London Water Research Group > About Us

Introduction

The London Water Research Group was not so much launched as emerged. It grew out of research focused on the Middle East and North Africa. The journey started with a conventional focus on the idea that limited water resources determined limited options and increased conflict. Explaining the absence of armed conflict over hyper-scarce water resources led to a long-standing interest in embedded water/'virtual water'.

During the second half of the 1990s ten graduate researchers deepened understanding of water security, financing water resource development and the challenges of sharing transboundary waters. Since 2000s the research and publication focus has intensified on water resource security with an emphasis on the role of the water/food/trade nexus. In addition the Group has had a major international impact on the analysis of international transboundary water resources.

The website seeks to function as a hub for innovative ideas on water management and economics, water/food/trade, investment into land and water, transboundary water analysis and the water/energy nexus. For further enquiries, please feel free to contact us at info@lwrg.org.

The London Water Research Group is a network of researchers working on issues of water security at different institutions. Below are profiles of some of the key members.

Professor Tony Allan

Tony Allan focuses his research on the social and political contexts which influence and usually determine water use and water policy.

Dr Dave Phillips

Dr. Dave Phillips runs his own consulting company from Windhoek in Namibia. He has over 35 years of experience in environmental and water-related topics, world-wide.

Dr Mark Zeitoun

Dr Mark Zeitoun is a senior lecturer in the School of International Development, at the University of East Anglia.

Dr Jeroen Warner

Jeroen is currently Assistant Professor of Disaster Studies at Wageningen University. His main research interests in the field of disaster studies are the role of social organisations and participation in flood resilience, the politics of disaster risk reduction and the role of disaster in International Relations.

Dr Ana Cascão

Dr Ana Elisa Cascão is currently a Programme Manager at SIWI’s Capacity Building services. She is co-director, facilitator and lecturer of international training programmes on Transboundary Water Management for the Lake Victoria, Middle East and Tigris-Euphrates.

Dr. Naho Mirumachi

Naho has research interests in the politics of water resources management, particularly in developing country contexts. Her research focuses on international transboundary river basins and examines three inter-related themes: institutions of water allocation; power and environmental discourse; scale and agency.

Nathanial Matthews

Nate began his PhD research in 2010 at Kings College, London analyzing the politics surrounding impact assessments in the Mekong Basin, with a focus on Lao PDR.

Martin Keulertz

Martin Keulertz is a PhD researcher at King’s College London. His research analyses the recent surge of foreign direct investment in East Africa from a water security perspective.

Michael Gilmont

Michael is a Phd student analysing the political process behind the shift from water resource development through mobilisation, to development through reallocation.

Francesca Greco

Francesca’s doctoral research focuses on testing the relevance of exports of food commodities from arid countries using non renewable water sources to the benefit of the global consumer’s market. In doing this she will explore the applicability of two new concepts: the “virtual water paradox ” ( also considered as “bad virtual water” ) and the “hydro –metabolism of nations” , a concept deriving from socio-economic metabolism and historical materialism theories.

Marta Antonelli

Marta started her PhD at King’s College London in September 2009. Her research focuses on the water question of the arid and semi-arid Middle East and North African region. The aim is to increase understanding of the role that virtual water ‘trade’ has silently played in underpinning the region’s water-for-food security over the next few decades.

Suvi Sojamo

Suvi Sojamo is a PhD Researcher at Water and Development Research Group at Aalto University in Helsinki. Her research focuses on global water governance embedded in global agro-food value chains and networks, their overlapping agency, architecture and dynamics in the global political economy context.

About Us