On the conceptual and theoretical level the project has addressed the fact that the water factor has been absent both from most modern theories of development and from dominant historical explanations in general, although all societies have a hydraulic dimension. As all societies at all times and in all places have been forced to relate to water in one way or another, water is, compared to other elements in nature, a truly universal resource, at the same time as it has a unique physical character; it is always changing, varying over time from place to place and at each individual locality. This project has by bringing scholars from different countries and disciplines together reflected upon, discussed and researched on how this embodiment of the universal and the particular in a unique way makes freshwater availability and human control of it an important empirical aspect of all types of development processes. This has created opportunities for conceptual and theoretical innovations of relevance to social science in general. The theoretical ambitions of the project has reflected the fact that there is an extensive literature on the relationship between nature on the one hand and culture and society on the other hand, but few works on the more specific but at the same time universal relationship between water and culture or water and society. This project has both helped to develop relevant concepts and theoretical models, and it has also produced new and important empirical explanations of why some societies develop differently from other societies.

Through intensive interdisciplinary work, collection of data and literature, debates about concepts, theories and methods and the organisation of a number of international workshops with altogether around 70 participants from more than 20 different countries, the members of the group have been able to deepen their understanding of essential central issues related to how water and the struggle to control and use water have influenced societies.