Content
Alongside the Water Governance Assessment Tool, InnWater provides a catalogue of governance case studies to help users move from diagnosis to action. The objective is simple: offer real examples of water governance challenges and responses, in formats that make it easy to compare contexts, extract lessons learned, and identify what can be adapted elsewhere.
Each case study follows a consistent logic, typically covering:
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Context and challenge (why this case matters)
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Governance set-up (key actors, roles, decision levels)
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Main bottleneck(s) (coordination, participation, enforcement, data, funding, etc.)
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Approach tested (processes, tools, coordination mechanisms)
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Outputs and early lessons (what changed, what remained difficult)
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Replication notes (what is transferable, prerequisites, risks, “dos and don’ts”)
The catalogue includes cases from InnWater’s pilot sites (La Réunion, Middle Brenta, Figueres, Westcountry, Middle Tisza) and is designed to highlight both diversity and recurring patterns. Across cases, a few consistent insights emerge: governance improves when responsibilities are clear, coordination works at the right scale (often the river basin), participation is meaningful (not symbolic), and monitoring/data support learning and accountability.
How to use the catalogue
The case studies are meant to be used in a very practical way:
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to inspire options when a territory faces similar bottlenecks,
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to compare approaches (what worked under which conditions),
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to support workshops and training, by turning examples into discussion material,
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and to feed replication pathways, by identifying which building blocks can be transferred and how to adapt them.
In the Learning Environment, the catalogue therefore acts as a bridge between conceptual framing and hands-on application: it supports users in designing realistic improvement pathways, grounded in experience rather than theory alone.