Sharing international rivers: Regional cross-border cooperation between The Netherlands and Germany

This book is about cross-border cooperation in international river basins and how we can analyze, understand and catalyze cooperation between countries.We share international rivers mostly without sparing it much thought except in times of major crises such as floods, droughts and pollution incidents. Past experience shows us that cooperation in international rivers has been the norm rather than the exception. In the coming decades however, our shared water resources will come under increasing pressure caused by rising water needs and with effects of climate change taking hold. Two main intertwined motivations characterize this book about regional cross-border cooperation between The Netherlands and Germany: first, the scientific perspective to describe and analyse cross-border cooperation - in short how to understand cross-border cooperation - and second, the practitioner’s search on how to purposefully shape and manage cross-border cooperation between riparian countries – in short how to act. The assessment framework of cross-border cooperation, described in this book, serves as a pragmatic toolbox for researchers as well as practitioners to explore the available arsenal of cooperation strategies and helps to provide advice and policy recommendations for key decision makers in international river basin management. Tobias Renner (1973, Germany) graduated from the Technical University of Berlin in 1999, specializing in water resources management. In the past twenty years, he has been involved in a multitude of international river basin management projects in the Middle East, Africa and Europe as well as numerous cross-border projects and cooperation initiatives between The Netherlands, Germany and Belgium