences, especially in international river basins where states must share a river or lake. Writing in WIREs Climate Change, Grainger and Conway2 suggest a research approach that contributes to a growing literature3,4 examining how climatic change could potentially affect water relations among countries. Specifically, Grainger and Conway focus on those rivers that make up an entire international boundary, or portions of it, and how physical changes to these rivers (and consequently borders) in the context of floods and droughts affect the likelihood of conflict.

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References

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Shlomi Dinar is in the School of International and Public Affairs, Florida International University, SIPA 525, 11200 SW 8th Street, Miami, Florida 33174, USA,

    Shlomi Dinar

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  1. Shlomi Dinar
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Correspondence to Shlomi Dinar.

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Dinar, S. Complex river boundaries at risk. Nature Clim Change 4, 955–956 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate2421

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate2421

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