As water scarcity increases, pressure to reallocate water from agriculture to other uses mounts. With this mounting pressure comes the need for institutional arrangements that can manage and accommodate shifts to higher value uses of water. These changes in resource allocation patterns have profound implications for all involved players, particularly the agriculturists whose livelihoods are based on irrigation. The thirteen chapters of this book review basin management and cover case studies conducted in developed and developing countries, applying a functional theory of river basin management. The theory is based on the idea that there is a minimum set of functions that enable effective management in successful river basins. The studied basins were: Neste located in France, Central Valley in California (USA), Lerm-Chapala in Mexico, Olifants in South Africa, Dong Nai in Vietnam, and Gediz in Turkey. A set of basic conditions required for effective management institutions to emerge, is presented. Water policy, key water management stakeholders, enabling conditions (viz., political and informational attributes, legal authority and resources), and organizational configurations are also covered.