27. Integrated Water Resources Management and the Hydrosocial Balance

During the last seven years, the author has developed a new analytic framework for the understanding of out-stream flows in any catchment or region. This is termed the area's “hydrosocial balance” because the flows from which it is constructed are hydrosocial rather than hydrological. Until now this meta-theory has been limited to flow quantities. The present paper extends the scope of the hydrosocial balance to issues of water qualities. The conjoint framework is then applied to a casestudy of an island in the English Channel – Jersey – well known for its agricultural outputs, its financial services sector, and its tourist industry. The paper shows how general lessons for integrated water resources management can be drawn from the Jersey fieldwork: a world in a grain of sand.