Adaptive governance of cross-border river basins: Institutionalising sophisticated subsidiarity

Abstract

Water resources management in both the Murray-Darling and Colorado River Basins is fragmented across the borders of states within federal government systems, as well as in the latter case across a national border (USA/Mexico). Furthermore, the governments of these states and nations have limited abilities to control other enterprises (whether public, private, civic, or hybrid) within their jurisdictions whose behaviours influence water resources management and its outcomes. In each case there is a need to find a way of achieving cohesion in the decisions and actions of multiple enterprises in order to avert a tragedy of the commons while ensuring equitable outcomes for all stakeholders. This is a problem of institutional design in settings appropriately characterised by complex adaptive systems and their irreducible uncertainties.