ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at how groundwater governance can be framed and analysed from a social ecological system perspective, which considers the importance of balancing ecosystem flows, health and functions with socioeconomic well-being in an equitable manner, while taking into account issues of power and political economy at different scales. Under this analytical frame, groundwater systems are perceived as having inherent properties like resilience, non-linear feedbacks, redundancy, diversity and modularity composed by human, biophysical and ecological variables and components, which are interdependent on each other. The chapter outlines this approach, its main components as well its main challenges and opportunities to help better understand groundwater governance.
