‘The process of coordinating conservation, management and development of water, land and related resources across sectors within a given river basin, in order to maximise the economic and social benefits derived from water resources in an equitable manner while preserving and, where necessary, restoring freshwater ecosystems’ (Global Water Partnership (2000) Backgr. Paper 4). Restoration, rehabilitation, river basin management, and their derivatives are practised in at least 21 different countries in response to the exploitation and subsequent deterioration of the riverine environment (Wheaton (2006) Area 38, 2). ‘Interventions on hydro/ecological systems by different categories of stakeholders characterized by different political, decision-making, and discursive power, and varied access to resources, tend to generate costs, benefits, and risks that are distributed unevenly across spatial and temporal scales and across social groups. This is due to the interconnectedness of users through the hydrologic cycle entailed by their dependence upon the same resource’ (Molle (2007) Geog. J. 173, 4). See Hirsch and Wyatt (2004) Asia Pac. Viewpt 45, 1 on the Se San River.