Integrated Governance and Water Basin Management: Conditions for Regime Change and Sustainability (Environment & Policy, 41)

ISBN 10: 1402024819 / ISBN 13: 9781402024818

Published by Springer, 2004

About this Item

Seller Inventory # I-9781402024818

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Integrated Governance and Water Basin Management: Conditions for Regime Change and Sustainability (Environment & Policy, 41)
• Publisher: Springer
• Publication Date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1402024819
• ISBN 13: 9781402024818
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

All over the world countries struggle with water stress. Problems vary from water scarcity and a degrading water quality, to floods and a rising sea level due to climate change. The European Union adopted a Water Framework Directive to improve the sustainability of water management in its member states. Water management should be coordinated at the level of river basins as a whole. Interests of various user groups should be better represented. River basin visions should take into account the impact of all human activities on the status of the resource. Water legislation needs streamlining and more focus on its implementation. The European Union advocates regulating water prices by charging the costs of water services on the basis of full cost recovery and the polluter pays principle.

This book examines water management integration in the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Spain, Italy and Switzerland. It is based on the European research project EUWARENESS. Per country two case studies are considered, to analyze specific regime transitions at water basin level during the last decades. The twelve case studies are discussed within their national context and compared on conditions that are important for regime change towards sustainability. The book also provides theory on water governance, institutional regimes, and property rights, resulting in a tool for monitoring the progress of integrated water management at the basin level in EU member states or other countries.

This book follows another volume published with Kluwer Academic Publishers on "The Evolution of National Water Regimes in Europe", edited by Ingrid Kissling-Näf and Stefan Kuks.

Review

From the reviews:

"This book constitutes the research findings of the project ‘EUWARENESS: European Water Regimes and the Notion of a Sustainable Status’ ... . The book is very well-written and makes a significant contribution to the field ... . The variety of case studies from different geographical and institutional settings ... makes this volume very useful and informative. The well-structured combination of narrative and analytical sections makes the research results easily accessible for a spectrum of readers including researchers, students, as well as policy makers." (Stefanie Engel and Astrid Zabel, Quarterly Journal of International Agriculture, Vol. 45 (4), 2006)