Planning and Managing Water Resources at the River-Basin Level: Emergence and Evolution of a Concept

"Planning and Managing Water Resources at the River-Basin Level: Emergence and Evolution of a Concept" is a new report by François Molle, a Senior Researcher at the Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD), France. This report recounts the evolution of the concept of a river basin and how it has been associated with various strands of thinking and sometimes co-opted or mobilized by particular groups to strengthen the legitimacy of their agenda. This illustrates the fact that beyond its relevance as a geographical unit for the study of hydrology or for water resources development purposes, the river basin is also a political and ideological construct.