Literature Review: Cost Overruns & Delays in Municipal Construction Projects

I occasionally find an old piece of school work that seems suitable for this blog. Previously, I posted a book review I wrote for a class. This piece is a literature review related to cost overruns in municipal construction projects. It was written in 1999, so the references are a bit dated. I made no attempt to update the paper.

Literature Review

Problem Statement

Construction projects commonly suffer delays and cost overruns (Arditi & Patel, 1989; Baldwin, Manthei, Rothbart & Harris, 1971; Kraiem & Diekmann, 1987; Mahid & McCaffer, 1998; Mulholland & Christian, 1999). In projects that often cost millions of dollars, even a relatively small overrun can be very expensive. Likewise, construction delays may cause late delivery of services and loss of revenues related to that service.

Municipal governments construct and maintain a significant public infrastructure. Engineering construction accounts for 20 to 25 percent of the market for new construction, most of which is publicly financed (Clough, 1989). Even small cities will often be responsible for roads, wastewater collection and treatment, drinking water distribution, parks, and public buildings.

Municipal governments often use federal and state grants and loans to finance all or part of construction projects. For instance, the Missouri Department of Natural Resources operates eight grant and loan programs available to local governments for the construction of wastewater facilities, drinking water facilities, parks, and energy efficiency improvements to public buildings (Financial).

The reduction of cost overruns and delays could cause a reduction in the cost of public services, especially at the local level where many services utilize some constructed infrastructure. These savings could result in improved economy of state and federal programs that provide financial assistance to municipalities.

The actors involve in public construction are all levels of government, contractors, architects and engineers, and the public. Local governments directly experience the cost of construction projects. Federal and state agencies are interested in the economy and efficiency of their programs and accountability. Contractors are interested in the availability and profitability of public projects. Architects and engineers are similarly concerned about the amount of public work available and requirements for the management and cost estimation of projects. The public is concerned with the level of taxes and user fees necessary to pay for public services.

Key questions research might address include:

-How common and severe are cost overruns and delays in public works projects?

-What characteristics of local government relate to cost overruns and delays?

-What project characteristics relate to cost overruns and delays?

-Might some sort of intervention reduce the occurrence or severity of cost overruns and delays?

Literature Review

Cost growth and schedule growth are common measures of construction project success (Pocock, Hyun, Liu & Kim, 1996; Pocock, Liu & Kim, 1997; Sanvido, Grobler, Pafitt, Guvenis & Coyle, 1992; Songer & Molenaar, 1997). The Missouri Department of Natural Resources has a great deal of information available on cost and schedule for projects that received loans for the Clean Water State Revolving Fund. This includes contracts that describe the project cost and schedule and change orders that incorporate any cost and schedule changes into the contract. This information may also allow a review to identify owner-initiated changes that increased the cost or lengthened the time to project completion. However, municipalities do not appear to pursue claims as vigorously as other levels of government or private organizations. Therefore, these records may not clearly identify changes with the owner, contractor, engineer, or unforeseen circumstances. A pool of project-level information like this may be useful to this research because of the difficulty of finding measures of comparison at the municipal level (Coe, 1999; Kopczynski & Lombardo, 1999).

Projects funded through the Clean Water State Revolving Fund include the construction of wastewater collection and treatment systems. These are mostly government-owned systems. These projects involve many of the same products and processes as other construction projects. They are comparable to other projects that a municipality may construct.

Many of these questions relate to the owner’s role in the success of a construction project. The owner controls a number of factors that have a significant impact on the success of a construction project. These include a well-defined scope, and understanding of the scope shared with other participants, the owner’s construction sophistication, adequate owner staffing, and an established budget (Sanvido et al., 1992; Songer & Molenaar, 1997).

Because these are mostly skills and practices related to the development and management of projects, it seems reasonable to assume that municipal authorities could be taught these skills. It would be difficult to measure the availability of these skills in a number of cities over a short period, but some indicators may be available. Specifically, form of government and population may indicate the presence of these skills and practices.

Researchers still debate the efficiency of city manager governments relative to mayor-council governments. Stumm & Corrigan 91998) found that city manager cities have, on average, lower property taxes and general fund expenditures than mayor-council cities. Others have found that city manager and mayor-council cities do not differ in expenditures and efficiency (Deno & Mehay, 1997; Hayes & Chang, 1990; Morgan & Pelissero, 1980).

If cities do not differ on the bottom line, city manager and mayor-council governments appear to differ in their approach to capital budgeting and management. In their approaches to budgeting, city managers more often use a program budget while mayor-council governments more often use a zero-base or target-base budget (Poister & McGowan, 1984). City managers tend to spend more on infrastructure, use more sophisticate budgets and more often use separate capital budgets than mayor-council cities (Doss, 1987; Nunn, 1996).

Likewise, city managers often use formal approaches to managing capital. Doss (1987) found that city managers are more likely than mayor-council governments to use formal capital improvement plans and routine inspection programs.

Similarly, large municipalities tend to be more sophisticated. As populations increase, municipalities more often adopt separate capital budgets and make formal use of budget decision models (Doss, 1987; Sekwat, 1996).

In light of this, city manager governments and larger cities would seem to have natural advantages. Because of the use of capital improvement plans and separate capital budgets, city manager governments and larger cities seem more likely to have a well-established budget and well-defined scope for any given construction project.

Professional management is a fundamental of city manager governments. This would seem to give city managers an advantage in construction sophistication and experience, staffing and the ability to work with contractors to develop a common understanding of project scope.

Large cities have a practical need for professional staff, so they may have many of the same advantages as city manager cities. Because of the number of projects large cities can be involved in, they are likely to have staff with previous experience in many types of construction projects.

Previous research links form of government and population to a number of factors that are likely to lead to successful construction projects. Much of this research uses surveys of municipalities, contractors and engineers. While surveys are difficult and expensive, population and form of government information is readily available (Missouri Municipal, 1997; Official Manual, 1996).

Construction projects vary widely in size and complexity. Research that tries to attribute cost and schedule growth to specific factors must account for differences that occur as project increase in size or complexity. This is difficult to judge. However, because estimators attempt to consider these complexities (Clough, 1989), the contractor’s bid may be taken as a reasonable judgment of the size and complexity of a construction project.

A review of the literature leads to the following conclusions. Form of government and population can indicate the likely presence of skills and practices that lead to successful projects. Successful projects are those that have no cost or schedule growth. It is possible to account for project complexity in a comparison across projects and municipalities.

An assumption of this review is that municipal officials can learn the skills and practices that contribute to construction project success. Therefore, if it is found that form of government and population are related to cost and schedule growth, an intervention that increases these skills may decrease cost and schedule growth.

References

Arditi, D., & Patel, B. K. (1989). Impact analysis of owner-directed acceleration. Journal of Construction Engineering Management. 115(1), 144-157.

Baldwin, J. R., Manthei, J. M., Rothbart, H., & Harris, R. B. (1971). Causes of delays in the construction industry. Journal of the Construction Division. 97(CO2), 177-187.

Clough, R. H. (1986). Construction Contracting. 5^th ed. New York: John Wiley & Sons.

Coe, C. (1999). Local government benchmarking: Lessons from two major multigovernment efforts. Public Administration Review. 59(2), 110-123.

Deno, K. T., & Mehay, S. L. (1987). Municipal management structures and municipal services in America’s largest cities. Southern Economic Journal. 53(3), 21-26.

Doss, C. B. (1987). The use of public budgeting procedures in U.S. cities. Public Administration Review. 7(3), 57-59.

Financial Assistance Opportunities. Jefferson City, MO: Missouri Department of Natural Resources.

Hayes, K., & Chang, S. (1990). The relative efficiency of city manager and mayor-council forms of government. Southern Economic Journal. 57(1), 167-177.

Kopczynski, M., & Lombardo, M. (1999). Comparative performance measures: Insights and lessons learned from a consortium effort. Public Administration Review. 59(2), 124-134.

Kraiem, Z. M., & Diekmann, J. E. (1987). Concurrent delays in construction projects. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management. 113(4), 591-602.

Mahid, M. Z. A., & McCaffer, R. (1998). Factors of non-excusable delays that influence contractor’s performance. Journal of Management in Engineering. 14(3), 42-49.

Missouri Municipal Officials 1997-98 Directory. (1997). Jefferson City, MO: Missouri Municipal League.

Morgan, D. R., & Pelissero, J. P. (1980). Urban policy: Does political structure matter? American Political Science Review. 26(1), 8-15.

Mulholland, B., & Christian, J. (1999). Risk management in construction schedules. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management. 125(1), 8-15.

Nunn, S. (1996). Urban infrastructure and capital spending in city manager and strong mayor cities. American Review of Public Administration. 26(1), 93-112.

Official Manual 1995-1996. (1996). Jefferson City, MO: Missouri Secretary of State’s Office.

Pocock, J. B., Hyun, C. T., Liu, L. Y., & Kim, M. K. (1996). Relationships between project interaction and performance indicators. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management. 122(2), 165-176.

Pocock, J. B., Liu, L. Y., & Kim, M. K. (1997). Impact of management approach on project interaction and performance. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management. 123(4), 411-418.

Poister, T. H., & McGowan, R. P. (1984). The use of management tools in municipal government: A national survey. Public Administration Review. 123(4), 411-418.

Sanvido, V., Grobler, F., Parfitt, K., Guvenis, M., & Coyle, M. (1992). Critical success factors for construction projects. Journal of Construction and Engineering Management. 123(4), 411-418.

Sekwat, A. (1996). Use of capital budgeting decision models by county governments: A survey. State and Local Government Review. 28(3), 180-192.

Songer, A. D., & Molenaar, K. R. (1997). Project characteristics for successful public-sector design-build. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management. 123(1), 34-40.

Stumm, T. J., & Corrigan, M. T. (1998). City managers: Do they promote fiscal efficiency? Journal of Urban Affairs. 20(3), 343-351.

Cool Stuff, Old and New

London Underground Turns 150

The first train traveled the London Underground 150 years ago last month. It has grown to 249 miles of track that carry 3 million passengers daily. The Institute of Civil Engineers is observing the anniversary with events throughout the year.

Moon Water

When I was in high school, I enjoyed The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert Heinlein. The title inspired my friends to tease me by saying it with dramatic flair. We all read science fiction, but I tended to read more hard sci-fi and older books (The Moon is a Harsh Mistress was 20 years old back then).

Anyway, in this book Heinlein anticipated that there would be water on the moon in the form of underground ice, which would be mined by settlers. Recent studies suggest that there is water ice on the moon, though we are obviously a long way from using it to quench the thirst of moon settlers. By the way, Heinlein also anticipated the Internet in this book, which I read when home dial-up Internet service was a relatively new thing and few people had computers in their homes.

Book Review: Cathedral, Forge, and Waterwheel by Frances & Joseph Gies

As much as I am interested in current developments in engineering, I also love the history of technology.  I’m pleased to repost hear a review of Cathedral, Forge, and Waterwheel by Frances and Joseph Gies that I previously posted at Keenan’s Book Reviews.

Among many the Middle Ages, between the Classical period and the Renaissance, is still thought of as the Dark Ages.  In their book Cathedral, Forge, and Waterwheel, Frances and Joseph Gies summarize scholarship that shows that the Medieval period was one of commercial and technological advancement that welcomed invention and the dispersion of knowledge.

The authors present a history of technology beginning with the contributions of Greek and Roman civilization and culminating with European developments on the cusp of the Age of Discovery.  The period in between is sometimes called the Dark Ages because of the lack of documentary history, the loss of the centralizing influence of Roman Empire, and the loss of Greek texts and knowledge in much of Europe.  The Gieses attempt to debunk the notion that this time was “dark” in the sense of being backward, especially superstitious, and lacking in advancement in knowledge, commerce, science, and especially technology.

From a technological point of view, the Middle Ages didn’t inherit from the Greeks or Romans much more than they might have learned for more ancient civilizations.  The Greeks little esteemed the useful arts.  The Romans were very practical adopters of technology, and they certainly did things on a large scale, but their main contribution was size and organization.  Medieval Europe more fruitfully borrowed and built upon technology from China.  Ancient China had very advance technology in comparison to contemporary civilizations, and the spice trade aided the transmission of technology, in the form of both devices and ideas, from East to West.

I think some of the greatest advances in this period occurred in architecture and materials.  In architecture, builders began to move away from Roman circular arches to something more like true arches.  This, along with the flying buttress, another Medieval development, made a new architecture of more open and brighter spaces possible.

Materials greatly improved, too, especially iron.  Either directly or as an idea, iron-making technology moved from China to Europe.  The blast furnace gave Europeans the ability to make cast iron.  Though casting iron parts was in their grasp, the more significant issue was that a lot more iron could be made.  Iron tools and parts made a host of other technology practicable.

Technological changes led to cultural changes, too.  Improved applications of animal and water power to agriculture and food production led to a transition away from slavery to a serf-tenant system in which the people who worked the field had a right to portion of their production.  Agricultural surpluses led to the development of cities along with a decline of bound serfs rise of free tradesmen.  The development of manufacturing led to all kinds of trade and improvements in commercial practices including double-entry bookkeeping.

I think this book may be a good introduction to the history of technology for people seeking an entry point to the field.  It is neither too technical nor too academic in its style.  It covers a period of history that is not as well covered by other popular books.  It also acknowledges and summarizes the technology of the immediately preceding and succeeding ages, so it covers a very wide timeframe.

If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in

The Ancient Engineers by L. Sprague de Camp 

The Science of Leonardo by Fritjof Capra

The Victory of Reason by Rodney Stark

Gies, Frances, & Joseph Gies. Cathedral, Forge, and Waterwheel: Technology and Invention in the Middle Ages.  New York: HarperCollins, 1994.

Book Review: The Big Thirst by Charles Fishman

More than 1 billion people do not have access to clean drinking water.  Australia has suffered a decade-long, continent-wide drought.  Even seemingly water rich places, like Atlanta, Georgia, can’t get enough water.  Many are talking of a global water crisis.  Except, as Charles Fishman aptly states it in The Big Thirst, “There is no global water crisis, there are a thousand water crises, each distinct.”

I think the story of Atlanta and Lake Lanier, as told recounted by Fishman, is especially instructive.  Lake Lanier on the Chatahoochee River is the source of 75 percent of the water used by Atlanta, 5 million gallons a day.  A drought in 2007-2008 brought the level of the lake dangerously low, prompting downstream states to sue over the amount of water Atlanta was taking.  The federal court declared that Atlanta had been illegally receiving water from the lake and had to find another source.  Atlanta has a lot of resources, barely tapped conservation efforts, reuse, and alternative supplies, but with a lack of political will, leadership, and vision, it leaders threw up their hands in impotent defiance of the court and whined they must have Lake Lanier water.  When the lake was built, Atlanta passed on paying for a piece of it thinking it would never be needed, and now they think they can’t live without it.

Part of the point Fishman makes it that water crises are more often than not political crises.  There is a lack of political will and sense of necessity, even though the problems can be plain and the solutions within reach.  The Big Thirst includes examples from around the world (the United States, India, and especially Australia) where people are facing water problems.  Happily, many of them have taken a more realistic and reasonable approach than Atlanta.

Fishman is going for something deeper, though.  Our political and economic stumbling in the area of water management stems for our cultural relationship with water.  It is obviously necessary for life.  We also consider it beautiful, it is part of our landscape, and in some places it has important religious significance.  Even so, we have difficulty understanding the value of water, comparing one use to another, assigning responsibility for its distribution and quality, acknowledging the infrastructure needed to have water when and where it is needed.  It the West, where for the last century we have enjoyed incredible access to abundant water, we hardly ever think about water unless we have some professional connection to it.

We can’t continue to be mindless of water.  The systems of water abundance we built in the last century aren’t sustainable without major ongoing investment.  In light of climate change, they may be altogether unsustainable.  Even without climate change, much of our water policy dates to a time of unusual water abundance.

Fishman encourages water mindfulness.  We need to reconnect to water.  In part, this reconnecting means understanding what it means to have water in our homes and in our streams.  It is also connecting to how critical water is to food, energy, commerce, health, and almost every aspect of life.  Our decisions about water need to be rooted in reality.

If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in

Blue Revolution by Cynthia Barnett

Elixir by Brian Fagan

Water by Marq de Villiers

Water by Steven Solomon

When the Rivers Run Dry by Fred Pearce

I’ve also written about Atlanta and Lake Lanier at Infrastructure Watch:

Courts Could Affect Uses of Lake Lanier

Georgia Appeals Lake Lanier Decision

Georgia Loses Lake Lanier Battle

Judge Winnows Down Central Question in Lake Lanier Case

Fishman, Charles.  The Big Thirst: The Secret Life and Turbulent Future of Water.  New York: Free Press, 2011.

This review of The Big Thirst by Charles Fishman appears courtesy of Keenan’s Book Reviews, were you can find more books about water.

Book Review: #STEM Books for #DeSTEMber

I’ve reviewed 39 STEM-related books (and counting).  STEM is an acronym for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.  As you may have seen in the news, there is a push to improve STEM education, interest students in STEM fields, and grow the number of workers in these fields.  The idea is that these will be the skills needed by workers of the future.  If you’re a STEM educator or a student considering a career in STEM fields, you might like to take a look at some of these books.

I’ll confess that I’m not an educator, but I think most of these books will be accessible to high school and college students, and a few to middle school students.  The list is also a reflection of my career and interests in engineering, public health, policy, and history.  Even with these biases, I think it is a good list for someone looking for STEM-related books.

How to Build an Android: The True Story of Philip K. Dick’s Robotic Resurrection by David F. Dufty

I was fascinated by robots as a kid.  I enjoyed reading Isaac Asimov’s robot stories.  I longed for the Omnibot 2000 in the Sears Wishbook.

Robots have come a long way.  In How to Build an Android, David F. Dufty describes the short strange life of a very complex robot made to look and talk like science fiction author Philip K. Dick.  The robot had a very sophisticated and lifelike head and complex artificial intelligence.  As with most complex things, it was the work of many people who had to solve a lot of problems.

If you’re interested in robotics, this is an interesting nontechnical book.  In addition, you’ll get introduced to some freaky sci-fi.  You may even get as (somewhat) legitimate reason to use the word “Dickhead” (capitalized, it refers to a fan of PKD, so don’t go using it on anyone).

 

The Big Roads: The Untold Story of the Engineers, Visionaries, and Trailblazers Who Created the American Superhighways by Earl Swift

The Interstate highway system in the United States is one of the most enormous structures built.  Some of the prospective STEM students who read this may actually be younger than the Intestate system, though in some sense it is never complete because it needs constant repair and maintenance.  The Interstates were completed in the 1990s, but the Federal-Aid Highways go back to 1916.

 

Earl Swift wrote an accessible history of the Interstates in The Big Roads.  If you interested in automobiles or transportation, it’s a good read.

 

Dreams of Iron and Steel by Deborah Cadbury

Deborah Cadbury describes seven wonders of engineering in Dreams of Iron and Steel.  It covers almost a century of history, but many of the events are concentrated in the Victorian Era.  That was a time of great technological innovation.

 

Though the book is history, many of the structures still stand.  Railways, the Brooklyn Bridge, the Suez and Panama Canals, and Hoover Dam stand testament to an age of big engineering.

 

The Physics of Superheroes by James Kakalios

Though the memory of Professor Wragg’s sneer prompts me to not make this confession, part of my interest in science and technology came from comic books.  Iron Man was cool.  Spider-Man’s web shooters were very cool.  Superhero comics are full of fantasy, admittedly, but the strange, unrealistic science and technology they depict have inspired many to study STEM in reality.

 

Physicist John Kakalios uses examples from comic books to explore real physics in The Physics of Supeheroes.  Sometimes comics get there science right.  Even when they get it wrong, it can be instructive.  If you know what people are talking about when they refer to the “New 52,” you may find this book to be a great introduction to physics.

 

1089 and All That: A Journey into Mathematics by David Acheson

Here is another confession: I’m not especially interested in math.  I endured a lot of math classes to study engineering.  Reading David Acheson’s 1089 and All That did not require such endurance.  For one reason, it is a short book.  For another, Acheson doesn’t expect his readers to be mathematicians; it is enough to follow the outline of the math he discusses.

 

I recommend this book because so many people have a fear of math.  1089 can be followed by many high school students and older folks with math phobias.  Just take a deep breath, relax, and follow along as well as you can.  You’ll see that math can be interesting, useful, and even beautiful in a way.

 

The Brooklyn Bridge: They Said it Couldn’t be Built by Judith St. George

Judith St. George’s The Brooklyn Bridge is a short history of and iconic bridge.  Written for the bridge’s 100^th anniversary, it is also the story of the engineers who sacrificed life and health to see it completed: John Roebling and his son Washington.  John Roebling was a German immigrant who built many suspension bridges and owed a wire-making business.  He gave his son and extraordinary education in bridge engineering for the time, and before beginning work on the Brooklyn Bridge he served as an officer in the Union Army during the Civil War.

 

Why should a cutting-edge STEM student read about a bridge that is almost 130 years old?  It’s because we still use and rely on very successful, centuries old technologies.  Improving and rebuilding our infrastructure will be an important part of our economy.  As recently as 2010, New York City and the federal government committed $500 million to repair and repaint the Brooklyn Bridge.

 

The Essential Engineer: Why Science Alone Will Not Solve Our Global Problems by Henry Petroski

STEM lumps together science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.  Is there a difference between science and engineering?  Is it important?

 

Henry Petroski, a professor of civil engineering and history and author of The Essential Engineer, believes there is an important difference.  At heart, science is about increasing knowledge.  Engineering is about invention.  Of course, new knowledge makes new invention possible.  Just as often, though, engineering runs ahead of science.  Sometimes science didn’t advance until someone invented the instruments to conduct new observations and experiments.  The invention of the microscope made possible the science of microbiology.  Steam engines were built and greatly improved before we had a modern scientific understanding of thermodynamics.  In fact, thermodynamics was to a large extent born out of desire to understand steam engines. In this sense, it is an engineering science (study of manmade things) as much as a natural science (study of natural things) or branch of physics.

 

Petroski’s focus in the book is the importance of engineering to policymaking, where it is often overshadowed by science.  Policy, science, and engineering play off of each other a lot.  Most of my career as an engineer has been related to government, policy, and regulatory compliance.

 

The Ghost Map: The Story of London’s Most Terrifying Epidemic—and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World by Steven Johnson

The Ghost Map by science writer Steven Johnson is the story of the birth of epidemiology.  Epidemiology is a medical science that uses statistics to help us understand how diseases operate in a population.  Using various statistical and geographic tools, long before we had computers and GIS, physician John Snow demonstrated that cholera, once a recurring plague that wiped out hundreds of thousands of people in some outbreaks, was a waterborne disease.  This understanding, initially met with much skepticism, allowed officials to intervene to prevent the spread of the disease.  For those who say of their math classes, “I’ll never us this,” here is a case where math (and science and policy) were used to make a great difference.

 

Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West by Stephen Ambrose

It is not much publicized today that the Lewis and Clark expedition of 1804 to 1806 had a partly scientific mission.  Captains Lewis and Clark were charges with bringing back samples of the flora, fauna, and culture of the western territories.  It was also hoped that they would find a water passage to the Pacific Ocean.  In Undaunted Courage, Stephen Ambrose writes about the scientific mission as well as the policy, diplomacy, and commercial hopes the expedition carried.

 

Of course, what attracts most people to the Lewis and Clark expedition is that it was a great adventure.  There is a place in STEM fields for thoughtful adventurers and explorers. 

 

Buried Alive: The Terrifying History of Our Most Primal Fear by Jan Bondeson

A list like this deserves something strange, creepy, and more fun than you care to admit.  Right now, thousands of very young future STEM workers are catching bugs and snakes, breaking their toys to see what is inside, or staring into space with a weird expression of vacancy and concentration.

 

Jan Bondeson’s Buried Alive is not a morbid book.  It is sometimes humorous, especially in consideration of topic.  From a STEM point of view, Bondeson shows how knowledge accumulates over time.  The fears and activities of our forefathers may seem strange to us, but they sometimes made sense in light of what they knew.  Buried Alive doesn’t simply play off our fascination with the grotesque and death, though the book might not have been written if we lacked that fascination, I think it reminds us to approach our ancestors with a touch of grace and humility.  Maybe our progeny will show us the same courtesy.

 

If you’re looking for something for a younger student, check out this post→ from Joanne Loves Science or these recommendations→ from STEM Friday.  By the way, I also write about engineering, infrastructure and the environment at Infrastructure Watch.

 

This review of STEM books appears courtesy of Keenan’s Book Reviews.

Book Review: Blue Revolution by Cynthia Barnett

Barnett, Cynthia.  Blue Revolution: Unmaking America’s Water Crisis.  Boston: Beacon Press, 2011.

America has a problem.  We’re a thirsty nation.  Actually, it’s more like we’re addicted to water, abusing it.  We subsidize its use on a grand scale in industries that use it inefficiently, even wastefully, and in locations where it is naturally hard to come by.  We allocate it based on facts that are no longer true, and were doubtful or changing even as we made our policies.  In our sometimes blind enthusiasm, we overreached and now we are mire in unintended consequences.  To top it off, we rarely change our ways until a crisis is already upon us.

Cynthia Barnett describes these problems in her book Blue Revolution.  She also looks around the country and the world for solutions.  Her essential solution is a water ethic.

Atnone time, people were intimately connected to water.  Farmers watched for rain.  Children fetched pails of it from the stream or worked a pump handle.  Communities were built around watermills where people brought in grain or carried away flour. 

Of course, water is no less essential to modern life.  We depend on it for drinking, cleaning, sanitation and green lawns.  It is essential or the energy that light and cools our homes and powers our computers.  The abundance of food in our groceries stores is partly a testament to the abundance of water used to irrigate fields that don’t get enough rainfall for the crops we grow.

What is different is the way we view water.  For most of us it is cheap, nearly free in comparison to other utilities and services we use in our homes.   We can get as much as we want whenever we want by opening a valve.  Water is something we hold back with dams, divert with canals, and pump through pipes.  It bends to our will—except when it doesn’t.

Our water policies and technologies have often had unintended consequences.  We turned deserts into productive fields, but much of the water is lost to evaporation.  We moved water great distances to supply cities, but it encouraged profligacy that threatens those distant, expensive supplies.  Dams that were engineering marvels may soon stand at the ends of empty lakes.

Sure, changes in technology and policy are needed to stop, and hopefully reverse, these problems.  Barnett doesn’t stop there.  Our approach to water arises from the way we value it, think about it, and relate to it.  Our present state came from valuing water little, thinking about it little unless it was our job, and relating to it little except for those who intensely depended on a highly subsidized supply.

The water ethic Barnett proposes would value water, both in the sense of personal appreciation and economic cost and opportunity.  It would seek the best use of the water we have, especially what is locally available.  It creates opportunities for people to contact water and understand where it comes from and how it is affected by use.  It is something that spreads organically from person to person, neighborhood to neighborhood, business to business, and city to city.

It is an ethic that is within reach, too.  Barnett describes how places that have long had extreme relationships with extreme water environments, like the Netherlands, Singapore and Australia, have changed their relationship with water.  These are not just policy shifts, they are cultural changes.  Even in the United States, there are places where a new water ethic is taking hold and people understand how important and fragile water is.

If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in

Elixir by Brian Fagan

Water by Marq de Villiers

Water by Steven Solomon

When the Rivers Run Dry by Fred Pearce

This review of Blue Revolution by Cynthia Barnett appears courtesy of Keenan’s Book Reviews, where you can find review of other books on water and ethics.

Book Review: Elixir by Brian Fagan

Fagan, Brian.  Elixir: A History of Water and Humankind.  New York: Bloomsbury, 2011.

Unlike other authors of books about water, Brian Fagan in Elixir gives much more attention to the culture, as one might expect of an anthropologist.  In most of the cultures he discusses in his book, water is closely associated with ritual, often considered sacred.  Fagan’s interested in the human relationship with water goes beyond ritual and religion and includes politics and technology.

Fagan describes three phases of the human relationship with water.  In the first stage, water is an unreliable, often scarce, and highly valued resource.  This value is reflected in the careful management, ritual, and even sacred reverence of water.  In the second stage, from the Industrial Revolution to our own day, water is a commodity, little considered and treated as if it were superabundant.  In the emerging stage, water is a finite resource we need to conserve.

Most of the book is covers the first stage.  He discusses the historic relationship and management of water from around the world.  Some of these were famous for their extensive management of water, sometimes with equally extensive infrastructure, such as the Egyptian and Romans.  Others are lesser known, like the highly ritualistic and religious Balinese system that is still operating.  Some we know relatively little about in spite of their antiquity, such as the pre-Columbian Mayan and Andean cultures.

Because of this approach, Elixir is also a work of cultural and physical geography.  The reader can, in imagination, travel the world and see how civilizations are shaped by the sometimes harsh realities of the environment and how humans shape their environment.

The commodity stage is covered much more briefly.  To be fair, it is only a few hundred years old.  It is our age, when technology has allowed us to reach ever more difficult and remote sources of water.  Even in the industrial era, not everyplace has had truly abundant water.  Fagan points to arid and semiarid regions of Africa and Asia as locations poised on exhausting their water.  This is an issue in the United States, too, especially in the southwest, where politics and unrealistic optimism have trumped wisdom and reality for more than a century.

For the stage we are entering, the issue becomes conservation and sustainability.  Acknowledging that we are using our fresh water supply faster than it is regenerated, especially in some parts of the world, and making changes to our practices an technology, will require another cultural shift if we are to have sustainable water supplies.

When it comes to sustainability, I was surprised how much faith Fagan expressed in technology and human ingenuity.  Even so, he implies that we should look to our past.

In the early stage of our relationship with water, we valued it, even reverenced it, immensely.  It is time to place a high value on water again, even without religious aspects.  Also, in the past water management was a very local affair, and surprisingly democratic.  Though few of the governments Fagan discusses were democracies, they had mechanisms for hearing and considering the needs of everyone in the community.  Even in empires with powerful central governments that built and managed extensive waterworks, community-based water management operated alongside, and often it was the food surpluses of these local, village-managed operations that made empire-building possible.

If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in

Water by Marq de Villiers

Water by Steven Solomon

When the Rivers Run Dry by Fred Pearce

This review of Elixir by Brian Fagan is presented courtesy of Keenan’s Book Reviews, where you can find reviews of other books about water.