The European Union Water Framework Directive (adopted in 2000) identifies the river basin as a natural geographical and hydrological unit for the implementation of integrated water resources management policies. The Directive also asserts consultation with and active participation by citizens at the relevant level in the choices to be made relating to issues such as agro-ecology balance, land use planning and water management. However, defining the hydrographical basin as the ideal spatial scale of management may not necessarily adapt well to the particularities of an area and above all may not be accepted by all the political and economic powers of the basin in question (Guerra, 2013). It has been suggested that rather than one formal agreement at the basin scale it may be more appropriate to identify the territories (e.g. sub-basin, or two or more basins together) most concerned by a specific problem and to create organizations or ad hoc agreements accordingly (Blomquist, 2008). This approach underlies the logic that enabled the creation of river contracts in search of effective solutions for the recovery of river basins.
Article by Massimo Bastiani for the magazine of Territorialists
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