Oliver Fritsch

This cutting-edge Handbook provides a global perspective on the current issues affecting water politics and governance. Focusing in particular on the policy-making process and the power dynamics that it involves, it showcases the emerging diversity of objectives, instruments and governance approaches in the field of water resources.

Responding to the increasing strain on water resources due to anthropogenic climate change, this Handbook examines the water policy-making process at the local, regional, national and supranational level. It discusses modes of regulatory intervention, the role of state and non-state actors, and methods for collaboration on issues concerning water. Contributing authors systematically examine how different forms of water are and should be governed, addressing floods, river deltas, surface water and groundwater. Ultimately, the Handbook provides a comprehensive overview of key theoretical approaches, empirical findings and methodological standards in the field of water politics and governance.

This Handbook is an invaluable guide for students and scholars of public policy, human geography, environmental management, and sustainability governance. It is also a useful resource for water policy-makers seeking to better understand their position in the global water management system.

Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) has become a global paradigm for the governance of surface, coastal and groundwaters. This Special Issue contains twelve articles related to the transfer of IWRM policy principles. The articles explore three dimensions of transfer—causes, processes, outcomes—and offer a theoretically inspiring, methodologically rich and geographically diverse engagement with IWRM policy transfer around the globe. As such, they can also productively inform a future research agenda on the ‘dimensional’ aspects of IWRM governance. Regarding the causes, the contributions apply, criticise, extend or revise existing approaches to policy transfer in a water governance context, 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. Finally, this set of papers looks into the outcomes of IWRM policy transfer and asks what impact IWRM principles, once implemented, gave on domestic water governance, water quality and water supply, and how effective IWRM is at addressing critical water issues in specific countries.