Pathways to the future

This chapter summarises the role of water in achieving global sustainability and human prosperity on an increasingly crowded planet – characterised by rising interdependence, turbulence, social–ecological interactions and uncertainty. Of particular concern is the increased likelihood of human-induced water-related tipping points in local and regional environments and even in the Earth System as a whole. These often surprising events are reflections of the loss of social–ecological resilience for dealing with change, and could have severe implications for societies and human well-being. The chapter addresses the shifts in governance and management cultures required of strategies for water resilience, and stresses that freshwater is the key to resilience in social–ecological systems. Maintaining redundancy in landscapes through a high degree of biodiversity and a rich mosaic of different land-use types is a key strategy for building resilience and sustaining rainfall and the ‘wetness’ of landscapes.