Going with the flow

River Basins as the Natural Units for Water Management

Bibliographic Data

ID5844538
AuthorsJoshua Warner (0000-0003-2847-8770, Wageningen University & Research), Jeroen Warner (Disaster Studies Group, Department of Social Sciences, Wageningen University, Hollandseweg 1, 6708 KN, Wageningen, The Netherlands), P Wester (0000-0002-0126-7853, Wageningen University & Research), Alex Bolding (Irrigation and Water Engineering group, Department of Environmental Sciences, Wageningen University, Droevendaalsesteeg 3, 6708 PB, Wageningen, The Netherlands)
Year2008
Volume10
IssueS2
Pages121-138
Publication date2008-08-05
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueWater Policy (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1366-7017 • E-ISSN: 1996-9759
PublisherUWA Publishing (PUBLISHER • AU)
DOI10.2166/wp.2008.210
OpenAlexW2038130653
LanguageEN
Citations received48
References cited34

This article engages with the currently hegemonic status of a triad of water policy prescriptions: multi-stakeholder platforms, integrated water resources management, and river basin management. A more reflective approach that opens up the choices underlying these concepts, and their limits, is needed. The choice to manage water on the basis of river basins is a political choice, and thus river basins are as much political units as they are natural units. The article concludes that the delineation of river basin boundaries, the structuring of stakeholder representation, and the creation of institutional arrangements for river basin management are political processes that revolve around matters of choice, and hence require democratic debate

Representation · Stakeholder engagement · Structuring · Transboundary Water Resource Management · Water Governance and Infrastructure · Water resources management and optimization

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