Skip to main content

Types of Transboundary Water Governance Regimes: Theoretical Discussion and Empirical Illustrations

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Governance of a Transboundary River

Abstract

This chapter offers an analytical tool for exploring the governance of transboundary rivers by presenting three governance regimes: integrated, monofunctional and polycentric. First, the theory underpinning each model is introduced and discussed, then each is illustrated by a specific case study—the Rhine for the integrated regime, the Danube for the monofunctional regime and the Columbia River for the polycentric regime.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    Target 6.5: ‘By 2030, implement integrated water resources management at all levels, including through transboundary cooperation as appropriate’.

  2. 2.

    http://www.danubecommission.org/dc/en/.

Bibliography

  • Bernauer, T. (2002). Explaining success and failure in international river management. Aquatic Sciences, 64(1), 1–19.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Birkland, T. A. (2004). “The world changed today”: Agenda-setting and policy change in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks. Review of Policy Research, 21(2), 179–200.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bokor-Szegö, H. (1962). La Convention de Belgrade et le régime du Danube. Annuaire Français de Droit International, 8(1), 192–205.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bouché, H. (1981). L’action de la Commission Internationale pour la Protection du Rhin Contre la Pollution. International Business Law, 9, 65.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bressers, H., & de Boer, C. (2013). Contextual interaction theory for assessing water governance, policy and knowledge transfer. In Water governance, policy and knowledge transfer (pp. 56–74). London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bréthaut, C. (2018). Transboundary water management: From geopolitics to a non-state analytical perspective: The case of the Rhône River. In A critical approach to international water management trends (pp. 71–95). London: Palgrave.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bréthaut, C., & Pflieger, G. (2015). The shifting territorialities of the Rhone River’s transboundary governance: A historical analysis of the evolution of the functions, uses and spatiality of river basin governance. Regional Environmental Change, 15(3), 549–558.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carter, C., & Smith, A. (2008). Revitalizing public policy approaches to the EU: ‘Territorial institutionalism’, fisheries and wine. Journal of European Public Policy, 15(2), 263–281.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cattell, D. T. (1960). The politics of the Danube Commission under Soviet control. American Slavic and East European Review, 19(3), 380–394.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Conca, K., Wu, F., & Mei, C. (2006). Global regime formation or complex institution building? The principled content of international river agreements. International Studies Quarterly, 50(2), 263–285.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cosens, B., & Fremier, A. (2014). Assessing system resilience and ecosystem services in large river basins: A case study of the Columbia River Basin. Idaho Law Review, 51, 91.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cosens, B. A., & Williams, M. K. (2012). Resilience and water governance: Adaptive governance in the Columbia River Basin. Ecology and Society, 17(4), 3.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dieperink, C. (1999). Tussen zout en zalm: Lessen uit de ontwikkeling van het regime inzake de Rijnvervuiling.

    Google Scholar 

  • Enjolras, B. (2008). Régimes de gouvernance et services d’intérêt général, une perspective internationale. Brussels: PIE Peter Lang.

    Google Scholar 

  • Garrick, D. E. (2015). Water allocation in rivers under pressure: Water trading, transaction costs and transboundary governance in the Western US and Australia. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.

    Google Scholar 

  • Global Water Partnership. (2000). Integrated water resources management (No. TAC Background Papers No. 4). Retrieved from https://www.gwp.org/globalassets/global/toolbox/publications/background-papers/04-integrated-water-resources-management-2000-english.pdf.

  • Hand, B. K., Flint, C. G., Frissell, C. A., Muhlfeld, C. C., Devlin, S. P., Kennedy, B. P., … Stanford, J. A. (2018). A social-ecological perspective for riverscape management in the Columbia River Basin. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, 16(S1), s23–s33.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hirt, P. W., & Sowards, A. M. (2012). The past and future of the Columbia River. In The Columbia River Treaty revisited: Transboundary river governance in the face of uncertainty. Corvallis: Oregon State University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Huisman, P., De Jong, J., & Wieriks, K. (2000). Transboundary cooperation in shared river basins: Experiences from the Rhine. Meuse and North Sea. Water Policy, 1(2), 83–97.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jenkins-Smith, H. C., & Sabatier, P. A. (1999). The advocacy coalition framework: An assessment. In Theories of the policy process (pp. 117–166). Boulder: Westview Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jochim, A. E., & May, P. J. (2010). Beyond subsystems: Policy regimes and governance. Policy Studies Journal, 38(2), 303–327.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kliot, N., Shmueli, D., & Shamir, U. (2001). Institutions for management of transboundary water resources: Their nature, characteristics and shortcomings. Water Policy, 3(3), 229–255.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lagendijk, V. (2015). Divided development: Post-war ideas on river utilisation and their influence on the development of the Danube. The International History Review, 37(1), 80–98.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lankford, B., & Hepworth, N. (2010). The cathedral and the bazaar: Monocentric and polycentric river basin management. Water Alternatives, 3(1), 82.

    Google Scholar 

  • Marty, F. (2001). Managing international rivers: Problems, politics and institutions. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (p. 409). Bern: Peter Lang Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • McGinnis, M. D. (1999). Polycentric governance and development: Readings from the workshop in political theory and policy analysis. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • McKinney, M., Baker, L., Buvel, A. M., & Fischer, A. (2010). Managing transboundary natural resources: An assessment of the need to revise and update the Columbia River Treaty. Hastings West-Northwest Journal of Environmental Law and Policy, 16, 307.

    Google Scholar 

  • Milman, A., Bunclark, L., Conway, D., & Adger, W. N. (2013). Assessment of institutional capacity to adapt to climate change in transboundary river basins. Climatic Change, 121(4), 755–770.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mostert, E. (2009). International co-operation on Rhine water quality 1945–2008: An example to follow? Physics and Chemistry of the Earth, Parts A/B/C, 34(3), 142–149.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ostrom, E. (1990). Governing the commons: The evolution of institutions for collective action. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511807763.

  • Ostrom, E. (2008). Institutions and the environment. Economic Affairs, 28(3), 24–31. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0270.2008.00840.x.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ostrom, E. (2010). Beyond markets and states: Polycentric governance of complex economic systems. Transnational Corporations Review, 2(2), 1–12.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ostrom, V., Tiebout, C. M., & Warren, R. (1961). The organization of government in metropolitan areas: A theoretical inquiry. American Political Science Review, 55(4), 831–842.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pahl-Wostl, C. (2009). A conceptual framework for analysing adaptive capacity and multi-level learning processes in resource governance regimes. Global Environmental Change, 19(3), 354–365. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2009.06.001.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pritchard, S. B. (2011). Confluence: The nature of technology and the remaking of the Rhône (Vol. 172). Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rangeley, R., Thiam, B. M., Andersen, R. A., & Lyle, C. A. (1994). International river basin organizations in Sub-Saharan Africa. Washington, DC: The World Bank.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rieman, B. E., Smith, C. L., Naiman, R. J., Ruggerone, G. T., Wood, C. C., Huntly, N., … Congleton, J. (2015). A comprehensive approach for habitat restoration in the Columbia Basin. Fisheries, 40(3), 124–135.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sadoff, C. W., & Grey, D. (2002). Beyond the river: The benefits of cooperation on international rivers. Water Policy, 4(5), 389–403.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schiff, J. S. (2017). The evolution of Rhine River governance: Historical lessons for modern transboundary water management. Water History, 9(3), 279–294.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schlager, E., & Blomquist, W. (2000, May). Local communities, policy prescriptions, and watershed management in Arizona, California, and Colorado. Eighth Conference of the International Association for the Study of Common Property, Bloomington, IN, USA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Varone, F., Nahrath, S., Aubin, D., & Gerber, J.-D. (2013). Functional regulatory spaces. Policy Sciences, 46(4), 311–333.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Weber, M. (1997). The methodology of the social sciences. New York: Free Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wieriks, K., & Schulte‐Wülwer‐Leidig, A. (1997). Integrated water management for the Rhine River Basin, from pollution prevention to ecosystem improvement. In Natural resources forum (Vol. 21, pp. 147–156). Oxford: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wolfrom, M. (1964). La pollution des eaux du Rhin. Annuaire Français de Droit International, 10(1), 737–763.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Young, O. R. (2002). The institutional dimensions of environmental change: Fit, interplay, and scale. Cambridge: MIT press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Young, O. R. (2008). The architecture of global environmental governance: Bringing science to bear on policy. Global Environmental Politics, 8(1), 14–32.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Christian Bréthaut .

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2020 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Bréthaut, C., Pflieger, G. (2020). Types of Transboundary Water Governance Regimes: Theoretical Discussion and Empirical Illustrations. In: Governance of a Transboundary River. Palgrave Studies in Water Governance: Policy and Practice. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-19554-0_2

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-19554-0_2

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-19553-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-19554-0

  • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics