Introduction

Abstract

When river basin boundaries do not match national political borders, issues and problems of transboundary water management emerge. Historically, rivers and lakes have been used to determine frontiers between countries and due to this fact they have been the origin of numerous conflicts throughout history (the Rhine between France and Germany, the Rio Grande between the USA and Mexico, the Oder and Neisse between Germany and Poland, the Amur and Ussuri between Russia and China, etc.). In many cases, several countries occupy parts of the upstream or downstream area of the river catchment. This makes the issue of water resource sharing even more complicated (the Nile between Egypt and Sudan, the Middle East conflict over the Jordan river, the Danube between many European countries, the Elbe between the Czech Republic and Germany, etc.).