Groundwater socio-ecology and governance: a review of institutions and policies in selected countries

A Socio-Ecological Investigation of Options to Manage Groundwater Degradation in the Western Desert, Egypt

“…As described in the ''Introduction'', quite a number of previous studies have demonstrated the relevance of social methods to address environmental problems (Mukherji and Shah 2005). Few studies focusing on groundwater management have explored the inverse idea-that changing the approach to physical monitoring and increasing participation in national activities for data collection and analysis could be the key to addressing the present institutional barriers to selforganization.…”

“…The privatization of agricultural activities in the desert areas of many developing arid regions, and the introduction of pumping technologies, has rapidly changed this situation, placing control of groundwater extraction in the hands of thousands of private individuals. The management issue is thus increasingly understood as an integrated social and ecological challenge (Mukherji and Shah 2005;Giordano and Villholth 2007;Shah 2009).…”

“…Previous studies have applied such integrated approaches to address a range of different environmental management challenges (e.g., Danielsen et al 2007;Stringer et al 2007;Dangles et al 2010;Gebrehiwot et al 2010). Nevertheless, despite some promising exploration of the social dimensions of groundwater use in other regions (Mukherji and Shah 2005;Lightfoot et al 2009), the use of integrated socio-ecological methods to address groundwater management questions has so far been relatively limited globally, and particularly in North Africa (see discussion in Allan 2007;Hammani et al 2009). …”

Implementing the nexus at various scales: Local and regional perspectives

“…A nexus approach means that management solutions account for synergies and tradeoffs between the sectors. A good example is to address problems of groundwater over-extraction by restricting electricity access needed for pumping [1] In response to problems of overdraft politicians have tried to control unsustainable groundwater use through interventions in the energy sector. In West Bengal (Eastern India), pricing based on electricity metering replaced flat rates.…”

Groundwater-based agriculture in arid land : the case of Azraq Basin, Jordan

“…Although a lot of research has been conducted on physical aspects, the question of how groundwater is and should be governed by societies remains largely a moot issue, bedeviled by a baffling diversity of situations (Mukherji and Shah, 2005;Burke and Moench, 2000) and the thorny issue of common property resource management . Following standard views on IWRM and governance (Rogers and Hall, 2003), emphasis is often put on the structure and roles of state administrations, as well as on the legal and policy 'tools' they deploy, beside a conventional call for participation.…”