Historical evolution and classification of global water-related conflicts: from antiquity to the cyber era

ABSTRACT A schematic diagram illustrating the historical evolution, analytical framework, and classification of global water-related conflicts from antiquity to the modern cyber era. Detailed description: The graphical abstract visualizes the chronological progression of water conflicts across historical eras into the modern cyber era. It outlines the analytical framework classifying water conflicts into three key roles: triggers, weapons, and casualties of war. The illustration highlights the spatial-temporal distribution of conflict incidents, impacts on critical water infrastructure, and the emerging cyber and physical threats to water security. This study analyses the historical evolution of water-related conflict from antiquity to the present through a global event-based dataset. Using a three-part analytical framework, conflict events are classified as Trigger, Weapon, or Casualty. At the same time, cyberattacks are examined as an emerging extension of these dynamics in the digital era. The results show a clear historical shift from localised hydraulic manipulation and poisoning toward large-scale infrastructural coercion, civilian water deprivation, and attacks on critical water systems. Water-related conflict is also shown to operate across multiple political scales, ranging from transboundary disputes over shared river basins to local communal violence under conditions of scarcity. In contemporary conflicts, dams, treatment plants, desalination facilities, pipelines, and pumping stations increasingly serve as strategic targets whose disruption generates cascading humanitarian and ecological consequences. Recent cyber incidents further demonstrate that conflict over water has expanded beyond physical violence to encompass the digital control architecture of water infrastructure. The article's main contribution is to provide a historically integrated perspective on how the mechanisms of water conflict have transformed over time, revealing water not only as a contested resource but also as a critical socio-technical system central to security, survival, and resilience.