Introduction: The Water-Food-Energy-Climate Nexus: A Facts and Figures – Overview --  1. Agriculture. Responding to the Increase in Land and Water Demand to Guarantee Future. Food Security. Water Scarcity: Agriculture Provides Solutions. Improving, Water, Food, and Climate Security: A Novel Approach to Direct Seeding of Rice. Farmers Facing the Water Challenge. Water Challenges in the Arabian Gulf. The High Cost of Priceless Water and Oman’s Ancient Alternative -- 2. Energy. Water and Energy: New Thinking. Burning Up Food as Fuel: The Role of Water. Choke Point: The Collision Between Water and Energy. Solutions from the Sea -- 3. Trade. The Water-Trade Nexus. The Risks and Rewards of Water in Trade. Interlocking Crises of Water Scarcity: How Trade Can Make a Difference. Soft Approaches to Sustainable Intensification for Water Security -- 4. National Security. Trans-boundary Waters and Geopolitics by 2025. Hydro-solidarity as a National Security Foundation. Water in the Arabian Gulf: How to Tell the Story. Land: A Question of Increasing Strategic Importance in Search of Better-Informed Answers. The Water–National Security Nexus: The Case of Pakistan -- 5. Cities. A Socioeconomic Breakdown. Fatal Flooding in Modern Cities. Creating a Wastewater Revolution in Asian Cities: The Concept of Cascading Use. Social Enterprise Solution for Water and Sanitation Facilities in Kenya’s Slums. Urban Water Supply Security and Desalination -- 6. People. The Water Crisis Is Now. Water for People: The Capacity Constraint of Governments Hinders Action. Free Access to the Water Nexus. SaniShop: Transforming the Sanitation Crisis into a Massive Business Opportunity for All -- 7. Business. Global Water Tool. Water in the Value Chain. Water Resource Management and Sustainability. Appendix: A Snapshot of Business Water Leadership -- 8. Finance. Financing Water. Meeting the Water Challenge. Water, Agriculture, and the Pricing of Sustenance. Property Rights to Water for All. An Example of Local-Level Water Market Innovation in Sonoma, California -- 9. Climate. Glaciers, Water Security, and Asia’s Rivers. Combining the What and How of Building Climate Resilience: Water Ecosystems and Infrastructure -- 10. New Economic Frameworks for Decision-Making.. The Work of the Water Resources Group. Water Portfolio Management. A “Cloud-to-Coast” Decision Framework. An Integrated Sustainability Index for Effective Water Policy. Water Skin: A Global Multi-scale River Basin Decision-Support Framework for Collaborative Water Resource and Risk Management from the Planetary Skin Institute -- 11. Innovative Water Partnerships -- Conclusion. A Viewpoint from Jordan. So, How Will This Initiative Work? -- Acknowledgments.

The world is on the brink of the greatest crisis it has ever faced: a spiraling lack of fresh water. Groundwater is drying up, even as water demands for food production, for energy, and for manufacturing are surging. Water is already emerging as a headline geopolitical issue—and worsening water security will soon have dire consequences in many parts of the global economic system.   Directed by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon at the 2008 Davos Annual Meeting, the World Economic Forum assembled the world’s foremost group of public, private, non-governmental-organization and academic experts to examine the water crisis issue from all perspectives. The result of their work is this forecast—a stark, non-technical overview of where we will be by 2025 if we take a business-as-usual approach to (mis)managing our water resources. The findings are shocking. Perhaps equally stunning are the potential solutions and the recommendations that the group presents. All are included in this landmark publication.    Water Security contains compelling commentary from leading decision-makers, past and present. The commentary is supported by analysis from leading academics of how the world economy will be affected if world leaders cannot agree on solutions. The book suggests how business and politics need to manage the energy-food-water-climate axis as leaders negotiate the details of the climate regime that replace Kyoto Protocols.