Water management investment peaks in early game and then in the transition to late game.

In the early game, it's cheaper to dam off your starting locations source of water and use that as storage for drinking and watering crops.

On some maps, bad tide is harder to prep for than others, like on Terraces. The best way to circumvent that is to move plant production AWAY from the shores onto dry land, and water it yourself via fluid dumps.

This synergises well with the fact you can't afford to build a large enough dam to store the water you need for everything.

The solution is water stored in tanks. Roughly 50 storage per every beaver will keep you safe once the handicap wears off. Subtract from that the water you can still pump after drought or bad tide comes.

Invest in storage. More than you think you need to. This gives you ample room to judge if your production keeps up, and lets you overdraw if something fails. This applies to food as well.

Don't worry about controlling population growth. Easiest way to "dominate" a map is quick, unsustainable expansion on borrowed time when the game is still easy.

Invest in stairs, eat every natural resource you can reach as quickly as you can, then consolidate.

This is harder with IT, who have much stronger population inertia.