The international contributors shed new light on the ways in which the key relationship between humans and water has given rise to new forms of social organisation, new technologies and economic activities.

Part I: Water Systems and Development Chapter I: Terje Tvedt and Richard Coopey A “Water Systems” Perspective on History Part II: Water systems and Agricultural Civilizations Ch. 2 Gregory L. Possehl The Indus Civilisation and Riverine History in Northwestern India and Pakistan Ch. 3 Judith Bunbury The Development of the River Nile and the Egyptian Civilisation: A Water Historical Perspective Ch. 4 Terje Oestigaard Osiris and the Egyptian Civilisation of Inundation. The Pyramids, the Pharaohs and their Water World Ch. 5 Richardson P. Gill The Maya Collapse: Water, Drought and Volcanoes Ch. 6 Dan Penny The Mekong River System and the End of the Angkor Civilisation: A Water Historical Perspective Ch. 7 Qiang Zhang, Chong-Yu Xu, Tao Yang, Zhen-Chun Hao The historical evolution and anthropogenic influences on the Yellow River from ancient to modern times Ch. 8 Richard C. Hoffman Elemental Resources and Aquatic Ecosystems: Medieval Europeans and their Rivers Ch. 9. Fred H. Lawson Nile River Flows and Political Order in Ottoman Egypt Ch. 10: Harriet Nash The afl?j of Oman and traditional timing of water shares Part III: Water systems and Development in the Early Modern Era Ch. 11 Jacobus De Vries Water control in the Netherlands Ch. 12 Toon Bosch Changing societies produces changing rivers. Managing the Rhine in Germany and Holland in a changing environment Ch. 13 Roderick I. Wilson River Regimes: Changing Environmental Relations along the Waterways of the Kanto Plain, Japan Ch. 14 Graham Chapman Water and the British take-over of India Ch. 15 Alexei Kraikovski and Julia Lajus The Neva as a Metropolitan River of Russia: Economy, Environment and Culture Ch. 16 Miklos Domokos A historic survey of the Danube catchment: From Classical civilisation to the end of the 19th Century Ch. 17 Richard Coopey The Severn : Nature, Power and Rationalisation Ch. 18 Eva Jakobsson The history of flowing water policy in Sweden: from natural flow to industrialised rivers Ch. 19 Leandro del Moral Ituarte The hydraulic paradigm and the production of a new geography in Spain. Origins and Historical Evolution Between the Sixteenth and Twentieth centuries. Ch. 20 Salvatore Ciriacono Venetian rivers after the fall of the republic. French and Austrian Hydrology Ch. 21 Martin Reuss Exploitation and Innovation Along the Lower Mississippi

The international contributors shed new light on the ways in which the key relationship between humans and water has given rise to new forms of social organisation, new technologies and economic activities.