Integrated Water Resources Management: A ‘Small’ Step for Conceptualists, a Giant Step for Practitioners

Probing the integration of land use and watershed planning in a shifting governance regime

“…[8] In the context of water resources, the term integration is extensively employed with more than 35 definitions of integrated water resource management in the literature [Garcia, 2008]. The Global Water Partnership's definition is regularly cited.…”

“…Growing uncertainty associated with increasing climatic variability is an additional stressor. Adding to the challenge is the fact that responsibilities for drinking water safety are shared by many actors beyond water managers [Garcia, 2008;Saravanan et al, 2009]. Therefore, while protection of drinking water sources unquestionably involves technical measures, effective governance increasingly is recognized as essential [World Water Assessment Program, 2003;de Lo€ e and Kreutzwiser, 2007;Galaz, 2007;World Water Assessment Programme, 2009].…”

Jointly thinking the post-dam future: exchange of local and scientific knowledge on the lakes of the Lower Rufiji, Tanzania

“…The main idea is, in a specific river basin or watershed, to improve collaboration between various sectors that often have conflicting agendas with regard to water development and also to involve stakeholders at all levels to participate in the decision-making about the water. As is often the case with lofty and morally attractive concepts, there is a substantial gap between the theory and the practice (Garcia 2008). In rural sub-Saharan Africa there are obvious constraints to the implementation of IWRM (Swatuk 2005), not least the power relations and inequitable access to knowledge about the resource use options between different kinds of stakeholders, e.g.…”

Challenges for Integrated Water Resources Management: How Do We Provide the Knowledge to Support Truly Integrated Thinking?

“…The nature of the information needs will vary over time and between the levels of governance and management, which may be characterized as operational, associative or strategic (as illustrated in Figure 1 after Garcia, 2008). Initially it is important to establish and use current and historical data to characterize the baseline conditions of the area, so gaining an understanding of the state and dynamics of the various aspects of the environments For many areas this stage involves developing new monitoring networks and establishing some type of information system, usually involving databases linked to a GIS, to store and manage the data.…”