ABSTRACT
This chapter is based on the results from the European research project EUWARENESS, which stands for European Water Regimes and the Notion of a Sustainable Status. In this project the authors focused on sustainable use of water resources to be achieved by means of integrated water management. They aimed to develop a better understanding of the dynamic relationships between various conflicting uses of water resources, the regimes under which these uses of water resources are managed, and conditions generating regime shifts towards sustainability. The authors of this chapter have coordinated the project, while research groups from six European countries (the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Spain, Italy and Switzerland) participated. For these six countries the authors studied the long term evolution of national regimes over a period of more than hundred years. They also studied in depth the specific regime transitions of two selected water basins in each country during the last three decades. Important questions addressed are:
• Do integrated water regimes lead to more sustainable water use? • What are important indicators for integrated water regimes? • Under what conditions can integrated water regimes be achieved? • What could be the influence of Europe and national conditions to
achieve regime transitions at the water basin scale?
