When the water runs dry: supporting adaptive governance in transboundary river basins

Resilience in Transboundary Water Governance: the Okavango River Basin

When the availability of a vital resource varies between times of overabundance and extreme scarcity, management regimes must manifest flexibility and authority to adapt while maintaining legitimacy. Unfortunately, the need for adaptability often conflicts with the desire for certainty in legal and regulatory regimes, and laws that fail to account for variability often result in conflict when t...

River Basins: Water and Complex Adaptive Systems

Transboundary river floods: examining countries, international river basins and continents

The objectives of this study were (1) to quantify river floods shared by more than one country, that is, transboundary river floods and (2) to grasp more fully the degree of vulnerability of people to such events on a global, international river basin (IRB) and country level. To these ends, publicly available data were combined to identify such events and the resultant losses of life, flood-rel...

From applying panaceas to mastering complexity: Toward adaptive water governance in river basins

The most persistent obstacles for the sustainable management of water resources lie in the realm of water governance. Numerous recommendations often relying on simplistic ‘standard’ panaceas have been put forward for water governance reform without testing of appropriateness in diverse contexts. Here we present the first comprehensive comparative analysis of complex water governance and managem...

Science-policy processes for transboundary water governance.

In this policy perspective, we outline several conditions to support effective science-policy interaction, with a particular emphasis on improving water governance in transboundary basins. Key conditions include (1) recognizing that science is a crucial but bounded input into water resource decision-making processes; (2) establishing conditions for collaboration and shared commitment among acto...