Dear Colleagues,

For a number of years now, the top challenge for water governance has been to figure out what kind of toolkit would be best equipped to deal with complex problems, such as diffuse pollution, overuse of water, aquatic biodiversity, or flood-risk management. As a salient example, the EU Water Framework Directive established in 2000 an ambitious and detailed framework for monitoring, planning, and acting towards Good Ecological Status (GES) of surface waters in the EU by 2015. The directive was informed by the latest scientific insights on the functioning of natural and human systems. Considering complexity and uncertainty in natural systems, it established an iterative river basin management planning system which would, at least in principle, always be informed by the latest science. Considering uncertainty in social systems, it left discretion for the member states to coin measures suitable to and acceptable in their differing circumstances. Yet, almost 20 years after the directive’s inception, roughly 40% of rivers, lakes, and transitional and coastal waters in the EU are in a good ecological status or potential. It may well be that the impact of climate change, increased precipitation, and runoff, as well as internal pressures trump any meaningful efforts to reach GES. Are there, however, also legal reasons stemming from the directive or from national legislation trumping positive development?

Challenges concerning the implementation of the Water Framework Directive are perhaps illustrative of more general global challenges. The role of law for solving complex water problems, while crucial, is by no means unproblematic. In the past two decades, adaptive governance theories have sought to re-imagine the role of law in responding to ecological and social complexity and uncertainty. Adaptive governance means “a range of interactions between actors, networks, organizations, and institutions emerging in pursuit of a desired state for social-ecological systems” (Chaffin et al. 2014). Pursuit of a desired social–ecological state through emergent grassroots behavior is contingent on two critical factors: whether the social system (law included) is prepared to facilitate such behavior; and whether there is a window of opportunity for such behavior. While adaptive governance theory posits that the law has been remarkably effective in resolving simple environmental problems, such as point-source pollution, the law is also commonly criticized for creating barriers to bottom–up experimentation and learning that would be crucial for reaching desired social–ecological outcomes, and managing social–ecological complexity and uncertainty effectively. Some important examples from the EU regulatory framework: Why is it so difficult to achieve a good ecological status for Europe’s waters? How can we better deal with cumulative human impacts on waters? On the other hand, the question arises of whether flood protection and adaptation to climate change, including droughts, benefit from lessons learned from the classic regulatory approach as they now seem to focus merely on governance approaches including adaptive governance. In this Special Issue, we invite contributions discussing, supporting and problematizing the role of law in sustainable water governance that is able to deal with social–ecological complexity and uncertainty.

Prof. Dr. Marleen van Rijswick
Dr. Moritz Reese
Dr. Niko Soininen
Guest Editors

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• Water
• Adaptive governance
• Law
• Cumulative impact
• Diffuse pollution
• Water use
• Aquatic biodiversity
• Flood-risk management