Complement or competition in water governance? Analysing two collaborative water management arrangements in one river basin

Water Policy ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Irina Mancheva
Keyword(s):  
Water Management ◽  
River Basin ◽  
Water Governance ◽  
Collaborative Governance ◽  
Regional Level ◽  
Social Value ◽  
Fish Migration ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Policy Documents ◽  
Feasible Solutions

Abstract This study aims at advancing collaborative governance theory by investigating the interaction between two different collaborative arrangements within the same forested area of high ecological and social value in the Vindel River basin. Semi-structured interviews, policy documents and observations of board meetings were analysed based on analytical typologies of collaborative arrangements to answer the following questions: which factors can explain why a new collaborative arrangement was established within an area where one already existed? In what way do the two arrangements compete with or complement each other? And, to what extent do they address the effects of forestry on water? The analysis shows that a new collaborative arrangement was formed because the existing arrangement did not materialise certain stakeholders' expectations. Moreover, the two collaborative arrangements do not compete but rather complement each other. The newly established organisational/action collaborative arrangement presented those stakeholders most interested in on-the-ground action with the appropriate venue while freeing them from the organisational/policy arrangement that did not match their aims. However, both arrangements experienced power misbalances as certain stakeholders were perceived as having more influence on their agenda. Collaboration at this local-regional level was found to focus on limited problems with concrete and feasible solutions, such as fish migration, rather than on the complex problems with solutions marked by ecological uncertainty and power asymmetries, e.g. diffuse pollution from forestry.

from the plot to the river basin - agrisatwebgis®: a tool for efficient water management

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andres Cuesta ◽  
Carmen Plaza ◽  
María Calera ◽  
Vicente Bodas ◽  
Anna Osann ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Water Management ◽  
Remote Sensing ◽  
Information And Communication Technologies ◽  
River Basin ◽  
Water Governance ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Sources Of Information ◽  
Continuous Innovation ◽  
La Mancha ◽  
Resolution Level

<p>The rigorous management of water in agriculture must be seen from the point of view of all its actors, covering the information and knowledge needs of each one of them: from supporting the farmer in making irrigation decisions at the foot of the plot, until the collection and management of objective information at the basin level, through planning and control at the level of user communities. Today it is not conceived to address this enormous task without resorting to the available technological arsenal, but to speak of complex technologies is to speak of a high degree of specialization that escapes individual capacities. In this context, successful solutions arise from cooperation between entities of different nature. An example of this is the collaboration between the Remote Sensing Section and GIS of the University of Castilla La Mancha and the company AgriSat Iberia SL, which have created a dynamic of continuous innovation work to, firstly, transfer complex knowledge in format to the farmer of simple services of direct application, later, with the information generated at the intraparcel level, to scale to the level required by the entities or authorities involved in water governance, and finally, to redirect efforts and resources in research, development and innovation from of a better knowledge of their perception, degree of adoption and suggestions for improvement in this regard.</p><p>The last result of this fruitful collaboration has been the development of an application that integrates information on the state of the crops, from satellite images, to predict reliably and at an intraparcel scale (with a resolution level of 100 m<sup>2</sup>) your needs water a week seen. This allows quantifying, at any moment of the crop cycle, its accumulated demand for water, and adding it spatially to the exploitation level, of the irrigation community or of the river basin. From the estimation of the relative photosynthetic activity obtained from the images, it is possible to know the evolution of the crops throughout their growth and development cycle, as well as their spatial variability, in a simple and intuitive way.</p><p>There are three technologies that jointly facilitate this important leap in water management: remote sensing, geographic information systems (GIS), and information and communication technologies (ICT).</p><p>Its online character makes it a service accessible from anywhere with data connection, and in turn makes it a “live” system not only for its capacity for functional expansion but for the possibility of increasing the quantity and quality of the sources of information, allowing access to each new improvement immediately.</p>

scholarly journals Water governance assessment at different scales: a reservoir case study in the Brazilian semiarid region

RBRH ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aline Pessoa Bezerra ◽  
Zédna Mara de Castro Lucena Vieira ◽  
Márcia Maria Rios Ribeiro
Keyword(s):  
Water Management ◽  
River Basin ◽  
Water Governance ◽  
Evaluation Criteria ◽  
Semiarid Region ◽  
Severe Drought ◽  
National Agency ◽  
Brazilian Semiarid ◽  
Oecd Principles ◽  
Policy Alignment

ABSTRACT This article analyses the application of OECD water governance principles to the semiarid region of Brazil. Between 2012 and 2017, the Paraíba River basin (macroscale) and its Epitácio Pessoa reservoir – EPR (microscale) suffered a severe drought. The reservoir came close to collapse in 2017, which led to water use conflicts that were aggravated due to water mismanagement. Four evaluation criteria were considered: policy alignment to the OECD principles, its implementation, on-ground results, and policy impacts. The outcomes indicate water management fragilities, even after 24 years of the Brazilian National Water Resources Policy enactment, and the need for a better water management integration at different scales: National, State, and River Basin. By considering a smaller scale (a basin and its main reservoir), it was possible to observe water governance failures that lead to water crises since the best practices performed by the national agency, at the national scale, have not been verified at the local scale.

scholarly journals Water Co-Governance for Sustainable Ecosystems: Reflections and Recommendations from Pilot Processes in the UK

Water ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (13) ◽  
pp. 1737
Author(s):  
Natalie Foster
Keyword(s):  
Water Governance ◽  
Stakeholder Analysis ◽  
Collaborative Governance ◽  
Catchment Management ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Management Plans ◽  
Working Together ◽  
Uk Government ◽  
Host Organization ◽  
The Uk

As part of the Water Co-Governance for Sustainable Ecosystems (WaterCoG) project, this research evaluated two river catchment pilots in the United Kingdom (UK) via a series of semi-structured interviews in order to better understand how collaborative governance (co-governance) approaches contribute to water governance. The findings demonstrate that the participatory process used by catchment partnerships (comprising stakeholders working together within a catchment area) to co-produce knowledge has enabled them to jointly identify improvements that are more meaningful than previous actions to those involved or affected by the situation in their catchment. However, there are concerns about the balance of social, economic and environmental interests in decision making, as well as perceived misunderstandings about the situation in the catchment as a whole. All interviewees (comprising stakeholders from across different scales and levels of water governance) recognized benefits from working together. They also observed that progress to deliver measures is impeded by polices and institutions that are not conducive to partnership working. The interviewees recognized and valued the significant capacity and capability of catchment partnership host organization(s) to facilitate and enable the development of the catchment partnership. However, they also raised important questions about the host’s ability to represent the needs and interests of all catchment partnership members. The recommendations emerging from this research suggest ways to improve water co-governance, including considering the feasibility and desirability of the catchment partnership host; reconceptualizing catchment management plans as a process rather than an outcome; conducting and regularly reviewing a stakeholder analysis of catchment partnership members; working more closely together with other types of partnerships and committees; engaging in and providing opportunities for developing skills in systems thinking, social learning and collaborative actions; working with the UK Government to develop place-based policies and plans; and engaging in dialogue with the UK Government and other bodies to review access to funding and other types of resources.

Scale and consequences – the limits of the river basin as a management unit

2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 618-625
Author(s):  
Mike Muller
Keyword(s):  
Water Management ◽  
Resource Management ◽  
Recent Work ◽  
River Basin ◽  
Aquatic Environment ◽  
Water Resource Management ◽  
Water Governance ◽  
Network Governance ◽  
African Experience ◽  
Basin Scale

Abstract Contrary to dominant paradigms, the river basin is not the obvious unit within which to undertake water management given the diversity of functions inherent in water resource management. The Southern African experience is presented to illustrate issues that may arise when using the river basin for different functions. Functions best addressed at a larger ‘problem-shed’ level are identified and it is explained why some other functions should rather be performed at smaller, sub-basin scales. Using recent work on water governance, which emphasise polycentricity and network governance, it is suggested that a better understanding of the appropriate scales for different functions will support activities such as planning, monitoring and the protection of the aquatic environment that may best be focused at river basin scale.

The Challenge of Externally Generated Collaborative Governance: California’s Attempt at Regional Water Management

2020 ◽  
Vol 50 (4-5) ◽  
pp. 428-437
Author(s):  
Bruce E. Cain ◽  
Elisabeth R. Gerber ◽  
Iris Hui
Keyword(s):  
Water Management ◽  
Water Governance ◽  
Collaborative Governance ◽  
Local Autonomy ◽  
Core Element ◽  
Disadvantaged Communities ◽  
Role Differentiation ◽  
Regional Collaboration ◽  
Local Agencies ◽  
Regional Water

Creating successful collaborative governance regimes is difficult, but can be especially hard when collaborations are externally generated by higher levels of government as opposed to self-generated by local agencies and stakeholders due to the lack of spontaneity. We analyze this problem as it applies to California’s Integrated Regional Water Governance Program. Public administration theory indicates that a core element in a successful collaboration is empowering local leaders who share the collaboration’s intended goal. However, the political concessions to local autonomy necessary to enact an externally generated collaboration can undermine its success. The tensions between maintaining local autonomy and creating a regional approach are inherently strong in a “layered collaborative governance” approach that acknowledges and accommodates local boundaries. Drawing on the concept of role differentiation, we hypothesize that the roles participants play in layered collaborative governance will frequently derive from their preexisting issue areas, geographic orientations, and power relations, but that program design incentives can influence which groups participate in the effort and how they engage. We test these hypotheses in the context of California’s Integrated Regional Water Management (IRWM) program. We find evidence of role differentiation on grant leadership both with respect to the initial goal of regional collaboration as well as later efforts to address the water issues of disadvantaged communities.

scholarly journals Advancing Collaborative Water Governance: Unravelling Stakeholders’ Relationships and Influences in Contentious River Basins

Water ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (12) ◽  
pp. 3316
Author(s):  
Rodrigo Rojas ◽  
Gabriella Bennison ◽  
Victor Gálvez ◽  
Edmundo Claro ◽  
Gabriel Castelblanco
Keyword(s):  
Water Management ◽  
Water Governance ◽  
Stakeholder Analysis ◽  
Collaborative Governance ◽  
Shared Vision ◽  
Clear Understanding ◽  
Information Flows ◽  
Methodological Framework ◽  
Water Planning

Collaborative water governance (CWG) has emerged as a promising framework to tackle water management challenges. Simple identification of participants however is not enough to unravel the intricacies of stakeholders’ interlinkages, roles and influences for robust CWG. A clear understanding of the stakeholders’ landscape is therefore required to underpin CWG. In this work, we combine stakeholder analysis (SA), social network analysis (SNA) and participatory processes (PP) under a theoretical collaborative governance framework to advance CWG in the contentious Rapel River Basin (RRB), Chile. By combining these techniques, we identified a cohort of leading (and secondary) stakeholders, their relationships and critical roles on basin-wide CWG-enabling networks (collaborative ties, information flows and financial exchanges) and their influence to achieve a shared vision for water planning. The results show members of this cohort perform critical roles (bridging, connecting and gatekeeping) across the networks and in influencing explicit elements of the shared vision. Specific CWG-enabling networks properties indicate a weak adaptive capacity of stakeholders to deal with potential water management challenges and strong prospects for sharing innovative ideas/solutions and achieving long-term water planning goals. A major CWG implementation challenge in the RRB is the lack of a leading organisation. One way forward would be formally organising stakeholders of the identified cohort to advance CWG in the RRB. By implementing the methodological framework, we facilitated social learning, fostered trust among stakeholders and mobilised efforts towards implementing CWG in practice in the contentious RRB.

Fighting to Cooperate: Litigation, Collaboration, and Water Management in the Upper Deschutes River Basin, Oregon

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Hannah Satein ◽  
Edward Weber
Keyword(s):  
Water Management ◽  
River Basin ◽  
Collaborative Governance ◽  
Western United States ◽  
Regulatory Enforcement ◽  
Collaborative Processes ◽  
Management Regime ◽  
Deschutes River ◽  
Collaborative Efforts ◽  
Deschutes River Basin

Water management systems in the western United States prioritize historical economic uses of water, but are being tasked with addressing growing populations, unmet ecosystem needs, and climatic changes. Collaborative governance scholars posit that collaborative processes generate solutions better suited to resolving wicked natural resource problems than traditional regulatory approaches. However, scholars dispute how collaboration and regulatory enforcement in the form of litigation interact: does litigation destroy collaborative efforts or does litigation facilitate collaboration? In the Upper Deschutes River Basin in central Oregon, stakeholders engaged two collaborative processes to lay the foundation for a new water management regime. However, a participant in these processes was concerned that they were not progressing and filed a lawsuit under the Endangered Species Act. This research finds that litigation, strategically applied under specific conditions, can facilitate collaboration.

scholarly journals Trajectory of a divided river basin: law, conflict, and cooperation along Chile's Maipo River

Water Policy ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 127-145 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sophia Borgias ◽  
Carl J. Bauer
Keyword(s):  
Water Management ◽  
River Basin ◽  
Water Governance ◽  
Integrated Water Resources Management ◽  
Prima Facie ◽  
Government Officials ◽  
Political Consequences ◽  
Future Challenges ◽  
Emerging Issues ◽  
Historical Trajectory

Abstract The historical trajectory of the Maipo River basin offers critical insights into current and future challenges in Chile's internationally famous model of water management. We highlight the legal dimensions of the trajectory, looking beyond the 1981 Water Code and water market debates to some of the underlying principles of Chilean water law that shape river management. In particular, we focus on a legal-administrative rule that splits rivers into multiple, independently managed ‘sections’ – a policy that has received little attention despite posing a prima facie contradiction to the goal of integrated water resources management. We demonstrate that, despite government officials’ insistence that this policy is merely an ‘artificial’ administrative tool, river sectioning has significant material, discursive, and socio-political consequences for water governance. We highlight three emerging issues: (1) tensions over section boundaries, (2) the institutionalisation of a ‘right to leave the river dry’, and (3) ongoing struggles to establish formal vigilance committees in the lower sections. Far from functioning as a legal simplification, river sectioning is complicated and contentious and demands more attention in policy and research. We conclude by considering possible solutions aligned with efforts to move toward more coordinated and equitable water management in this crucial basin.

scholarly journals Integrated Water Quality Governance and Sectoral Responsibility: The EU Water Framework Directive’s Impact on Agricultural Sector Policies in Norway

Water ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (11) ◽  
pp. 2215 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sissel Hovik
Keyword(s):  
Water Management ◽  
River Basin ◽  
Agricultural Sector ◽  
Water Governance ◽  
Ecological Status ◽  
Management Plan ◽  
Economic Incentives ◽  
Goal Structure ◽  
Agriculture Sector ◽  
The Eu

In accordance with the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD), Norway has made the river basin the basis for coordination of sectoral policies. New units of River Basin Districts and Sub-Districts have been introduced. In each district, the joint water management plan and program of measures is formulated by cross-sector and multi-level networks. This network structure is added to and clearly subordinated to the primary structure following the sectoral principle and hierarchical steering. Therefore, the WFD objectives of good environmental status of all waters must be integrated into the goal structure and policy priorities of different sector authorities and levels of government. This paper examines whether and, if so, how the activities within the secondary structure of water governance influence the policies and practices of the agricultural sector regarding diffuse water pollution mitigation. The analyses of sector policy documents and water management plans reveal that even though the WFD’s aim of good ecological status of water is integrated into the objectives of the agricultural environmental program, only minor changes have been made in instrument targets and settings. Economic incentives and voluntary measures still dominate. This leads to the conclusion that the corporatist governance mode of the agriculture sector dominates the sector’s choice of policy objectives and instruments.

Communities of Interest in the Nordic Management of International Watercourses

2016 ◽  
Vol 85 (4) ◽  
pp. 348-367
Author(s):  
Julie Gjørtz Howden
Keyword(s):  
Water Management ◽  
International Law ◽  
River Basin ◽  
Water Governance ◽  
Nordic Countries ◽  
Management Regime ◽  
River Basin District ◽  
The Common ◽  
International Water Law ◽  
International Water

This article takes a closer look at water cooperation among Nordic countries, and in particular the newly established Finnish-Norwegian River Basin District. It addresses the effectiveness of water governance within the structure chosen for managing the River Basin District and compares this with the main features of the community of interest approach in international water law. Serving as backdrop for this comparison is the earlier Finnish-Swedish Frontier Rivers Commission, which was considered a pioneer project of common water management, and the common values that unite the Nordic countries. Cooperation over shared water resources challenges the principle of territorial sovereignty in international law, and requires engaged cooperative regimes. While Norway and Finland have excellent opportunities to create a progressive water management regime, their current solution has some significant shortcomings.

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