Soft water path

The concept of the soft path was first used for energy resource management and was developed by Amory Lovins shortly after the shock of the 1973 energy crisis in the United States. The soft path is often framed as an alternative to supply-side resource management. Supply-side water management focuses on problem solving with physical infrastructure by constructing bigger dams and drilling deeper wells with the goal of producing more water to meet the demands of consumers. Demand-side management focuses on managing demand and making current practices more efficient. The soft path differs from both approaches. Soft path water planning takes a step back from the problem and rethinks if water is actually necessary to accomplish a given task at hand. If water is necessary, it then considers what quality of water is required to deliver the service desired and how that water can be used most efficiently. Soft path water planning has been described as "unleashing the full potential of demand-side management."

Soft water path is a term originating in the early 2000s, to define a new approach to water management which emphasizes reduction in water usage and providing adequate water to people in remote sparsely populated areas, and allows for the utilization or reutilization of water of differing quality for differing needs. The companion neologism, 'hard water path' is used in contrast, to describe the more traditional approaches to water management, which relied on developing infrastructure to provide new sources of purified fresh water to populous regions to meet all water needs and wants.

See also

• Hydrology
• Water cycle
• Water resources
• Sanitation
• Sustainable development
• Pacific Institute
• Soft energy path

Publications

• The Soft Path for Water in a Nutshell. 2005. Oliver M Brandes and David B Brooks. Friends of the Earth and POLIS Project on Ecological Governance. University of Victoria, Victoria, BC.
• G. Wolff and P.H. Gleick, "The Soft Path for Water" in The World's Water 2002-2003 (Island Press, Washington D.C., pp. 1-32.
• P.H. Gleick, 2003. Science, Volume 302, November 28, 2003, pp. 1524-1528.
• P.H. Gleick, 2002. Nature, Volume 418, pg. 373, July 25, 2002.
• Manitoba Water Soft Path 2006.
• The Energy Controversy: Soft Path Questions and Answers (1979) ISBN 978-0913890226