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TRANSBOUNDARY WATER MANAGEMENTA summary of enabling factors for transboundary aquifer cooperationEnabling factor(number of aquifers where present)Existing legal mechanisms (10)Existing regional institutions (16)Funding mechanisms (12)High institutional capacity (8)Previous water cooperation (15)Scientific research (7)Strong political will (8)Third-party involvement (8)DescriptionIncludes both binding and non-binding legalmechanisms, which place specific obligations onaquifer states.Involves an institution charged with promotingcooperation and coordination on issues of regionalimportance. Institution demonstrates some specificfocus on groundwater.Either the aquifer states or a third party providedthe funding for a joint project or institution.Organizations with the aquifer demonstrate theability to deal with groundwater governanceissues related to monitoring, modelling and/ormanagement.Involves past interactions regarding water resourcesbetween at least two of the aquifer states.Research is conducted specifically for the assessmentof transboundary impacts. Research providessignificant new information to the aquifer states.High-ranking government official(s) indicatedthe prioritization of groundwater managementin the aquifer.There were significant contributions to cooperationfrom entities outside of the aquifer states’governments.Patterns of influence• Highly influential in North America, Europeand Africa• Plays a key role in cases of moderate cooperation• Global geographic influence• Strong influence in medium-sized aquifers(10,000-1,000,000 km 2 ), where there aremore than two aquifer states and in cases oflow cooperation• Global geographic influence• Strong influence in large-scale aquifers(1,000,000 km 2 and more than fiveaquifer states)• Noticeable influence on high cooperation events• Strongest in Europe and North America• Not critical to promoting any specific levelof cooperation• Critical in small-sized aquifers (10,000 km 2 )• Significant influence on cases of low cooperation• Influential in North and South America; also hassome influence in Africa• Noticeable influence on low cooperation• No geographic trend• Influential in high cooperation cases• Noticeable role in the Global South• Highly influential for medium-scaletransboundary aquifers (10,000-1,000,000 km 2and 3-5 aquifer states)Source: IGRAC 2012provides impulse or motivation and causes a particular phenomenonto happen or develop. A factor is a circumstance, fact orinfluence that actively contributes to the production of a result.Therefore, in the context of cooperation, an enabling factor is acircumstance, fact or influence that actively contributes to theoccurrence of a cooperative event or cooperative interactions.Distinguishing the terms in this manner makes clear that muchattention has gone to analysing and/or hypothesising aboutvarious drivers such as power asymmetries, benefit sharing andcosts of non-cooperation. Yet very few researchers have movedtowards concretizing elements leading to cooperative action bycharacterizing them as factors, as defined here. Therefore, weasked, what are the enabling factors or the ‘ingredients’ in arecipe for cooperation?A multi-step analysis was conducted to identify the enablingfactors for transboundary aquifer cooperation. There were 19cases used to identify the enabling factors. The objective of thecase analysis was to provide as complete a picture as possibleof the circumstances that lead countries to cooperateover international aquifers. It was determinedthat a bottom-up approach was necessary given thatenabling factors are most often characterized byconcrete, on-the-ground actions. Therefore, eachcase was assembled and the conditions that spurredcooperation were assessed.Analysis of the cases shows that cooperation occursacross a wide range of hydrogeological, geographical,socioeconomic and political contexts. There areinstances of cooperation over all types of aquifersincluding unconfined, confined, confined fossil andsemi-confined, as well as two in karst formations. Theaquifers vary greatly in terms of geologic extent withthe smallest covering 19 km 2 and the largest covering2,199,000 km 2 . Hydrogeological conditions also varygreatly. In some instances, the aquifers face emergentchallenges of severe contamination or over-exploita-[ 43 ]