Reasons why Water Reform has failed in Murray-Darling Basin
Project Details
Paper Topic : Law
assignment on why water reform has failed in the Murray Darling Basin
Style : AGLC
Language Style : English (U.K.)
Type of Assignment : Article
Acedemic Level : Graduate Level
Number of Sources : 1
Order Instruction
Topic 1: Law – Governance – Water
Topic Overview
Law and governance are entwined in the paradigm shift underway since the mid
1990s about the way water is governed in Australia. In this topic we explore what
governance is; its relationship with water law and the role these have played in
reforming the way water is accessed and used in the Australian context. We use NSW
as a platform but you are encouraged to also explore these issues in relation to
another comparative jurisdiction (not necessarily Australian) and make a comparative
analysis back to NSW if that is more relevant to your circumstances. The following
questions are relevant to this topic:
What is governance and what does it do?
What is the relationship between law and governance?
What is the role of the legal system in governance of water?
Resources
Francisco Nunes Correia, Water Governance: Aiming at Better Policies and
Innovation. Keynote address to the IWA World Water Congress and Exhibition,
Lisbon, Portugal 21-26 September 2014. <https://youtu.be/sSZG7F51A0Q>
Douglas Fisher, ‘Governance for Sustainable Development’ Chapter 3 in The
Law and Governance of Water Resources: The Challenge of Sustainability
(Edward Elgar, 2009).
Lee Godden and Anita Foerster, ‘Institutional Transitions and Water Law
Governance’ (2011) 22(2/3) Water Law 53.
Cameron Moore, Natural Resources Law (Thompson Reuters, 2015) at 567 –
568.
S Ryan, K Broderick, Y Sneddon, K Andrews, ‘Frameworks for Understanding
Complex Systems’ in Australia’s NRM Governance System: Foundations and
Principles for Meeting Future Challenges (Australian Regional NRM Chairs,
2010) Canberra.
Jim Woodhill, Shaping Behaviour: How Institutions Evolve (The Broker Online, 7
October 2008) <http://www.thebrokeronline.eu/Articles/Shaping-behaviour>.
Topic notes
What is Governance and what does it do?
Governance is the management of social change through the organisation of
institutions and mechanisms to achieve particular goals.1 Governance arrangements
seek collaboration between social, cultural, physical and institutional arrangements
and community values.2 Governance is an important process for natural resource
distribution as it seeks to be a focus for leadership, social consensus, well
established goals and targets, and capacity for implementation.3
In this unit we draw on Ecologically Sustainable Development as an overarching goal
the management of natural resources and water in particular (Fisher, 2009).
Sustainable development rose to prominence following its publication in the 1987
‘Our Common Future’ report of the World Commission on Environment and
Development (the Brundtland Report, after the Commission Chair, Gro Harlem
Brundtland from Norway). Sustainable development is defined there as “meet[ing]
the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to
meet their own needs”.4 A governance approach to sustainable development places
emphasis on the complexity and dynamics of changing social systems, and the vital
role that institutions play in influencing individual behaviour to help pursue social
change.5 A variety of institutions at work within society underline the complexity and
dynamics inherent in social change.
Governance involves networks of people representing formal and informal
institutions; and engaged in collaboration to reflect broader concerns about the
norms of practice and processes associated with the delivery of public goods,6 such
as water. Within this process there is a redistribution of responsibility among the
social system where authority, rule, and decision-making are dispersed between the
different institutions.7 The institutions of governance have been described broadly to
include: beliefs and values, frameworks for understanding, formal and informal
rules, organisational arrangements, and regular patterns of behaviour.8 Specific
interpretation of these relative to natural resource governance in Australia is
summarised in Table 1 below.
Table 1 Institutions in the Australian Natural Resources Governance
Topic Overview
Law and governance are entwined in the paradigm shift underway since the mid
1990s about the way water is governed in Australia. In this topic we explore what
governance is; its relationship with water law and the role these have played in
reforming the way water is accessed and used in the Australian context. We use NSW
as a platform but you are encouraged to also explore these issues in relation to
another comparative jurisdiction (not necessarily Australian) and make a comparative
analysis back to NSW if that is more relevant to your circumstances. The following
questions are relevant to this topic:
What is governance and what does it do?
What is the relationship between law and governance?
What is the role of the legal system in governance of water?
Resources
Francisco Nunes Correia, Water Governance: Aiming at Better Policies and
Innovation. Keynote address to the IWA World Water Congress and Exhibition,
Lisbon, Portugal 21-26 September 2014. <https://youtu.be/sSZG7F51A0Q>
Douglas Fisher, ‘Governance for Sustainable Development’ Chapter 3 in The
Law and Governance of Water Resources: The Challenge of Sustainability
(Edward Elgar, 2009).
Lee Godden and Anita Foerster, ‘Institutional Transitions and Water Law
Governance’ (2011) 22(2/3) Water Law 53.
Cameron Moore, Natural Resources Law (Thompson Reuters, 2015) at 567 –
568.
S Ryan, K Broderick, Y Sneddon, K Andrews, ‘Frameworks for Understanding
Complex Systems’ in Australia’s NRM Governance System: Foundations and
Principles for Meeting Future Challenges (Australian Regional NRM Chairs,
2010) Canberra.
Jim Woodhill, Shaping Behaviour: How Institutions Evolve (The Broker Online, 7
October 2008) <http://www.thebrokeronline.eu/Articles/Shaping-behaviour>.
Topic notes
What is Governance and what does it do?
Governance is the management of social change through the organisation of
institutions and mechanisms to achieve particular goals.1 Governance arrangements
seek collaboration between social, cultural, physical and institutional arrangements
and community values.2 Governance is an important process for natural resource
distribution as it seeks to be a focus for leadership, social consensus, well
established goals and targets, and capacity for implementation.3
In this unit we draw on Ecologically Sustainable Development as an overarching goal
the management of natural resources and water in particular (Fisher, 2009).
Sustainable development rose to prominence following its publication in the 1987
‘Our Common Future’ report of the World Commission on Environment and
Development (the Brundtland Report, after the Commission Chair, Gro Harlem
Brundtland from Norway). Sustainable development is defined there as “meet[ing]
the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to
meet their own needs”.4 A governance approach to sustainable development places
emphasis on the complexity and dynamics of changing social systems, and the vital
role that institutions play in influencing individual behaviour to help pursue social
change.5 A variety of institutions at work within society underline the complexity and
dynamics inherent in social change.
Governance involves networks of people representing formal and informal
institutions; and engaged in collaboration to reflect broader concerns about the
norms of practice and processes associated with the delivery of public goods,6 such
as water. Within this process there is a redistribution of responsibility among the
social system where authority, rule, and decision-making are dispersed between the
different institutions.7 The institutions of governance have been described broadly to
include: beliefs and values, frameworks for understanding, formal and informal
rules, organisational arrangements, and regular patterns of behaviour.8 Specific
interpretation of these relative to natural resource governance in Australia is
summarised in Table 1 below.
Table 1 Institutions in the Australian Natural Resources Governance
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