Hydrology and Its Discontents: Contemplations on the Innate Paradoxes of Water Research

This book examines the intricate web linking water science and society using diverse philosophical lenses. Highlighting the tensions within the threads of this web, we spotlight major conceptual tightropes that water researchers tread daily. To effectively navigate these delicate threads, a 'healthy' tension in the encompassing web is necessary. Drawing inspiration from Freud's examination of tensions in "Society and Its Discontents," we illuminate the tension-filled paradoxes inherent to water science, emphasizing the challenges in keeping these paradoxical threads taut enough to ensure a navigable and sustainable bond with society.

Central to our narrative is the escalating societal urge to quantify and 'manage' water―something interwoven throughout every environmental layer, including the fabric of our being. An excessive focus on management may alienate users from their water realities, jeopardizing the vital threads that sustainability tether water science and society. Consequently, this book explores compelling and inescapable tensions that resist tidy universal resolution, such as: the language of water science, including its mathematical reductions (i.e., models); the effect of water's commodification on its science; hydrology’s intersection with colonialism; and other concerns that reveal distortions in our hydrology.

We aim to aid water professionals in recognizing and fine-tuning the paradoxes intrinsic to their work. To underscore the interwoven complexity of contemporary hydrology, "Hydrology and Its Discontents" guides readers into the tempestuous depths of water research, all the while urging a recalibration of perspectives and motivations.

1. On Contemplating Paradoxes

   • John T. Van Stan II, Jack Simmons

   Pages 1-4

2. The “Water Problem”

   • John T. Van Stan II, Jack Simmons

   Pages 5-13

3. Tensions from the Start: Tales of the First Hydrologist and His Civilization

   • John T. Van Stan II, Jack Simmons

   Pages 15-21

4. Divide and Ponder: Dismembering Water to Study Water

   • John T. Van Stan II, Jack Simmons

   Pages 23-33

5. Adopting a More Fluid “Frame of Mind” in Hydrology

   • John T. Van Stan II, Jack Simmons

   Pages 35-44

6. Limits in Language: Which “Water” Do You Mean?

   • John T. Van Stan II, Jack Simmons

   Pages 45-53

7. Hydrology by the Numbers and for the Numbers

   • John T. Van Stan II, Jack Simmons

   Pages 55-67

8. Are Hydrologists Wading Through Ideas, Instead of Water?

   • John T. Van Stan II, Jack Simmons

   Pages 69-75

9. An “Umbrella Perspective” of Water: The Hermeneutics of Hydrology

   • John T. Van Stan II, Jack Simmons

   Pages 77-85

10. When Water Bows to Market Demands, So May Its Science

    • John T. Van Stan II, Jack Simmons

    Pages 87-96

11. Neocolonial Hydrology: How “Authentic” Are Today’s Human–Water Interactions?

    • John T. Van Stan II, Jack Simmons

    Pages 97-108

12. How a “Hypermasculine” Hydrology Can Suffer from ED (Explanatory Dysfunction)

    • John T. Van Stan II, Jack Simmons

    Pages 109-119

13. A Psychoanalysis of Wet Dreams

    • John T. Van Stan II, Jack Simmons

    Pages 121-130

14. Plato’s Wonder and Hydrology

    • John T. Van Stan II, Jack Simmons

    Pages 131-145

15. Epilogue: On Responsibility and Blame (and a Toast to Hydrology)

    • John T. Van Stan II, Jack Simmons

    Pages 147-149