Water Resources Allocation and Agriculture: Transitioning from Open to Regulated Access
The book brings together a range of leading scholars and practitioners to compile an international account of water allocation policies supporting a transition to sustainable water use in regions where agriculture is the dominant water use. In Section 1, the collection canvasses five key cross-cutting issues shaping the challenge of sustainable water allocation policy, such as legal and economic perspectives, the role of politics, the setting of environmental flows, and the importance of indigenous rights. Section 2 presents 13 national, state and transboundary case studies of water allocation policy, covering cases from Europe, the Americas, Central Asia, the Middle East and the Pacific region. These case studies highlight novel and innovative elements of water allocation regimes, which respond to the cross-cutting issues addressed in Section 1, as well as local challenges and social and environmental imperatives. The book provides a comprehensive account of water allocation in a range of international settings and provides a reference point for practitioners and scholars worldwide wishing to draw on the latest advances on how to design and implement sustainable water allocation systems.
ISBN: 9781789062779 (print)
ISBN: 9781789062786 (eBook)
ISBN: 9781789062793 (ePUB)
Chapter 15: Legal frameworks for agricultural water use in Canada: a comparative study of Alberta and Québec
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Published:August 2022
Hugo Tremblay, 2022. "Legal frameworks for agricultural water use in Canada: a comparative study of Alberta and Québec", Water Resources Allocation and Agriculture: Transitioning from Open to Regulated Access, Josselin Rouillard, Christina Babbitt, Edward Challies, Jean-Daniel Rinaudo
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Abstract
Canada encompasses vastly different hydrological conditions, agricultural practices, and legal regimes for water rights. In Alberta, extensive agricultural irrigation has developed since the late 1800s in water-supply constrained conditions based on a prior-appropriation regime for water rights. In comparison, the legal framework for agricultural water rights in the relatively water-abundant province of Quebec has more recently evolved into regulated riparianism where most of the crops are still rain-fed. This chapter compares these two provinces to highlight how sub-national jurisdictions on water rights and differences in legal traditions can address diversity in agricultural practice and hydrological regimes.