摘要：To complement this Special Feature on global water governance, we focused on a generic challenge at the globallevel, namely, the degree to which water issues need to be dealt with in a centralized, concentrated, and hierarchical manner.We examined water ecosystem services and their impact on human well-being, the role of policies, indirect and direct driversin influencing these services, and the administrative level(s) at which the provision of services and potential trade-offs can bedealt with. We applied a politics of scale perspective to understand motivations for defining a problem at the global or locallevel and show that the multilevel approach to water governance is evolving and inevitable. We argue that a centralizedoverarching governance system for water is unlikely and possibly undesirable; however, there is a need for a high-level thinktank and leadership to develop a cosmopolitan perspective to promote sustainable water development
关键词：global governance; multilevel governance; scale; water governance
