• 
• Japanese
• 
• IETC's Focal Area
• Waste Management
• Publications & Tools
• Meetings & Workshops
• Global Partnership on Waste Management
• Background
• Objectives
  & Expected Outcomes
• Framework
• Sub-focal Areas
• Information Platform
• Meetings
• Participation / Membership
• Water and Sanitation
• Publications & Tools
• Meetings & Workshops
• Resources
• Publications & Tools
• About IETC
• Background and History
• Director
• Activity Reports
• Supporting Foundations
• Internship
• Contact Us

CHAPTER 3. POLICY, INSTITUTIONAL, AND REGULATORY FRAMEWORK

3.3. Basic Principles

3.3.2. The Watershed Approach

Water resources have been traditionally managed by the users with sectoral, compartmental and non integrated approach. Water for power generation, irrigation, industrial water supply, and domestic use was considered as a resource for that use in isolated and non articulated actions, with non coordinated interactions producing conflicts at international, national, and local levels. The consequence of this sectoral approach was the aggravation of water scarcity, increasing degradation of water quality and consequences in the quality of life, and life expectancy in many countries. The changes in the approach were driven by the need to integrate management actions and to consider the goods and services provided by water as a multi-sector, interdisciplinary and cross-sector process. The basic unit for management is the watershed.

The aquatic ecosystem is a complex one, and to establish environmentally sound management of water resources directed to prevent and control eutrophication which promotes and therefore enhances sustainable development, it is necessary to integrate several new approaches and principles that advance the concepts.

The first concept is to integrate biogeophysical, social and economic issues, considering several aspects of the availability and uses of water resources. In this concept, the economic aspects related to water quality and the social impacts of its degradation and loss of quality are being considered. The second important concept is the watershed approach that has the following main advantages:

• The watershed is a physical unit with a clear boundary.
• It is a hydrologically integrated ecosystem with interactive compounds and subsystems.
• It provides an opportunity for development of partnerships.
• It enhances local community participation in the decision process.
• It stimulates general public participation and environmental education.
• It provides an adequate systemic overview for training in Water Resources Management and eutrophication control (managers, decision-makers and technicians).
• It is a better approach to organize databases.
• It provides alternatives for the use of watersheds and its resources.
• It provides conditions for integration of scientific data and databases with management.
• Being a physical unit with a clear boundary, the watershed provides a basis for institutional integration.
• The watershed approach promotes the integration of scientists, managers, decision- makers, and the general public that will work together in a physical unit with a defined boundary.

The watershed concept applied to water management extends the scope of environmental planning and management beyond the traditional political barriers or decisions that are still present in many countries. Planning and management will be carried out by an institutional organization that integrates water management, social, and economic development, within a physical unit. A physical unit such as a watershed, will facilitate the development of scenarios, which are a useful qualitative and quantitative tool for management. Thus, the capacity of prediction to some extent, based on the existing information, the integration of the social and economic issues, is another fundamental concept to be included in the sound management practices of Water Resources Management, and eutrophication control.

Another fundamental issue is to develop the capacity at the watershed level to provide a set of indicators with the following objectives:

• Characterize the conditions (qualitative and quantitative) of the watershed.
• Decentralize management actions.
• Provide the bases for dialogue and exchange of data between water quality managers.
• Empower citizens to learn more about their watersheds.

Another fundamental concept is the integration of planning, management, and operation, which will promote actions more effectively and provide feedback mechanisms to the planning sector. The watershed provides also the physical unit for a cross-sector approach to water quality and quantity involving land use and industrial and agricultural development.

Linkages between water quality and quantity have to be better established and the latest new developments consider these as basic to advance water management and eutrophication control. Therefore it is necessary to link, institutionally, the operation and management of water quality and water quantity. As a consequence of these new concepts and policies, the approaches to management also changed. The traditional management policy at a local sectoral, responsive attitude is giving place to an ecosystem, integrated and predictive process implying deep changes in institutional organizations, regulatory framework, and stimulating other approaches towards training of decision makers and managers.

An example of national policy for water resources is given in Box 3.2 below.

Table of Contents

• Brochure
• 
• 



• International Year of Forests
• 
• 



• World Environment Day
• 
• 



• UNEP Campaign
• 
•