Mutual Learning and Policy Transfer in Integrated Water Resources Management: A Research Agenda

Oliver Fritsch,David Benson

doi:10.3390/w12010072

Abstract

Integrated water resources management (IWRM) has become a global paradigm for the governance of surface, coastal and groundwater. International bodies such as the European Union, the Global Water Partnership, and the United Nations have taken the lead to promote IWRM principles, while countries worldwide have undertaken reforms to implement these principles and to restructure their domestic or regional water governance arrangements. However, the international transfer of IWRM principles raises a number of theoretical, empirical and normative questions related to its causes, processes and outcomes. These questions will be explored in our Special Issue ‘Governing IWRM: Mutual Learning and Policy Transfer’. This editorial briefly introduces IWRM and links this governance paradigm to theoretical and empirical scholarship on policy transfer. We then summarise the aims and objectives of this Special Issue, provide an overview of the articles brought together here and offer avenues for future research.

Highlights

Integrated water resources management (IWRM) has become a global paradigm for the governance of surface, coastal and groundwaters
It describes the consideration of functional, societal and institutional integration, i.e., attempts to bring and think together: first, watershed functions, for instance, the supply of water for domestic, industrial, and agricultural use, the protection of water resources for recreational purposes and for their role as an ecosystem for numerous species, the management of floods and droughts and many others; second, a variety of views held by water users, stakeholders, indigenous communities and other members of the public; and third, the cooperation and coordination of decision makers who operate at all political levels and govern a diversity of economic
IWRM aims to overcome patterns of fragmentation in terms of functions, societal interests and political institutions, which have resulted in water governance arrangements that were often described as ineffective, inefficient and illegitimate [7,8]

Summary

Introduction

Integrated water resources management (IWRM) has become a global paradigm for the governance of surface, coastal and groundwaters. The contributions apply, criticise, extend or revise existing approaches to policy transfer in a water governance context, thereby asking why countries adopt IWRM principles and what mechanisms are in place to understand the adoption of these principles in regional or national contexts. When it comes to processes, articles in this. Special Issue unpack the process of policy transfer and implementation and explore how IWRM principles travel across borders, levels and scales, between international organisations and the domestic sphere, between globally and domestically operating non-state actors and regional and national governments, and between countries and national governments.

Integrated Water Resources Management

Policy Transfer and the Governance of Water Resources

Contributions to This Special Issue

Outlook and Avenues for Future Research