Course overview
This course examines the historical, cultural and socio-political contexts of water governance and the policies and regulations for developing, allocating, managing and protecting water resources locally and globally. In that respect it will cover off on water governance issues (rules of the game), institutions involved in its management (players of the game) and the increasingly complex range of issues involved in allocating and using water resources (game-changing issues such as climate change).
Course learning outcomes
- Describe the historical context of water governance in Australia and other contexts and identify the critical points of institutional change
- Assess important policy or program options for managing water scarcity and compare their effectiveness in different situations
- Explain the multi-jurisdictional governance of water and analyse reasons as to why this approach is adopted
- Critically analyse the drivers of water scarcity and demonstrate the usefulness of economic instruments such as trade, pricing and allocation
- Apply assessment tools such as cost-benefit analysis, frameworks for interrelated stakeholder consultation and water resource planning to case studies
- Analyse the possible future outcomes of water governance decisions taken today,; and evaluate the merits/costs of these decisions