Global Diagnostic On Groundwater Governance

This report aims at integrating regional and country experiences and projects with regard to viable groundwater management practices for the future. It compiles and translates best available present scientific and technical knowledge on groundwater resources and their governance, which is often highly specialized, into simpler language and synoptic representations, accessible to a large public of policy and decision makers across development sectors. It serves as a technical basis for the visioning process, and for the definition of the Framework for Action on groundwater governance.This is one of 3 outputs of project GCP/GLO/277/GEF expected to be published under the names of its 5 partner organizations and widely circulated to policy and decision-makers in countries, as well as other stakeholders of groundwater governance and practionners around the world. This outputs provides the technical basis for the other two: A Global Vision for Groundwater Governance 2030 and Global Framework for Action to Achieve the Vision on Groundwater Governance.

This Framework for Action has been prepared to achieve the goals of the Shared Global Vision for Groundwater Governance 2030. It describes the main steps to be taken and is an urgent call for action to all who can make a difference: national and local governments, international organizations, the private sector, civil society, media, educational institutes and professional organizations — but also to well owners, groundwater users and concerned citizens everywhere.

This book addresses groundwater governance, a subject internationally recognized as crucial and topical for enhancing and safeguarding the benefits of groundwater and groundwater-dependent ecosystems to humanity, while ensuring water and food security under global change. The multiple and complex dimensions of groundwater governance are captured in 28 chapters, written by a team of leading experts from different parts of the world and with a variety of relevant professional backgrounds. The book aims to describe the state-of-the-art and latest developments regarding each of the themes addressed, paying attention to the wide variation of conditions observed around the globe. The book consists of four parts. The first part sets the stage by defining groundwater governance, exploring its emergence and evolution, framing it through a socio-ecological lens and describing groundwater policy and planning approaches. The second part discusses selected key aspects of groundwater governance. The third part zooms in on the increasingly important linkages between groundwater and other resources or sectors, and between local groundwater systems and phenomena or actions at the international or even global level. The fourth part, finally, presents a number of interesting case studies that illustrate contemporary practice in groundwater governance. In one volume, this highly accessible text not only familiarizes water professionals, decision-makers and local stakeholders with groundwater governance, but also provides them with ideas and inspiration for improving groundwater governance in their own environment.

The dominance of insular, supply-side technocratic thinking has posed a major challenge to improving water governance in the face of mounting resource scarcity, which has itself been accentuated by climate change. During the 1990s, global discourse moved from supply-driven sectoral interventions to more holistic approaches to water governance as part of larger socioeconomic and environmental processes. Integrated water resources management (IWRM) emphasized demand-side water management and used prices, participation, entitlements, laws and regulations to strengthen water governance at hydrological rather than territorial units. More recently, there have been pleas for more integrative approaches that link land, water, energy, food, livelihoods, the environment and other spheres – each with its own, often insular, governance structure. The evolution in global thinking reflects the need to meet growing human needs by innovating approaches that enhance resilience and the sustainability of landscapes, the biosphere and the Earth as a whole. To this end, the water–energy–food (WEF) nexus advocates that society is better off seeking system-level balance rather than maximizing sectoral objectives. The nexus approach has produced prolific analytical literature over the past decade but integrating it into policy and governance faces many challenges. This review paper explores these challenges by focusing on the WEF nexus in action. We compare the nexus in several water-stressed areas of the world including Iran, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, China, Bangladesh and Gujarat (India), with additional evidence drawn from other places such as Morocco and Punjab-Haryana. We synthesize these case studies to examine the actual state of play in different locations and tease out practical lessons for mainstreaming nexus thinking in water policy and governance. The key conclusion is that specific contexts, contingencies and constituencies drive national and sub-national policies. Directing the outcomes towards the optimal nexus depends on the nature of the state, investment in institution building and, above all, ingenuity in policy design and implementation to overcome resistance to change and strengthen political capital for the leaders who back such policies.

This book addresses groundwater governance, a subject internationally recognized as crucial and topical for enhancing and safeguarding the benefits of groundwater and groundwater-dependent ecosystems to humanity, while ensuring water and food security under global change. The multiple and complex dimensions of groundwater governance are captured in 28 chapters, written by a team of leading experts from different parts of the world and with a variety of relevant professional backgrounds. The book aims to describe the state-of-the-art and latest developments regarding each of the themes addressed, paying attention to the wide variation of conditions observed around the globe. The book consists of four parts. The first part sets the stage by defining groundwater governance, exploring its emergence and evolution, framing it through a socio-ecological lens and describing groundwater policy and planning approaches. The second part discusses selected key aspects of groundwater governance. The third part zooms in on the increasingly important linkages between groundwater and other resources or sectors, and between local groundwater systems and phenomena or actions at the international or even global level. The fourth part, finally, presents a number of interesting case studies that illustrate contemporary practice in groundwater governance. In one volume, this highly accessible text not only familiarizes water professionals, decision-makers and local stakeholders with groundwater governance, but also provides them with ideas and inspiration for improving groundwater governance in their own environment.

The objective of this book is to broadly illustrate the key aspects of water governance, mapping the spectrum of decision-making from techno-centric and eco-centric approaches, to hybrid concepts and people-centric approaches. Topics covered include the challenges for water-governance models, the polycentric model, the integration challenge, water in the decision-making hierarchy, and the rise of water-sensitive design, while also taking into account interdependencies between stakeholders, as well as the issue of scale. The book’s content is presented in an integrated and comprehensive format, building on detailed case studies from around the world and the authors’ working experiences in the water sector. Combining essential insights with accessible, non-technical language, it offers a valuable resource for academics, technicians and policy-makers alike.

Global Groundwater: Source, Scarcity, Sustainability, Security, and Solutions presents a compilation of compelling insights into groundwater scenarios within all groundwater-stressed regions across the world. Thematic sub-sections include groundwater studies on sources, scarcity, sustainability, security, and solutions. The chapters in these sub-sections provide unique knowledge on groundwater for scientists, planners, and policymakers, and are written by leading global experts and researchers. Global Groundwater: Source, Scarcity, Sustainability, Security, and Solutions provides a unique, unparalleled opportunity to integrate the knowledge on groundwater, ranging from availability to pollution, nation-level groundwater management to transboundary aquifer governance, and global-scale review to local-scale case-studies. Provides interdisciplinary content that bridges the knowledge from groundwater sources to solutions and sustainability, from science to policy, from technology to clean water and food Includes global and regional reviews and case studies, building a bridge between broad reviews of groundwater-related issues by domain experts as well as detailed case studies by researchers Identifies pathways for transforming knowledge to policy and governance of groundwater security and sustainability