Why is state‐centered groundwater governance largely ineffective? A review

Molle, François; Closas, Alvar

doi:10.1002/wat2.1395

Cited by 70 publications

(49 citation statements)

References 45 publications

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“…FAO's (2015) recent findings showed that regulatory frameworks were proving to be problematic and that "non-compliance [was] pervasive.". While we examine, in another paper (Molle & Closas, 2019), the characteristics and performance of state-centered groundwater governance, this review article looks at cases of groundwater comanagement between the state and users. Due to the poor record of both state-centered governance and common-property resource (CPR) management at the grassroots level, it is often stated that involving both users and the state in the management of groundwater resources is a preferable solution (Agrawal, 2001).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comanagement of groundwater: A review

Molle

Closas

2019

WIREs Water

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The sustainability of groundwater abstraction is fast becoming a global challenge. This article reviews cases and assess the potential of groundwater comanagement, beginning by identifying a comanagement spectrum with varying degrees of role sharing between the state and user communities. Twelve case studies selected from a global review illustrate varied levels of success. Key contextual elements are identified that contribute to raising the chances of success of comanagement. These include certain characteristics of the user community, the existence of a credible environmental or legal threat, joint monitoring and transparency, and substantial available funding. State action is shown to involve a delicate balance between “carrots” and “sticks” as part of a wider political balancing between parties. The limitations of both state‐ and community‐centered governance make comanagement appear as a way forward but a delicate set of conditions is needed for it to be effective. This article is categorized under: Human Water > Water Governance Engineering Water > Planning Water

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comanagement of groundwater: A review

Molle

Closas

2019

WIREs Water

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“…Craig and Ruhl (2014) argue that more controllability and risk reduction could be achieved with legislation, and they have proposed wording of such legislation. On the other hand, Molle and Closas (2020) note that regulations are never sufficient without a willingness to deploy regulatory power, which has been a shortfall of state-centered groundwater governance. Because groundwater can be overused or rendered unusable through mismanagement, sustainable groundwater governance requires robust political processes that include stakeholders representing different economic and social sectors and the environment (Robertson 2020).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Managing Groundwater to Ensure Ecosystem Function

et al. 2021

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Groundwater is a critical resource not only for human communities but also for many terrestrial, riparian, and aquatic ecosystems and species. Yet groundwater planning and management decisions frequently ignore or inadequately address the needs of these natural systems. As a consequence, ecosystems dependent on groundwater have been threatened, degraded, or eliminated, especially in arid regions. There is growing acknowledgment that governmental protections for these ecological resources are necessary, but current legal, regulatory and voluntary provisions are often inadequate. Groundwater management premised on "safe yield," which aims to balance human withdrawals with natural recharge rates, typically provides little to no consideration for water needed by ecosystems. Alternatively, the "sustainable yield" concept aims to integrate social, economic and environmental needs for groundwater, but the complexity of groundwater systems creates substantial uncertainty about the impact that current or future groundwater withdrawals will have on ecosystems. Regardless of the legal or regulatory framework, guidance is needed to help ensure environmental water needs will be met, especially in the face of pressure to increase human uses of groundwater resources. In this paper, we describe minimum provisions for planning, managing, and monitoring groundwater that collectively can lower the risk of harm to groundwaterdependent ecosystems and species, with a special emphasis on arid systems, where ecosystems and species may be especially reliant upon and sensitive to groundwater dynamics.

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“…These types of responses, however, are typically the exception to the rule. Instead, in many regions, metering systems are never installed or quickly fall into disrepair due to meter tampering, poor maintenance, and insufficient penalties for rule breaking (Molle & Closas, 2020b).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Satellite‐Based Monitoring of Irrigation Water Use: Assessing Measurement Errors and Their Implications for Agricultural Water Management Policy

Foster

Mieno

Brozović

2020

Water Resources Research

107

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Reliable accounting of agricultural water use is critical for sustainable water management. However, the majority of agricultural water use is not monitored, with limited metering of irrigation despite increasing pressure on both groundwater and surface water resources in many agricultural regions worldwide. Satellite remote sensing has been proposed as a low-cost and scalable solution to fill widespread gaps in monitoring of irrigation water use in both developed and developing countries, bypassing the technical, socioeconomic, and political challenges that to date have constrained in situ metering. In this paper, we show through a systematic meta-analysis that the relative accuracy of different satellite-based irrigation water use monitoring approaches remains poorly understood, with evidence of large uncertainties when water use estimates are validated against in situ irrigation data at both field and regional scales. Subsequently, we demonstrate that water use measurement errors result in large economic welfare losses for farmers and may negatively impact ability of policies to limit acute and nonlinear externalities of irrigation abstraction on both the environment and other water users. Our findings highlight that water resource planners must consider the trade-offs between accuracy and costs associated with different water use accounting approaches. Remote sensing has an important role to play in supporting improved agricultural water accounting-both independently and in combination with in situ monitoring. However, greater transparency and evidence is needed about underlying uncertainties in satellite-based models, along with how these measurement errors affect the performance of associated policies to manage different short-and long-term externalities of irrigation water use. Despite the importance of monitoring for water management, the overwhelming majority of agricultural water use worldwide-both from groundwater and surface water-remains unmetered (OECD, 2015). For example, a recent report by the Murray-Darling Basin Commission in Australia highlighted that around 30% of the total surface water abstractions were unmetered (MDMA, 2017), with monitoring gaps of up to 75% in some parts of the basin (Grafton, 2019; Hanemann & Young, 2020). Similarly, estimates from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA, 2019) show only 36% of groundwater irrigation wells in the United States are equipped with flow meters (Figure 1), with large monitoring gaps in states such as California and Texas that have experienced severe aquifer depletion over recent decades (Scanlon et al., 2012). In low-income countries, gaps in agricultural water use accounting are even more pronounced, with almost nonexistence

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Why is state‐centered groundwater governance largely ineffective? A review

Cited by 70 publications

References 45 publications

Comanagement of groundwater: A review

Comanagement of groundwater: A review

Managing Groundwater to Ensure Ecosystem Function

Satellite‐Based Monitoring of Irrigation Water Use: Assessing Measurement Errors and Their Implications for Agricultural Water Management Policy

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