Descending into chaos -- Water in geologic time: how ancient rivers can help ease droughts -- From megadams to microbes: water's relationship with tiny forms of life -- Beavers: the original water engineers -- Reclaiming historic water knowledge in modern India -- Planting water: how water shaped culture in ancient Peru -- Let floodplains be floodplains: antidote to the industrial era -- For future humans: protecting water towers in Kenya -- Future coastal, where fresh water meets salt -- Our shared future: living with water

"Water Always Wins transports us around the world and back through time, exposing us to better ways to live with water. Gies introduces us to water experts the world over as they search for clues to water's past and present, using close observation, historical research, ancient animal and human wisdom, and cutting-edge science to effect change. We become more aware of the ways in which modern civilizations speed water away, erasing its slow phases on the land. But that's when, Gies says, "the magic happens": the slow phases absorb floods, store water for droughts, and feed natural systems. Innovators in what she calls the Slow Water movement are accommodating that desire, and showing us how to forge a more resilient future."--