Problems of Scalar Fit in Implementing the EU Water Framework Directive – Contributions of Transaction Cost Economics and a Framework for Empirical Research1

One of the major innovations of the Water Framework Directive (WFD) of the European Union is that it requires its member states to manage water resources at the river basin level (EU). In order to achieve a good status of all water bodies until the year 2015 the member states are supposed to pre-pare river basin management plans and programs of measures to be im-plemented at a river basin level. However, in particular for federal states, such as the Federal Republic of Germany, where the responsibility for wa-ter resources management is with the federal states (German Länder), the implementation of a river basin management approach remains challeng-ing. Some rivers feature a river basin management approach at the local level, such as the river basin associations in North Rhine Westphalia (e.g. the Ruhrverband and the Wupperverband) (Petry and Dombrowsky 2007) However, in particular for river basins transcending state boundaries pose significant problems of fit between hydrological scales on the one hand and political and administrative scales on the other (Moss 2003). This raises the question how such a river basin management approach can best be implemented in federal states. In principle, two different approaches to solve such problems of scalar fit are conceivable, an organizational solution and a cooperative solution (Oates 1999; LAWA 2001; Dombrowsky 2005). In the case of the organ-izational solution (Planungsverbund), a specific river basin organization is being set up and responsibilities are transferred from the existing political-administrative units, such as the respective federal states, to the river basin organization. Such a river basin organization would be equipped with its own budget and would have the power to set norms. In the case of a coop-erative solution (Koordinierungsverbund), a commission or similar ar-rangement at the river basin level would be set up within which the exist