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Integrated Water Resources Management as a Compromise: Renewing the Water Act in the Canton of Fribourg, Switzerland

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A Critical Approach to International Water Management Trends

Abstract

Internationally promoted for decades, integrated water resources management (IRWM) has been considered as an imperative for sustainable water use by Swiss federal authorities since the early 2000s. However, its operationalisation leads us to question the gap vis-à-vis the theoretical model. The analysis of the renewal process of the Water Act in the canton of Fribourg shows that integrated management has to be considered as a regionalised institutional compromise: first, the scope of sectoral integration is not given; secondly, the scale finally adopted does not fit exactly the watershed, even though it is presented as the perfect functional space for regulating water use. Thanks to a historical and comprehensive approach, we strive to overpass “naturalised” and “functionalist” visions of water resources management.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. LISST-DR Lab. (CNRS-EHESS-ENSFEA), Université Toulouse Jean Jaurès, Toulouse, France

    Arnaud Buchs

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  1. Arnaud Buchs
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland

    Christian Bréthaut

  2. ETH Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland

    Rémi Schweizer

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Buchs, A. (2018). Integrated Water Resources Management as a Compromise: Renewing the Water Act in the Canton of Fribourg, Switzerland. In: Bréthaut, C., Schweizer, R. (eds) A Critical Approach to International Water Management Trends. Palgrave Studies in Water Governance: Policy and Practice . Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-60086-8_3

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