Water Beyond Boundaries

The Stockholm Environment Institute's Water Beyond Boundaries (WBB) initiative aims to evolve water planning beyond the traditional Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) framework, which the authors argue has not yet yielded sustainable outcomes. WBB focuses on three pillars: analyzing water connections beyond the immediate watershed, integrating ecosystem needs throughout the planning process, and employing multi-scale participatory approaches to address inequalities related to gender, poverty, and marginalized groups. The initiative is being piloted in the Magdalena River Basin in Colombia and the Mekong region in South East Asia, while drawing on previous work in California, USA.

• The existing Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) framework has failed to produce sustainable water outcomes and can lead to conflict, the exclusion of critical users, or the neglect of management gaps.
• The Water Beyond Boundaries (WBB) initiative is built on three pillars: 'Water (Tele) Connections' to look beyond the watershed, 'Early Ecosystem Consideration' to integrate ecosystem needs into models, and 'Multi-interest, multi-scale participatory approaches' to identify and address inequalities.
• WBB intends to address social inequities by analyzing factors that limit water access for vulnerable groups and women, specifically regarding land ownership, water rights, and decision-making processes.
• The initiative is implementing pilot studies in the Mekong river in South East Asia, which supports over 70 million people, and the Magdalena River Basin in Colombia, which covers nearly 25% of the country's territory and supports 70% of its population.

APA

Angarita, H., Pearson, L., Escobar, M., & Ortiz, N. (2020). Water Beyond Boundaries. Stockholm Environment Institute. https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/wbb-fact-sheet-2020-1.pdf

Chicago

Angarita, Héctor, Leonie Pearson, Marisa Escobar, and Natalia Ortiz. Water Beyond Boundaries. Stockholm Environment Institute, 2020. https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/wbb-fact-sheet-2020-1.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Angarita |first1=Héctor |last2=Pearson |first2=Leonie |last3=Escobar |first3=Marisa |last4=Ortiz |first4=Natalia |title=Water Beyond Boundaries |publisher=Stockholm Environment Institute |date=November 2020 |url=https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/wbb-fact-sheet-2020-1.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{angarita2020water, author = {Angarita, Héctor and Pearson, Leonie and Escobar, Marisa and Ortiz, Natalia}, title = {{Water Beyond Boundaries}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2020}, month = nov, url = {https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/wbb-fact-sheet-2020-1.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }