Abstract
Transboundary river basins are ubiquitous around the world. Countries with no shared basins are either islands or microstates, except for the countries of the Arabian Peninsula where no permanent watercourses exist. The world’s 263 transboundary basins account for about 60% of the global river flow providing home to some 40% of the global population. Although all transboundary river basins differ, yet, based on their hydro-climatic characteristics they can be clustered into large categories that also inform about the fundamental challenges of political cooperation.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
The terms “catchment”, “drainage area” “river” and “watercourse” will be used interchangeably with “river basin” throughout this study.
- 2.
“Watercourse means a system of surface waters and groundwaters constituting by virtue of their physical relationship a unitary whole and normally flowing into a common terminus”. Article 2.a., Convention on the Law of Non-navigational Uses of International Watercourses, New York, 21 May 1997.
- 3.
“Transboundary waters means any surface or ground waters which mark, cross or are located on boundaries between two or more States; wherever transboundary waters flow directly into the sea, these transboundary waters end at a straight line across their respective mouths between points on the low-water line of their banks”. Article 1.2, Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and Lakes, Helsinki, 17 March 1992.
- 4.
“River basin means the area of land from which all surface run-off flows through a sequence of streams, rivers and, possibly, lakes into the sea at a single river mouth, estuary or delta.” Article 2.13, Directive 2000/60/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing a framework for Community action in the field of water policy.
- 5.
http://transboundarywaters.science.oregonstate.edu/content/transboundary-freshwater-dispute-database (accessed 12 February 2019).
References
Allouche J (2005) Water nationalism: an explanation of past and present conflicts in Central Asia, the middle east and the Indian subcontinent? Ph.D. thesis No. 699, Université de Genève, Geneva
Biswas A (2007) Management of transboundary waters: an overview. In: Varis O, Tortajada C, Biswas A (eds) Management of transboundary rivers and lakes. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Dinar S (2008) International water treaties—negotiation and cooperation along transboundary rivers. Routledge, London
Garrick D, Anderson G, Connell D, Pittock J (eds) (2014) Federal rivers: managing water in multi-layered political systems. Edward Elgar Publishing, Cheltenham
Sadoff C, Hall J, Grey D, Aerts J, Ait-Kadi M, Brown C, Cox A, Dadson S, Garrick D, Kelman J, McCornick P, Ringler C, Rosegrant M, Whittington D, Wiberg D (2015) Securing water, sustaining growth: report of the GWP/OECD task force on water security and sustainable growth. University of Oxford, Oxford
Strategic Foresight Group (2015) Water cooperation quotient. Strategic Foresight Group, Mumbai
UN (United Nations) (1978) Register of international rivers. Pergamon Press, Oxford
Wolf A, Natharius J, Danielson J, Ward B, Pender J (1999) International river basins of the world. Int J Water Resour Dev 15(4):387–427
Treaties
Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and Lakes, Helsinki, 17 March 1992
Convention on the Law of Non-navigational Uses of International Watercourses, New York, 21 May 1997
EU Legal Acts
Directive 2000/60/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing a framework for Community action in the field of water policy
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Baranyai, G. (2020). Geography of Transboundary River Basins. In: European Water Law and Hydropolitics. Water Governance - Concepts, Methods, and Practice. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-22541-4_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-22541-4_2
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-22540-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-22541-4
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)