ABSTRACT
Water management is one the world’s most pressing issues. Major regions and
subcontinents have serious problems of water shortage, flooding and pollution
that present serious risks to people and wetland ecosystems that provide
invaluable services. Technical solutions to water management are often difficult
to implement cost-effectively for many reasons, including the scale and inter-
jurisdictional complexity of water systems and their multiple uses, many of
which conflict, impeding cooperation and cost-sharing. In some cases, there is
also skewed interdependency, for example, where upstream jurisdictions
control the water on which downstream jurisdictions depend or undertake
major developments that have adverse downstream impacts.
