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Water Governance and Policies

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Handbook of Water Resources Management: Discourses, Concepts and Examples

Abstract

Failure at multiple levels of governance rather than the resource base itself is at the origin of the water crisis. Despite increasing scholarly research on water governance and efforts towards policy reform the overall situation has not substantially improved and major transformations in water governance are yet to be implemented. The chapter summarises and addresses multi-level and multi-sectoral challenges for water governance by reviewing and discussing several key concepts in science and policy. An analysis of basin scale approaches and their effectiveness and a discussion of the importance of scale and of multi-level governance approaches shows that crossing boundaries is essential to tackle complexities of sustainable water governance and management. The concept of the WEF nexus is introduced and critically analysed concerning its potential to overcome sectoral fragmentation and sectoral power imbalances. Crossing boundaries also implies governance across national borders. The sub-chapters on transboundary water management and on global water governance address these international and global dimensions. Overall, the chapter highlights from different perspectives the importance of linking and of governing across scales from the local to the international and global.

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Abbreviations

EU:

European Union

FAO:

Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations

GWP:

Global Water Partnership

INBO:

International Network of Basin Organisations

IWRM:

Integrated Water Resources Management

MDGs:

Millennium Development Goals

MRC:

Mekong River Commission

OECD:

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

OMVS:

Organisation for the Development of the Senegal River

RBOs:

River Basin Organisations

RBM:

River Basin Management

SDGs:

Sustainable Development Goals

TVA:

Tennessee Valley Authority

UNFCCC:

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

UNSGAB:

United Nations Secretary-General’s Advisory Board on Water and Sanitation

UN-WATER:

United Nations Water

WEF:

Water-Energy-Food

WFD:

Water Framework Directive

WTO:

World Trade Organisation

WWDR:

World Water Development Report

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Geography and Institute of Environmental Systems Research, Osnabrück University, Osnabrück, Germany

    Claudia Pahl-Wostl

  2. Programme “Environmental Governance and Transformation to Sustainability”, German Development Institute/Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik (DIE), Bonn, Germany

    Ines Dombrowsky

  3. Department of Geography, King’s College London, London, UK

    Naho Mirumachi

Authors
  1. Claudia Pahl-Wostl
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  2. Ines Dombrowsky
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  3. Naho Mirumachi
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Correspondence to Claudia Pahl-Wostl .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Development Research, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany

    Janos J. Bogardi

  2. University of Amsterdam and IHE-Delft Institute for Water Education, Delft, The Netherlands

    Joyeeta Gupta

  3. Department of Civil Engineering, University of Peradeniya, Peradeniya, Sri Lanka

    K. D. Wasantha Nandalal

  4. Lawyer, Conflict Resolution Specialist, Paris, France

    Léna Salamé

  5. Department of Water Management, Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands

    Ronald R.P. van Nooijen

  6. Center for Development Research (ZEF), University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany

    Navneet Kumar

  7. Water Engineering and Management, Asian Institute of Technology, Pathum thani, Thailand

    Tawatchai Tingsanchali

  8. Sustainable Water Future Programme, Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia

    Anik Bhaduri

  9. Delft Center for Systems and Control, Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands

    Alla G. Kolechkina

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Pahl-Wostl, C., Dombrowsky, I., Mirumachi, N. (2021). Water Governance and Policies. In: Bogardi, J.J., et al. Handbook of Water Resources Management: Discourses, Concepts and Examples. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-60147-8_9

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