The city of Leh is located in the high mountain desert of Ladakh in the Indian Himalayas and access to water has always been limited there. In recent years, the town has experienced high rates of urbanisation on the one hand, and tourist numbers have increased exponentially on the other, which has implications for the water supply of the people living there. Through several years of on-site research, challenges on various levels were documented and current governance approaches were analysed. This research forms the basis for future approaches to sustainable development.

Autorentext

Judith Müller studied Geography, Communication Studies and Political Sciences at Mainz University in Germany and Umeå University in Sweden. She received the M.A. degree from Mainz University in 2014 and a Ph.D. degree in Geography from Heidelberg University, Germany, in 2021. She conducted her Ph.D. research as a member of the Junior Research Group "Environment and Health in Arid Regions: Dynamics of Urbanisation, Challenges of Water Resource Management and New Risks for Human Well-Being". Institutionally, she was affiliated with the Heidelberg Center for the Environment and the South Asia Institute, Department of Geography. Her dissertation deals with hydro-social transformations and water governance challenges in the Indian town Leh in Ladakh. Judith Müller is a spokesperson of the South Asia Working Group in the German Geographical Society, where she serves as the editor of the annual conference proceedings. She currently works as a postdoctoral researcher at the Center Humans and Technology at the Karlsruhe Institute for Technology (KIT), Germany. Her current research interests are sustainability issues, interdisciplinarity, urban development and real-world lab methodology. Moreover, she focuses on science communication activities, such as editing a research blog.