Recently, efforts to understand the relationship between water and political boundaries have come to the fore of water governance debates: how and why does water governance fragment across sectors and governmental departments? How can we govern shared waters more effectively? How do politics and power play out in water governance? This book brings together and connects the work of scholars to engage with such questions. Accessible, engaging, and informative, the volume offers an overview and advancement of both scalar and governance studies while examining practical solutions to the challenges of water governance.

Contents: Foreword: rethinking the watershed: mobilizing multiscalar water politics for the twenty-first century, Karen Bakker; Introduction: why the politics of scale matter in the governance of water, Emma S. Norman, Christina Cook and Alice Cohen. Part I Examining Scalar Assumptions: Unpacking the Watershed: Introduction to Part I, Francois Molle; Nature's scales? Watersheds as a link between water governance and the politics of scale, Alice Cohen; A genealogy of the basin: scalar politics and identity in the Mekong river basin, Chris Sneddon and Coleen Fox; River basins versus politics? Interactions, patterns and consequences, Eve Vogel; The politics of scale framing, ambiguity and uncertainty: flood interventions in the Netherlands, Jeroen Warner, Philippus Wester, Martinus Vink and Art Dewulf; Dynamics towards domestic territorialization of water governance in the EU: the case of Southern Spain, Andreas Thiel. Part II Beyond the Watershed: Rescaling Decision-Making: Introduction to Part II, Tom Perreault; Getting to multi-scalar: an historical review of water governance in Ontario, Canada, Christina Cook; Beyond the local state as 'container': scale, positionality and water supply reform, Kathryn Furlong; Techno-nature and scaling water governance in South Texas, Wendy Jepson and Christian Brannstrom; The creation of scaled water rights in New Mexico, USA, Eric P. Perramond; Politics, scale, and the EU Water Framework Directive, Corey Johnson. Part III Scalar Politics, Networks and Power in Water Governance: Introduction to Part III, Leila M. Harris; The expansion of mining and changing waterscapes in the southern Peruvian Andes, Jessica Budds; Community-led total sanitation and the politics of scaling up, Lyla Mehta; Hydrosocial governance and agricultural development in semi-arid Northwest China, Afton Clarke-Sather; Performing modernity: the scalar politics of irrigation development in Nepal, Margreet Zwarteveen and Janwillem Liebrand; Indigenous space, scalar politics and water governance in the Salish sea basin, Emma S. Norman; Conclusion: negotiating water governance, Christina Cook, Alice Cohen and Emma S. Norman. Index.