This paper is a good example of a Pathfinder. I have included it here with the
student's consent to give you an idea of the final project.
I. Title
The Global Water Crisis: Aspects of the Problem Related to Human Ecology
II. Introduction
The global water crisis is one of the most important environmental issues that we
face in the 21st century. I decided to focus on environmental aspects of this issue, i.e., its
causes, its effects and solutions. At one point I considered including global warming as
one of the causes; however, I realized that this subject could easily a research topic by
itself. Therefore, I have limited my focus further by concentrating on human ecology. In
terms of human ecology, three major causes of the global water shortage are irrigation,
hydroelectric dams, and water pollution, all of which cause desertification, flooding, and
drought. Three possible solutions to the water shortage crisis are conservation, water
resource management, and water treatment. Lastly, because I do not already have any
scientific knowledge of this issue’s environmental aspects, I have limited my scope to
sources written for a general audience.
III. Topic Analysis
Academic Disciplines
Agriculture
Anthropology, especially Human ecology
Ecology and Environmental sciences
Geology, especially hydrogeology
Physical geography
Meteorology
Library of Congress Subject Headings
Drinking water
Fresh water
Water conservation
Water consumption
Water efficiency
Water quality
Water resource development
Water-supply – management
Water-supply – international cooperation
Water use
Key Word Terms
Causes
Drinking water
Effects
Freshwater augmentation
Freshwater ecosystem
Global water crisis
Global water shortage
Gray water
Hydropower
Irrigation
Solutions
Urban sewage
Wastewater management
Water conservation
Water consumption
Water demand
Water development
Water efficiency
Water industry
Water management
Water pollution
Water resource
Water right
Water-supply
Water use
Most Important Databases and Other Periodical Indexes
ProQuest
Academic Search Premier
Librarians’ Internet Index
I wanted to get periodical articles that specifically discuss environmental causes,
effects, or solutions of the global water crisis. However, I noticed that articles from
ProQuest Search tend to be too specific in some sense (e.g. local political opinions about
global issues) and articles from Academic Search Premier tend to be too academic or
political in their approach. Therefore, in this assignment I decided to use the keywords
“causes,” “effects,” and “solutions,” along with my key phrase, “global water crisis,” in
both my ProQuest and Academic Search Premier searches. I got great results from this
simple strategy.
The Librarians’ Internet Index is organized by subject. I simply chose
“Science,” “Science -- Environment,” “water,” and “water supply.” I found web sites
that discuss not only “global water crisis,” but also “cause,” “effect” and “solutions.”
However, this site does not always provide either the most current information or great
numbers of web sites; on the other hand, all of the web sites I found are carefully selected
and focused on specific topics.
Best Reference Sources
1 organization
Water For People
6666 W. Quincy Avenue, Denver, CO 80235, USA
Phone (303) 734-3490
<http://www.waterforpeople.org>
Water For People is also a non-profit organization that is committed to providing
safe drinking water and sanitation to local communities in underdeveloped countries,
such as India and Guatemala; however, the organization’s focus is on educating local
communities not only in developing countries, but also in developed countries. The
organization provides a complete presentation tool kit, including a CD-ROM PowerPoint
presentation, videos, and talking points, so one can make a presentation on its works and
its mission to communities around the world. The organization’s website is very simple
and well-organized, and it has beautiful photos of people and their communities from all
over the world. This organization offers hands-on tools for those who are interested in
volunteering in our communities.
1 source of statistical information
WorldWaterCouncil.org World Water Council. 2008. Web. 5 Nov. 2008
In 1966, the World Water Council was established in France, in response to
increasing concerns about world water issues by water specialists and international
organizations. Even though WWC focuses on political approaches to the issue, it is not
biased,
as it is strongly supported by UNESCO and ECOSOC. The site revised this year, and its
most
current statistics help viewers to understand how critical this issue has become. This web
site
includes both political and environmental aspects of the global water issue crisis,
focusing on
solutions to the issue. I found this site especially useful for its close description of the
solutions
to the crisis.
2 articles from encyclopedias or other reference sources
Haddad, Brent M. “Water” Encyclopedia of World Environmental History. Ed. Krech,
Shepard III., et al. Vol. 3. New York: Routledge, 2004. Print.
Haddad is a professor of the Environmental Studies Department at the University
of California at Santa Cruz. In this article, Haddad points out that the global water
shortage is caused by irrigation, hydroelectric dams, and water pollution. Even though
the topic includes political aspects, economic aspects, and sociological aspects, it focuses
on environmental aspects of this issue, e.g., its causes and effects, as well as possible
solutions to the problem. The article is written for a general audience with limited
scientific knowledge. All in all, the article gives thorough information on the global
water shortage.
Rogers, Peter. “World Water Crisis: Is There a Way Out?" Britannica Book of the Year,
2004. Encyclopaedia Britannica Online. 2008. Encyclopaedia Brittanica. Web. 16.
Nov. 2008.
Peter Rogers is a professor of city planning in the Department of Engineering
and Applied Sciences at Harvard University. His essay focuses on improving methods of
managing water resources. In the essay, he discusses the consequences of population
growth on water resources, and he also analyzes possibilities for sustainable
development. His essay is written simply for a general audience. The essay is very
useful for its clear analysis of possible solutions to the global water crisis.
Best Books
(1)
Pearce, Fred. When the Rivers Run Dry. Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 2006. Print.
Pearce is a journalist, a former news editor at New Scientist, and an author of
books and articles on water issues in Time, Boston Globe, and Natural History. This
book is a collection of short travel journal entries that he wrote as he traveled to major
rivers all over the world, such the Nile in Egypt, the Yellow River in China, the Indus in
Pakistan, and the Rio Grande in the United States. The journal entries describe the
causes of water shortages and its effects on people, such as conflicts among the countries
over water rights. This work is carefully researched, but it is clearly written for a general
audience. I found this book at the Seattle Community Colleges Library Site by using the
basic key phrase “water crisis.” I chose the book because it focuses on the most current
global water crisis issues and describes the crisis’ effect from the perspective of common
people.
(2)
McDonald, Bernadette and Douglas Jehl, eds. Whose Water is It? Washington, D.C.:
National Geographic Society, 2003. Print.
This book is a collection of essays that were presented in order to describe
challenges of the global water crisis during 2003, the United Nations International Year
of Freshwater. Even though the authors vary from a professor of ecology to a chair of a
non-profit organization, all of them are prominent environmental writers. Their essays
are clearly written for general audience and address every aspects of global water crisis.
This book was very useful, covering the crisis’ causes, effects, and solutions in the same
way that I had formulated the topic. I also found this book at the Seattle Public Library
by using basic key words “water crisis.” I chose this book because it discusses not only
possible solutions, especially water resource management by business, but also the crisis’
consequences and failures.
Best Periodical Articles
(1)
Falkenmark, Malin. “Water and Sustainability: A Reappraisal.” Environment. Mar-Apr
2008. n..p. eLibrary. Proquest. Web. 4 Nov. 2008.
Falkenmark is professor of applied and international hydrogy and senior scientific
advisor at the Stockholm International Water Institute. In the journal, he discusses
different issues of the global water crisis, e.g. its causes, effects, and solutions; however,
the article focuses on environmental aspects of the global water crisis. The article is well
researched and well written, but tends to be academic and technical. This article was
very useful, covering the crisis’ causes, effects, and solutions in the same way that I had
formulated the topic. I found this article by using the basic keywords “global water
crisis” as a subject at ProQuest Search Engine.
(2)
Lall, Upmanu, et al. “Water in the 21st Century: Defining the Elements of Global Crisis
and Potential Solutions.” Journal of International Affairs. 61:2 (2008) 1-13.
Ethnic NewsWatch. ProQuest. Web. 4 Nov. 2008.
This journal is written by the students at the School of International Affairs at
Columbia University. In the journal, the authors point out three types of water crisis: the
crisis of access to safe drinking water, the crisis of pollution and the crisis of scarcity.
The topic focuses on environmental aspects of global water crisis even though it includes
political and economic aspects. This article is clearly written for a general audience. I
found this article especially useful for its close description of the effects of the crisis. I
also found this article by also using basic keyword “global water crisis” as a subject at
ProQuest Search Engine.
(3)
Thomas, Richard L. “Management of Freshwater Systems: The Interactive roles of
Science, Politics and Management, and the Public.” Lakes & Reservoirs:
Research Management. 9:1 (2004) 65-73. Academic Search Premier.
EBSCOhost. Web. 4 Nov. 2008.
Thomas is an assistant professor at the Department of Agricultural and
Biosystems Engineering at Iowa State University. The journal is academic, but the
article is written to be understandable to a general audience. The article includes both
environmental and political aspects of global water crisis, and focuses on the solutions to
the issue. The article’s focus on management of the problem gave me a clearer picture of
water management as a crucial part of solving the water crisis. I found this article by also
using “global water crisis” as a subject at Academic Search Premier.
Best Internet Sources
(1)
2003 International Year of Fresh Water. WaterYear2003.org. UNESCO. 2003. Web. 5
Nov. 2008.
The International Year of Freshwater was established as the United Nations
celebrated the year 2003 to increase awareness of the global water crisis. The site was
created by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
(UNESCO), which was founded in 1945 “to build peace in the minds of men.” Since the
purpose of the site is educational rather than political, the information is objective and
focuses on environmental aspects of the issue. Even though the site was last revised on
2003, most of the information, such as links, is current. This site is very useful, covering
the crisis’ causes, effects, and solutions, and the site’s design, for example in the site’s
“Water Library,” is user friendly and can be used by audiences of any age.
(2)
Water: H2O = Life. AMNH.org. American Museum of Natural History. Web. 13 Nov.
2008.
The American Museum of Natural History, a scientific and educational institution
founded in New York City in 1869, is a nonprofit organization that offers educational
programs for audiences of all ages. Water: H2O” = Life was one of exhibitions that was
offered at AMNH from November 3, 2007 to May 26, 2008, illustrating global water
issues. The exhibition includes environmental aspects of the global water crisis, focusing
especially on solutions to the issue, including historical efforts, whether or not the efforts
succeeded or failed. I found this site useful for its timeliness and its detailed descriptions
of the possible solutions.
Best Non-print Source
“Multi Media” WaterAid.org. WaterAid. Web. 13 Nov. 2008.
WaterAid is an international charity established in the United Kingdom in1981, providing
water, sanitation, and hygiene education to the world’s poorest people in 17 countries. Its
multimedia site offers a collection of image, audio and video files (e.g., You tube),
including interviews with WaterAid representatives all over the world. Because most
videos are short (about 2 to 3 minutes), focusing on one issue at a time, I did not choose a
single video file to evaluate here; however, this collection of videos clearly shows us how
the global water crisis is affecting every one of us in our everyday life. For example,
people in many cities must use the space between buildings as regular public restrooms.
In one video, women in a village are fighting over a bucketful of dirty ground-water. I
found these videos useful for their timeliness, their illustration of the crisis’ effects, and
their description of the crisis via multimedia formats.
Review of My Research Process
From the beginning, I tried to narrow down my topic, “global water crisis,” since
I knew I should not have any problem retrieving general information on the crisis from
the Internet, and I also guessed that I would be able to find as many books as I would
need. Therefore, I decided to focus on environmental aspects of this issue, i.e., its causes,
its effects and solutions. Then, I decided not to include global warming as one of the
causes, since I realized that this subject could easily a research topic by itself. As a result,
I limited my focus further by concentrating on human ecology.
I found books to be more reliable in getting information about environmental
aspects of causes and effects. On the other hand, the more information I retrieved from
the Internet, the more I realized that information for the solutions needed to be as current
as possible. In recent years, many solutions to the global water crisis have been tried;
however, while some efforts are making slow progress, others failed and sometimes
caused even more serious problems. For example, an online exhibition at the American
Museum of Natural History discusses problems which were caused by removing a
hydroelectric dam in France.
As I was looking at my earlier assignments, I was surprised by how much my
topic has changed since the beginning of the class. I have learned different search
engines, meta-search engines, Commercial Web Portable, and Virtual Libraries.
Especially, I found Librarians’ Internet Index the most dependable search tool for my
topic, since it has the retrieval information “pre-organized” in directory format; this made
the data far more useful than the raw retrieval sets created by search engines’ key-phrase
searching. I was also thrilled when I found online exhibitions from events or at
museums. All in all, I am fairly satisfied with my searching results.