Water governance regimes

Abstract

The concept of water governance is distinctive through its focus on not only public in- tervention, but also on self-organisation as a way to deal with water issues. This article first elaborates a framework with five dimensions to describe governance regimes. Thereafter it illustrates and uses this analytical framework with a cross country comparison of the evolu- tion towards more integrated water governance regimes. Furthermore four qualities of such regimes are introduced and used to assess the degree to which a governance regime is support- ive for integral and adaptive water management. Lastly the article explores how governance regimes evolve over time and what forces shape this combination of stability and dynamics.