ABSTRACT
The Comprehensive Assessment thus examines options for improving water management in a context of increasing tension between agriculture and ecosystems over conflicting requirements for water. Its aim is to reach the common goals embodied in the Millennium Development Goals: to use water and other resources to produce enough food for everyone and to do so in a way that is environmentally sustainable. The approach recognizes that water management lies within the sphere of agricultural systems and that that sphere is a part of the greater natural resource base that includes land, water, biodiversity, and people. The entire arrangement is embedded in a social and political context (figure 1.2).
