River basin water resources allocation and sustainable management: key issues and challenges

River basin water resources allocation and management policy through the three development phases to improved and sustainable WR management to maximize social, environmental and economic benefits of water use, is introduced. Based on the review and assessment of international practices in river basin water resources (WR) allocation in selected countries and river basins, a comparison of various methodologies and models of WR allocation and documentation of best practices have been completed. Administrative allocation and market-based allocation are the two main allocation mechanisms. Formulating the river basin water resources allocation planning should be confronted with the hydrological variability, accurate water resources assessment, and agreements or shares among the different governments, etc. Due to the key issues and challenges in developing river basin water allocation, three steps were proposed: technical analysis, stakeholder consultation and government decision, implementation and administration of the water allocation scheme.