Scale matters: A Spatiotemporal Analysis of Freshwater Conflicts from 1900-2019

The threat of conflicts over water resources has become a serious issue in both academic and policy circles. While recent scholarship points to an increasing incidence of conflicts over water, critically missing in these discussions is the spatial resolution of water conflicts. Specifically, what are the spatiotemporal dynamics of water conflicts? How do these differ between and within specific geographic scales? I explore these scaler questions by spatializing water conflicts over the last century (1900-2019) using data from the Pacific Institute. The analysis shows that water conflicts have transformed from water as a weapon of conflicts to water as a trigger and casualty of conflicts. Although there is spatial ubiquity in intrastate and interstate water conflicts, intrastate conflicts are predominantly in India and East Africa. In contrast interstate, water conflicts are more common in Central Asia and East Africa.