Water Resources and Governance Approaches: Insights for Achieving Water Security

Natalia Julio,Ricardo Figueroa,Roberto D Ponce Oliva

doi:10.3390/w13213063

Abstract

Integrated river basin management (IRBM) has been proposed as a means to achieve water security (WS), maximizing economic and social well-being in an equitable manner and maintaining ecosystem sustainability. IRBM is regulated by a governance process that benefits the participation of different actors and institutions; however, it has been difficult to reach a consensus on what good governance means and which governance perspective is better for achieving it. In this paper, we explore the concept of “good water governance” through the analysis of different governance approaches: experimental (EG), corporate (CG), polycentric (PG), metagovernance (MG) and adaptive (AG) governances. We used the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) water governance dimensions (effectiveness, efficiency and trust and engagement) as a “good enough water governance” that regards water governance as a process rather than an end in itself. Results indicate that each of the five governance theories presents challenges and opportunities to achieve a good governance process that can be operationalized through IRBM, and we found that these approaches can be adequately integrated if they are combined to overcome the challenges that their exclusive application implies. Our analysis suggests that a combination of AG and MG encompasses the OECD water governance dimensions, in terms of understanding “good enough water governance” as a process and a means to perform IRBM. In order to advance towards WS, the integration of different governance approaches must consider the context-specific nature of the river basin, in relation to its ecologic responses and socioeconomic characteristics.

Highlights

The diversity of ecosystem services that freshwater resources provide plays a key role in poverty reduction, economic growth and environmental sustainability [1]
The main strengths of Corporate governance (CG) include the relationship between a company, its shareholders and society, as well as the promotion of fairness, transparency and accountability, the use of mechanisms to “govern” managers and the guarantee that the interests of key stakeholder groups are considered with the actions taken by the company [84]
To advance towards water security, Integrated river basin management (IRBM) must recognize the multiple interconnections and associations that exist between ecological and socioeconomic systems. This should be determined by a process of sustainable and multi-scaling governance, which considers freshwater ecosystems as complex social–ecological systems and has varied responses to change and uncertainty, and where power and responsibility must be shared between water resource users and government entities in order to achieve more collaborative and coordinated actions that can better adapt to uncertainty

Summary

Introduction

The diversity of ecosystem services that freshwater resources provide plays a key role in poverty reduction, economic growth and environmental sustainability [1]. Grey and Sadoff provide a widespread concept of WS, highlighting the role of water as both a source of threat and a source of services, defining it as “the availability of an acceptable quantity and quality of water for health, livelihoods, ecosystems and production, coupled with an acceptable level of water-related risks to people, environments and economies” [5]. Achieving it depends on the capacity of a society to manage water resources [1,6], regarding the river basin as the appropriate territorial unit [7]. The notion of WS has been addressed in several studies, for instance, quantifying the main threats to freshwater biodiversity from both human and ecosystem perspectives on WS [8], analyzing how WS is conceptualized and operationalized according to different geographical regions and scales [9], and analyzing the relationship between

Methods

Results

Conclusion