Gestión integrada de los recursos hídricos por organismos de cuencas hidrográficas: comparación de los Casos de Estudio de Tárcoles y Reventazón

[Introduction]: Costa Rica is internationally recognized for its progressive environmental management including the implementation of the concept of integrated water resources management. Despite this, surface and groundwater resources continue to be threatened. [Objective]: To improve the implementation of integrated water resources management in practice, the objective of this paper is to understand the design characteristics of the management bodies in two of Costa Rica's largest watersheds, the Rio Grande de Tárcoles and the Rio Reventazón. [Methodology]: We used a comparative case study approach to analyze the Comisión de Gestión Integral de la Cuenca del Río Grande de Tárcoles and the Comisión para la Gestión de la Cuenca del Río Reventazón and combined the analysis of official documents with information from two interviews with the directories of both commissions. Based on the data we analyzed the institutional design characteristics of the river basin organizations along authority rules, aggregation rules, boundary rules, information rules, and pay-off rules and identified the type of basin organization that each commission represents. [Results]: While the Tárcoles Commission exhibits characteristics of an agency and a coordinating basin organization, the Reventazón Commission is classified between an agency and an autonomous basin organization. [Conclusion]: We discuss the strengths and weaknesses of both organizations in the Latin American context and conclude with some implications for integrated water resources management in Costa Rica.