Title: Sustainable natural resource management through multi-regional cooperation

Authors: Francesco Mazzeo Rinaldi, Marta Salvati

Addresses: European Commission, Directorate General JRC, Institute for the Protection, and Security of the Citizen (IPSC), TP 650, I-21020 Ispra (VA), Italy. ENEA S Teresa, Marine Environment Research Centre, PO Box 224, 19100, La Spezia, Italy

Abstract: Management of natural resources has clear implications for local, national, and supranational territorial units because of diverse and fundamental implications linked to how and where they are managed. There is a strong need to go beyond local, regional or even national administrative borders, redesigning new geographical areas and starting cross-border cooperative actions for more sustainable natural resource management. In this paper, European Union and Italian water policies are analysed, showing that, in Italy, the situation regarding institutional actors involved in water management is quite complex, particularly taking a watershed approach. Management of an important watershed in the south of Italy is taken as an example, showing how natural resources could be managed effectively through multi-regional cooperation. In this context, the work presented here introduces Multi-Criteria Decision Aid (MCDA) as a new multidisciplinary approach to structuring and analysing conflicts between stakeholders involved in the decision making process.

Keywords: Italy; multi-criteria analysis; natural resource management; water policies; watershed.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEP.2002.000708

International Journal of Environment and Pollution, 2002 Vol.18 No.3, pp.223-242

Published online: 14 Jul 2003 *

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