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Changes in the climate system and the hydrologic regime strongly affect all water uses and human activity. The main goal of this study is to evaluate the impact of rainfall pattern change on streamflow for 26 Brazilian basins with hydropower plants. More precisely, the goal is to estimate the trends on average streamflow for the 2011- 2100 period. The estimated trends result from the analysis of rainfall obtained from a possible climate scenario, among others. The annual average streamflow for this 90-year period is simulated and compared with records from 83 years of observations (1931-2013). Simulations were carried out using two rainfall-to-streamflow hydrological models: Soil Moisture Accounting Procedure (SMAP) and Stochastic Linear Model (SLM). Results from simulations show important impacts, namely, an increase of streamflow in the southern basins and a decrease in the northern basins. Such changes can lead to disastrous consequences, considering the historical exposure to floods and droughts in the southern and northeast regions, respectively. These findings, in addition to the recent severe drought events that have occurred in such regions, provide awareness of a new cycle of reform to the existing water policies and Brazilian institutional framework, which saw the completion of its first 20 years in 2017. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The historical trajectory of the Maipo River basin offers critical insights into current and future challenges in Chile’s internationally famous model of water management. We highlight the legal dimensions of the trajectory, looking beyond the 1981 Water Code and water market debates to some of the underlying principles of Chilean water law that shape river management. In particular, we focus on a legal-administrative rule that splits rivers into multiple, independently managed ‘sections’ – a policy that has received little attention despite posing a prima facie contradiction to the goal of integrated water resources management. We demonstrate that, despite government officials’ insistence that this policy is merely an ‘artificial’ administrative tool, river sectioning has significant material, discursive, and socio-political consequences for water governance. We highlight three emerging issues: (1) tensions over section boundaries, (2) the institutionalisation of a ‘right to leave the river dry’, and (3) ongoing struggles to establish formal vigilance committees in the lower sections. Far from functioning as a legal simplification, river sectioning is complicated and contentious and demands more attention in policy and research. We conclude by considering possible solutions aligned with efforts to move toward more coordinated and equitable water management in this crucial basin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to complement ongoing discussions around water allocation by offering an analytic framework for examining the evolution of paradigms for water allocation in river basins. It traces this evolution from the hydraulic paradigm through to Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) and the current water security paradigm. Using a society-science-practice interaction perspective, the paper draws attention to the governance processes of water allocation that underlie these paradigms using examples from river basins in southern Africa. It is argued that the process of allocating water resources is often influenced by societal priorities and values that do not necessarily result in maintaining ecosystem health and integrity. The efficacy of water allocation depends on the extent to which implementation takes into account the socio-political dynamics associated with collective action involving multiple water users. While paradigm shifts provide windows of opportunity for strengthening legislation, the mere adoption of paradigms should not be taken as a panacea for addressing challenges associated with water allocation in river basins. This is especially relevant for several countries in southern Africa that are undertaking water reforms with the view of strengthening allocation of water resources at basin scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Mekong is the archetypal dissevered fiver basin, separated, divided into parts and broken up by ambiguous and undefined terms in the 1995 Agreement on the Cooperation for the Sustainable Development of the Mekong River Basin. The treaty's text generalizes and redefines the concept of a fiver basin in which tributaries are marginalized and headwaters are excluded, yet on paper the 1995 Mekong Agreement creates the legal fiction of a holistic water resources management paradigm primarily by focusing on the 'imported' (Affeltranger, 2005, p. 54) concept of sustainable development. In effect, transboundary tributaries in the Mekong legal regime are managed by each state unilaterally through application of the limiting language embodied in Article 5(A) which emphasizes hydro-sovereignty. The modem trend and badge of responsibility are to provide a legal framework for the entire watercourse, defined as including its tributaries, and to promote basin-wide governance. Analysis of selected legal regimes and case law demonstrates that ironically, despite their volumetric contributions to flow, tributaries remain at the margin of many legal regimes of international and interstate watercourses including the Mekong. The Lower Mekong River Basin states should consider use of joint development agreements (JDAs), sub-compacts or subsidiary agreements for negotiating and dealing with intrabasin water use and interbasin water diversions on tributaries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]