“Catchment and River Basin Planning: Integrating Science and Governance; edited by L Smith, K Porter, K Hiscock, M J Porter and D Benson; published by Routledge in their Earthscan Studies in Water Resource Management series, 2015, 292pages http://cmscoms.com/?p=3525

A Review by Bob Harris

The recent revival of catchment management as a practical concept for water resource management in the UK and the publication of the 2^nd River Basin Management plans for the Water Framework Directive later in 2015 makes this book timely. The book is based on two successful research projects undertaken as part of the Rural Economy and Land Use (RELU) programme and is written by a combination of researchers and practitioners, some with long experience of more integrated approaches than the more recent attempts in the UK.

The book is divided into three parts. The first introduces the challenges faced in catchment management and the concepts for addressing them. It sets a framework for comparing and analysing the nine case studies that follow in the second section. Three are taken from the US (Upper Susquehanna, New York City watershed and Hudson river), one from Australia (S E Queensland), three from northern Europe (Aalborg, Denmark, Lower Saxony, Germany and Drenthe Province, Netherlands) and two from the British Isles (Ballinderry and Loweswater). The case studies are mostly long-standing and cover a wide range of scales (from 22000 to 8 km²) with the management issues involving a variety of ecosystem services, drinking water quality often to the fore. The approaches taken, and which are seen to achieve success, vary accordingly but there are a number of common principles which can be established and which the authors have drawn together. The third part sets these commonalties out in terms of, inter alia, integrating knowledge with decision-making, forming collaborations and partnership working, using communications tools effectively, developing a balance between formal and informal governance arrangements, offering a plethora of advice based on practicalities which have been known to work.

The book will be particularly useful to those engaged in Catchment Partnerships through Defra’s Catchment Based Approach (CaBA) programme, whether in pointing out ways forward or giving confidence that persistence with building communities of practice will gain success in the longer term – anyone starting in catchment management will soon realise that developments do not happen overnight! We are particularly poor ain the UK at taking learning from elsewhere and applying it to our own problems. This book shows that there are commonalities of approach to the management of complex systems such as river and groundwater catchments, no matter what the geology, landscape, legal system, culture or problems to be addressed. People are at the heart of achieving success and the sooner we realise that the sooner we might make progress.

I heartily recommend this volume. It is well written and can be read as a whole or used as a reference book for dipping into. Hopefully a future volume on the subject will have many more UK case studies to draw on, some of which may have taken the information and principles set out in this book for their inspiration.