In line with the Water Framework Directive, this book stresses the need for an Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) approach to balance the competing demands on water-domestic, agricultural, industrial, tourism and environmental/ecological- and promote economically efficient, socially equitable and environmentally sustainable water use in selected regions from Southern Europe, the Mediterranean and the developing world. Results from the research projects covered by this book, demonstrate that effective water management tools and decisions-making practices, are needed in order to complement integrated interventions for increasing the availability of supply and/or managing the growing demand for scarce water supplies. Further, the book attempts to bridge the gap between ideas and actions endorsed at the research-oriented environmental debate, and their translation into policy making structures and programs in developed and developing countries.

Dr. Phoebe Koundouri is a Senior Lecturer at DIEES (Department of International and European Economic Studies) Athens University of Economics and Business, since 2005. She holds a BA from the University of Leicester (1994) and an MPhil (1995), MSc (1996) and PhD (2000) in Economics from the University of Cambridge (UK). During 1997-2005, she has held academic positions at the Economics Departments of the University of Cambridge, London Business School, University College London, and University of Reading. She has published eight books and more than eighty articles in edited volumes and academic journals (including leading journals such as: The American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Journal of Applied Econometrics, Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Land Economics, Environmental and Resource Economics, Economic Policy, Water Resources Research, etc.) mainly in the field of environmental, resource and agricultural economics, as well as in the field of applied econometrics. She is currently an associate editor of the academic journals Environment and Development Economics and economics, while she has acted as a referee for many academic journals, book publishers and research funding foundations. She has coordinated a number of research projects and has been a consultant to the European Commission, the World Bank, OECD, UN, as well as many other international and national organizations and governments of developed and developing countries. She has given public and academic lecturers all over the world and organized a number of international conferences (mainly in field of water resources economics and management).