The Global Water Grab Syndrome

Water grabbing is a global and accelerating phenomenon, largely underinvestigated and not acknowledged by policymakers. This project will investigate, in an integrated way, the institutional drivers and governance conditions of virtual freshwater appropriation associated with global land grabbing (i.e., water grabbing) and evaluate its eco-hydrological impact on the affected countries. In order to do this, the project will develop and apply a social-ecological diagnostic approach tailored for the analysis and evaluation of the phenomenon. The scientific assessment of water grabbing, integrated with the analysis of its institutional dynamics, will be disseminated through an open web platform and provide policy makers and interested actors worldwide with information and a powerful instrument to address this critical issue and tackle its detrimental social-ecological consequences.