Editorial: Achieving sustainable and adaptive fresh water management: Selective studies of international, European, Dutch and Chinese water law

The articles included in two special collections of The
Journal of Water Law build on the papers presented at the
Joint Workshop ‘A legal perspective on sustainable water
management in times of climate change: comparing
international, European, Chinese and Dutch Water Law’.
The first Chinese papers have been published in the
‘Chinese Water Papers’1 and this special issue puts most
emphasis on international and European perspectives. The
next special issue will focus on Chinese and European
approaches to the management of current water issues.
The Utrecht Centre for Water, Oceans and Sustainability
Law (UCWOSL), Utrecht University and the China
International Water Law (CIWL) of Xiamen University Law
School both focus on the sustainable and equitable management
of water courses and oceans from a legal perspective.
At the same time they are both very much
involved in inter/multidisciplinary research, convinced of
the fact that the achievement of sustainable water management
needs in the end an integrated approach and the
involvement of all stakeholders. But most of all both
centres have a strong belief in cooperation. Cooperation is
the way towards further sustainable development, not
only between the several levels involved – states, regions,
sectors and stakeholders – but also between scientists from
all disciplines and scholars from countries all over the
world.
The workshop at Xiamen University and the resulting
articles have been made possible by the Dutch Royal
Academy of Sciences, Utrecht University, the Dutch
Knowledge for Climate Research Programme, the EU FP-7
STARFLOOD-project (STAR-FLOOD receives funding
from the EU 7th Framework programme (FP7/2007–2013)
under grant agreement 308364) and the NWO Verdus
Context project: see http://context.verdus.nl/.
Marleen van Rijswick
Patricia Wouters
Editors