Collective Practices for Sustainable Water Management: A Systematic Review of Community-Based Practices

Global water scarcity constitutes a critical sustainability challenge, particularly in agricultural and rural contexts exposed to climate variability. Beyond technical and infrastructural solutions, collective and community-based water management practices have gained increasing relevance as sustainable alternatives grounded in local and ancestral knowledge. This study presents a systematic qualitative review of collective practices for alternative water management implemented worldwide between 2018 and 2023, following the PRISMA methodology, and based on a screening of the Scopus database, 31 peer-reviewed studies were selected and analysed through thematic synthesis. The systematic review identified five interconnected dimensions: (1) water management and governance, (2) conservation and storage, (3) hydrological restoration, (4) efficient water use, and (5) recognition of local knowledge. The results show that collective water management practices contribute to water security, ecological resilience, and adaptive capacity in rural territories, particularly when aligned with local socio-environmental conditions. The study highlights the importance of integrating scientific and community-based knowledge to advance context-specific and sustainable water management strategies, contributing to ongoing debates on sustainability, rural development, and adaptive water governance.