SHIFTS IN URBAN WATER GOVERNANCE - Launch of the International Journal of Water

Most of the contributions in this special issue are the results of research undertaken in the framework of the Switch project. Water managers are confronted with many challenges, such as climate change and ecological degradation. This special issue aims to up-date our understanding of urban water governance. Water governance implies an integrated approach, necessary because of the interrelated nature and complexity of issues like drinking water availability, sanitation, surface water quality and flooding problems and the need to manage and coordinate the processes for identifying, sharing and solving these problems in a multidisciplinary way (including public administration and legal experts, anthropologists, economists and political scientists) and involving all stakeholders concerned. The shift in the dominant water governance paradigm will be analyzed, in particular the one from the often more hierarchical government initiated integrated urban water management (IUWM) paradigm to the adaptive eco water management paradigm advocated by the Switch project.