The multi-jurisdictional nature of the Red River Basin (RRB) creates a complex institutional environment where agencies, stakeholders, rights holders, and interests play major roles in the local and international management of the basin specifically that of improving water quality in the basin. In this research opportunities in RRB are explored for improvement in water quality, implications of best management practices to water quality and their implementation as well the current gaps and steps to realizing shared governance in watershed management. A hydrologic model of RRB called the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) is developed as the foundation for the research and analysis. After the model was extensively calibrated, although adequately representing the basin characteristics, two errors existed in wind data and extension of crop rotations through the basin. The calibrated model was used for the BMP comparison in which filter strips were regarded as the most effective in the reduction of nutrient loading in the basin. In order to account for the errors a revised model was developed using the same methodology of updated inputs. The corrected model saw increases of overall precipitation (Δ41.9mm) and ET (Δ196.2mm) and a decrease of surface runoff (Δ31.03mm) and total water yield (Δ152.4mm). These numbers are indicative that the crop rotations are extensively represented across the basin as land use is a main influencer of runoff, discharge and ET, providing the assumption that the corrected model is prepared for calibration. Upon calibration the numbers presented in this research will change and provide an increased representation of system behaviour. Preliminary results show that filter strips are the most effective means of improving the water quality indicators. The comparison of BMPs at Sub basin 1 for the minimal initiation of each of the practices resulted in filter strips reducing TPmax by 17% greater than the next best being fertilizer reduction and 15% more reduction in TNmax than Wetland Restoration as the next best. In the largest application of the scenarios in the same sub basin Wetland Restoration was the second most effective in nutrient reduction however, Filter Strips provided 28% more reduction in TPmax and 21% more reduction in TNmax. Further analysis of the BMPs are needed to understand the incentive and impacts to crop yield in the basin in relation to the management practices as well SWAT Evaluation of Best Management practices in the Red River Basin: Implications to improved water quality and shared governance target nutrient rich areas contributing high amounts of phosphorous and nitrogen to the basin. Once the corrected model is calibrated a more effective simulation of the BMPs can provide a further analysis of the implementation. Overall, the use of SWAT can be effective to evaluate the performance of management practices, its accuracy and effectiveness however, is driven based on a number of uncertainties including user and data variability and should be considered as one tool in decision making and evaluation of water quality in RRB that can be applied through frameworks of shared governance and decision making.