Transcript שקופית 1 - Tyndall Centre

Governance Mechanisms to Address
Flow Variability in Water Treaties
Alena Drieschova, Mark Giordano and Itay Fischhendler
Living with climate change 7 - 9 February 2008, London
Motivation for Research
 Water treaties must be adaptable through being flexible
 Flexibility can:
• adapt regimes to new conditions while maintaining the existing treaties
• reduce sovereignty costs
 Adaptive mechanisms have political and transaction costs
 No knowledge on the available flexibility mechanisms and the
frequency of their use
The Available Adaptive Governance
Mechanisms
allocation mechanisms
direct allocation
fixed
allocation
flow
percentage
mixed
indirect allocation
consultation
principles
for
allocations
prioritization
Resource Change
infrastructure to
change supply
technology
transfer
joint
action
mutual
assistance
Broaden Cooperation
non-water
linkages
hydropower
generation
groundwater
water
quality
Formalized Communication
joint
institutions
joint action
consultation as
conflict
resolution
data exchange
arbitration
Methodology
 The Trans-boundary Freshwater Dispute Database was used
as the database
 A content analysis of available agreements signed since 1980
was undertaken
 Only treaties concerning water as a scarce or consumable
resource, or an ecosystem to be improved are included in the
analysis
 A total of 50 basin specific agreements were left for analysis
Allocation Mechanisms
6%
10%
Flow percentage
40%
10%
Fixed allocations
Fixed allocations with
variability considerations
Indirect allocation mechanism
Allocation not an issue
34%
Resource Change Mechanisms
% of agreements
100
75
50
25
0
Infrastructure to
change supply
Joint action
Mutual
assistance
Technology
transfer
Broadened Cooperation
% of agreements
100
75
50
25
0
Non-water
linkages
Hydropowergeneration
Groundwater
Water quality
Formalized Communication
% of agreements
100
75
50
25
0
Joint
institutions
Joint action Consolation
as conflict
resolution
Data
Arbitration
exchange
Governance Strategies to Address Flow Variability
Binding
Fixed Allocation (20)
Infrastructure Changing Supply (14)
Arbitration (42)
Flow
Percentage (6)
III
I
Indirect Allocation (48)
Data Exchange (86)
Technology Transfer (42)
Mutual Assistance (14)
Inflexible
IV
Flexible
II
Principles of Allocation (60)
Consultations as Conflict Resolution (90)
Broadening of Cooperation (74)
Voluntary
Interpretations of the Results
 There
are barriers to the use of “ideal” management
 A trade-off
between flexibility and enforceability
 Flexibility is favoured over enforceability
- ample ambiguity in water treaties as ambiguity increases flexibility
Conclusions
 Flow
variability is governed by using a variety of mechanisms:
• Some allow changing the rules of the game, while others enhance the capacity
to absorb shocks
• Some are based on high flexibility while others are based on high enforceability
 Most
mechanisms use less direct approaches that create
open-ended rules for regulating water
 An
open-ended approach may allow addressing variability
while accommodating the sovereignty and power concerns