Final Considerations and Open Scenarios
European river contract experiences demonstrate a growing integration between these contractual agreements and the other instruments of water resources management, and urban and territorial planning. Therefore, river contracts represent innovative places
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Final Considerations and Open Scenarios
Abstract European river contract experiences demonstrate a growing integration between these contractual agreements and the other instruments of water resources management, and urban and territorial planning. Therefore, river contracts represent innovative places for a new governance of river ecosystems and territories, also in compliance with subsidiarity principle. The twofold nature of these contractual agreements—technical dimension and concertative approach—together with their expected wide evolution, allow to identify river contracts not only as sectoral tools for water resource protection and management, but also as catalysts of a new culture of water, recalling the deep interrelationships existing between hydrography, hydrogeology, ecology, sociology, economics, public health and cultural values.
The diffusion of river contracts (RC) in the European scenario is a phenomenon of great interest for the implementation of integrated water management policies. Starting from the first experiences in the 1980s, RC have acquired considerable flexibility and offered original solutions for problematic issues related to river basin management. The analysis of the experiences both completed and still underway illustrates a growing trend towards integration between RC and other instruments of basin management and urban and territorial planning. Interest in RC heightened after the Second World Water Forum held in The Hague in 2000, where, for the first time, such contractual agreements were identified on a global level as suitable processes for promoting sustainable development of territories at the river basin scale. During the Forum, the formal definition of RC confirmed its relevance in terms of integrating the dimensions of public interest, economic performance, social values and environmental sustainability. The European Water Framework Directive (WFD), also in 2000, gave new impetus to water resources management, stressing the importance of appropriately organized forms of river basin management and participatory processes. Arguably, both the Second World Water Forum and the WFD have rendered the breeding ground fertile for the diffusion and adoption of RC as implementation tools for purposes of river basin planning, indeed through participatory and inclusive approaches. © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016 M.L. Scaduto, River Contracts and Integrated Water Management in Europe, UNIPA Springer Series, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-42628-0_5
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5 Final Considerations and Open Scenarios
Across the board, the underlying theme of the river basin as the reference unit for the implementation of integrated water management policies, has characterized all major cases of RC. This reference unit, however, often involves territories which are extremely complex and diverse from a geographic, environmental, social and political viewpoint, all features that can affect the breadth and scope of the RC. Notwithstanding the local environmental and geo-political territorial differ
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