Key Legal Issues in Western Water Management and Climate Adaptation

2016 ◽  
pp. 45-63 ◽  
Author(s):  
Denise Fort
Keyword(s):  
Water Management ◽  
Climate Adaptation ◽  
Legal Issues

scholarly journals Improving governance in transboundary cooperation in water and climate change adaptation

Water Policy ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 19 (6) ◽  
pp. 1014-1029 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jos Timmerman ◽  
John Matthews ◽  
Sonja Koeppel ◽  
Daniel Valensuela ◽  
Niels Vlaanderen
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Water Management ◽  
Climate Change Adaptation ◽  
Climate Adaptation ◽  
Water Governance ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Transboundary Water ◽  
Governance System ◽  
Adaptation Measures ◽  
Oecd Principles

Abstract Climate change adaptation in water management is a water governance issue. While neither climate change nor water respects national borders, adaptation in water management should be treated as a transboundary water governance issue. However, transboundary water management is, in essence, more complex than national water management because the water management regimes usually differ more between countries than within countries. This paper provides 63 lessons learned from almost a decade of cooperation on transboundary climate adaptation in water management under the UNECE Water Convention and puts these into the context of the OECD principles on water governance. It highlights that good water governance entails a variety of activities that are intertwined and cannot be considered stand-alone elements. The paper also shows that this wide variety of actions is needed to develop a climate change adaptation strategy in water management. Each of the lessons learned can be considered concrete actions connected to one or more of the OECD principles, where a range of actions may be needed to fulfil one principle. The paper concludes that developing climate change adaptation measures needs to improve in parallel the water governance system at transboundary scale.

Cross-scale governance and the analysis of policy implementation for water management, with particular regard to climate adaptation, industrial pollution and impacts of agriculture

2011 ◽  
Vol 2 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 123-142
Author(s):  
Andrew M. Farmer
Keyword(s):  
Water Management ◽  
Information Transmission ◽  
Policy Development ◽  
Industrial Pollution ◽  
Climate Adaptation ◽  
National Level ◽  
Ecological Status ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Sources Of Information ◽  
Good Ecological Status

This paper explores cross-scale governance between the European Union (EU) and Member State level arising from the identification of key policy priorities by stakeholders in six river basins across Europe and their relationship to EU policy development and implementation. Particular emphasis is given to interpretation of Good Ecological Status in implementing the EU Water Framework Directive, climate adaptation for water management, application of agri-environment measures to reduce agricultural impacts on water and control of discharges from industry. The paper also examines lessons from wider sources of information such as legal analysis of transposition of EU law at national level and the rulings of the European Court of Justice. The analysis identifies a number of different types of ‘information’ transmission between the different governance scales. Information includes a range of governance issues, including transmission of rules. These are exact ‘information’ transmission (water quality standards), national elaboration of information transmitted (adapting to climate change), national simplification of information transmitted (industrial pollution control), distributed information transmission (in national transposition), fuzzy transmission of information (interpretation of Good Ecological Status) and barriers to transmission (available funding). The paper concludes by considering the importance of cross-scale analysis in assessing policy effectiveness and argues for further analysis drawing on cross-scale research derived from ecosystems analysis.

scholarly journals Distributive Justice and Sustainability Goals in Transboundary Rivers: Case of the Nile Basin

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. G. Yalew ◽  
J. Kwakkel ◽  
N. Doorn
Keyword(s):  
Water Management ◽  
Resource Sharing ◽  
Climate Adaptation ◽  
Transboundary Rivers ◽  
Nile Basin ◽  
Main Indicator ◽  
Water Cooperation ◽  
Development Goals ◽  
Reasonable Use

The importance of cooperation on transboundary waters is stated as a target in the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals (SDG6: water). Cooperation on transboundary water management is critical, particularly because it concerns issues across multiple states, SDGs and targets regarding agriculture, energy, ecosystems, climate adaptation, health, and peace and security. The percentage of transboundary basin area within a country that has an “operational arrangement” for water cooperation is used as the main indicator of such cooperation in the SDGs for “equitable and reasonable use“ of water resources (SDG 6.5.2). However, no clear criteria and explanation are available for what exactly constitutes an “equitable and reasonable use” in any such “operational arrangements.” Furthermore, it is understandable that any such arrangements may be shaped by differences in historical, legal, and political contexts and hence may be inherently unjust. Here, we highlight the limitations of SDG indicators, particularly SDG 6.5.2, to monitor equity of resource sharing in transboundary river systems. Using Walzer’s theory of morality of the state and cosmopolitanism as a framework, we examine the Nile basin as a case study to demonstrate the shortcomings of current SDG criteria and indicators. Our article contributes ideas of “operationalizing” theoretical justice toward a more equitable water management in transboundary rivers.

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