Reforming water resource allocation: climate change adaptation in water management

The thesis analyses economic, institutional and legal aspect of water allocation and sharing in Italy. The first part reviewed the water allocation license regimes across the administrative regions comprising the Po River Basin District, the largest and economically most important in Italy. The study demonstrated that there are some deficiencies in water management in Italy that may compromise both the integrity of riverine and water dependent ecosystems and the economic uses of water. The second part analysed transaction costs for the case study of the Drought Steering Committee and their influence on effective organisation and institutional management of scarce resources. The study measured and tracked these transaction costs with respect to drought periods and identifies a loose downward trend over the course of several recent drought events. By modelling different scenarios of income the third part aims to track how an aquifer recharge method named Forested Infiltration Area respond to alternative states of water availability (drought and normal) thus providing insights for local drought risk management in Italy.