Assessing water management through decentralization: state–region issues in the Ebro Basin (Spain)

ABSTRACT

The sustainable, integrated, and representative management of water is one of the main challenges faced by governments worldwide, especially where water resources are not abundant, such as the Ebro River basin in Spain. The Spanish state has granted powers in matters related to water that has adhered river basins. The main objective of this study is to examine the specific case of water management in Catalonia, a region within the Ebro basin, through literature review and interviews conducted with key informants in water organizations operating in Catalonia.

KEYWORDS:

• Water policies
• decentralization
• sub-national politics
• participatory water management
• Spain

Acknowledgements

I acknowledge all the interviewees for their time and their insightful views. I am also deeply grateful for the helpful criticisms made by the anonymous referees. Last, but not least, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Professor Joan Tort Donada, Associate Professor Maria Teresa Vadrí, Associate Professor Ramon Galindo Caldés and Associate Professor Mireia Grau Creus for their support.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplementary material

Supplementary data for this article can be accessed at https://doi.org/10.1080/02508060.2024.2326404.

Additional information

Funding

This study has been undertaken within the broader framework of grant [PRE111/21/000003] of individual research in the field of the spatial organization of power, funded by the Self Government Institute Studies (IEA) of the Government of Catalonia (Generalitat de Catalunya). It has also been supported by the research project ‘From Cross-Border to Inter-Regional Cooperation: Challenges and Opportunities for Spanish State Governance. Challenges for the Inter-Regional Administrative Limits’ [TRANSINTER-D, code PID2021-126922NB-C21], funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, the Spanish Agency of Research and the European Regional Development Fund “A Way to Build Europe”, and grant [2021SGR00859] awarded by the Agency for Management of University and Research Grants (Agència de Gestió d’Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca) of the Government of Catalonia [SGR2021-2024].