River Basin Management Plans and their challenges: The case of the Alto-Tiete River Basin-State of Sao Paulo, Brazil

Abstract

The article proposes a set of requirements to be used in assessing the potential of the River Basin Management Plans as instruments: (i) of (vertical) articulation between river basin planning and national and state planning of water resources; (ii) of articulation (horizontal) between water resources planning and other sectorial planning; (iii) of integration between water resources planning and regional and municipal strategies for land use planning and environmental sanitation; (iv) of water safety. These requirements were applied to the Alto-Tiete River Basin Management Plan, which demonstrated low potential for horizontal articulation and water safety planning. To overcome these limitations, it is suggested, in the next plan revisions, the use of planning tools that promote the involvement of society in a complementary way to the discussions in the river basin committee, fostering shared decision-making between the different actors and user sectors.