Your search found 14 records
1 Pahl-Wostl, C.. 2002. Participative and stakeholder-based policy design, evaluation and modeling processes. Integrated Assessment, 3(1):3-14.
Water resource management ; Participatory management ; Social participation / Europe / Switzerland / UK / Germany
(Location: IWMI-HQ Call no: P 6753 Record No: H034117)
2 Pahl-Wostl, C.. 2004. The complexity of human behaviour: A new role for models and implications for management strategies. In SIWI, Proceedings, SIWI Seminar - Towards Catchment Hydrosolidarity in a World of Uncertainties, Stockholm, August 16, 2003. Stockholm, Sweden: SIWI. pp.57-62.
(Location: IWMI-HQ Call no: 333.91 G000 SIW Record No: H034549)
3 Pahl-Wostl, C.; Gupta, J.; Petry, D. 2007. Governance and the global water system: the need to adopt a global perspective on water issues. Global Water News, 5/6:1-3.
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: P 7994 Record No: H041002)
4 Pahl-Wostl, C.. 2006. How to include the human dimension in water assessments? Global Water News, 4: 8-9.
Water resource management ; Assessment ; Policy ; Decision making ; Governance ; Social participation
(Location: IWMI HQ Record No: H041007)
5 Alcamo, J. M.; Vorosmarty, C. J.; Naiman, R. J.; Lettenmaier, D. P.; Pahl-Wostl, C.. 2008. A grand challenge for freshwater research: understanding the global water system. Environmental Research Letters, 3(1):1-6.
(Location: IWMI HQ Record No: H041024)
Although the existence of a global hydrologic cycle has long been recognized, researchers are only now uncovering a vastly wider web of connectivities that binds together the flow of water on a global scale. The connectivities are physical (e.g. upstream storages of water cause large scale changes in the residence time of surface water), economic (e.g. water is embedded in food and other products and traded internationally), and even institutional (e.g. decisions about trade of water technology have a global impact). This new awareness of connectivities has spawned the concept of the 'global water system'. New findings have also made it clear that the global water system is undergoing unprecedented, large scale, and poorly understood changes which are increasing the vulnerability of ecosystems and society. The international community of water researchers and managers can respond to these risks by taking on several 'grand challenges' including: investigating the feasibility (and desirability) of global water governance, improving the global assessment of water resources, developing global early warning systems for floods and droughts, and initiating a new global initiative for benchmarking the loss of aquatic species. These and similar actions would bring a new and needed global perspective to water research and management.
6 Pahl-Wostl, C.; Gupta, J.; Petry, D. 2008. Introduction: global governance of water. Global Governance, 14(4):405-407.
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: P 8137 Record No: H045797)
(0.28 MB)
Water is a key element of the earth system with all its geophysical, biological, and human-social interactions. Freshwater is a prerequisite of human well-being in terms of drinking water and sanitation, food security and health, industrial processes and energy supply, transportation and recreation, and further goods and services delivered by ecosystem integrity and freshwater biodiversity. The sustainable management of water resources in times of global change poses one of the most pressing challenges for public policy in the twenty-first century. Global demand for freshwater has skyrocketed with population expansion, income growth, and technological development. The resulting strains on supply create not only environmental pressures but social tensions as well, given that freshwater resources are unequally distributed among world regions, countries, and social groups. Water scarcity and conflicts over the allocation of water resources are already widespread around the world.
7 Pahl-Wostl, C.; Gupta, J.; Petry, D. 2008. Governance and the global water system: a theoretical exploration. Global Governance, 14(4):419-435.
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: P 8137 Record No: H045799)
(1.90 MB)
Public policy on water has long been approached in the context of a locality, a country, or a river basin. However, scientific evidence now provides compelling arguments for adopting a global perspective on water management. This article argues that water governance today needs a multilevel design, including a significant global dimension. The discussion defines global water governance, highlights the implications for multilevel governance, and examines global water governance through the lens of governance typologies. The analysis along the categories of globalization/regionalization, centralization/decentralization, formality/informality, and state/nonstate actors and processes reveals that current global water governance is a fragmented, mobius-web arrangement. The article concludes by considering possible future trajectories of global water governance.
8 Pahl-Wostl, C.. 2013. Innovation in European water policy and the need for exchange on water policy reform at a global scale. In Prakash, A.; Singh, S.; Goodrich, C. G; Janakarajan, S. (Eds.). Water resources policies in South Asia. New Delhi, India: Routledge. pp.296-312.
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: 333.91 G000 PRA Record No: H045928)
9 Wutich, A.; Cardenas, J. C.; Pahl-Wostl, C.; Rauschmayer, F.; Schleyer, C.; Srinivasan, V.; Suhardiman, Diana; Tallis, H.; Zwarteveen, M. 2018. Integrating sustainability, justice and diversity?: opportunities and challenges for inclusively framing water research. In S. Lele, S. Brondizio, J. Byrne, G. Mace, J. Martinez-Alier (Eds.), Rethinking environmentalism: linking justice, sustainability and diversity. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. pp.251-286.
Integrated management ; Water resources ; Water management ; Water footprint ; Sustainability ; Diversification ; Farming systems ; Research ; Frames ; River basin management ; Lakes ; Human rights ; Ecosystem services ; Wetlands ; Case studies / Burkina Faso / Nepal / Kenya / Peru / Bolivia / Europ / Romania / USA / Lake Naivasha Basin / Mollepata / Cochabamba / Lower Danube River / Tisza River / Arizona
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H048931)
The twentieth century has seen a dramatic increase in human uses of and human impacts on water resources, increasing competition over water as well as depleting or deteriorating its availability. Given its importance to human life and livelihoods, water is becoming one of the major foci of environmental research. The coincidence of water scarcity with poverty in many parts of the world makes it a focal point of international development efforts. With engineering thinking dominating over past decades, water management research has embraced more integrative approaches triggered by an increasing awareness of failures that focused on narrow single issues or technical solutions to address the complex challenges of sustainable water management. This chapter explores whether, when, and how more inclusive framings might enable more socially relevant and impactful research, and lead to more effective action. Discussion begins by establishing what a frame is and then de ning what is meant by an “inclusive frame” for interdisciplinary research on environmental problems. Seven frames in water research are examined; emphasis is given to how framings are driven by differences in normative and theoretical positions, which yields very different views on progress and how best to achieve it. Next, the use of more inclusive frames in academic or research contexts is explored using two examples which incorporate multiple normative and theoretical positions. Barriers encountered by academics and researchers, as they attempt to use inclusive frames, are then examined. To explore how inclusive frames can be used to address real-world problems, three cases highlight the possibilities and challenges in applying inclusive frames to research with the goal of informing action and practice.
10 Pahl-Wostl, C.. 2020. Adaptive and sustainable water management: from improved conceptual foundations to transformative change. International Journal of Water Resources Development, 36(2-3):397-415. (Special issue: Global Water Resources: Festschrift in Honour of Asit K. Biswas). [doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/07900627.2020.1721268]
Water management ; Sustainable Development Goals ; Water governance ; Integrated management ; Water resources ; Foods ; Energy ; Nexus ; Water policy ; Climate change ; Indigenous peoples ; Social aspects
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H049583)
(1.52 MB)
Water resources management is far from being sustainable, despite decades of scholarly work to improve the conceptual foundations of water management practice. Arguments have been provided that paradigm shifts are needed towards more integrated and adaptive water management approaches. This article provides a critical reflection on the translation of such claims from discourse to practice. It reviews conceptual developments and discusses persistent challenges. Some developments that might trigger transformative change are highlighted. These include climate change, nexus approaches to integrated landscape management, and the role of indigenous communities. The article makes recommendations on how science can support mobilizing the transformative potential of these developments.
11 Pahl-Wostl, C.; Knieper, C.; Lukat, E.; Meergans, F.; Schoderer, M.; Schutze, N.; Schweigatz, D.; Dombrowsky, I.; Lenschow, A.; Stein, U.; Thiel, A.; Troltzsch, J.; Vidaurre, R. 2020. Enhancing the capacity of water governance to deal with complex management challenges: a framework of analysis. Environmental Science and Policy, 107:23-35. [doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2020.02.011]
Water governance ; Capacity building ; Integrated management ; Water resources ; Water management ; Frameworks ; Sustainable development ; Ecosystem services ; Decision making ; Policies ; Political aspects ; Corporate culture ; Case studies
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H049674)
(1.68 MB)
Despite numerous efforts to promote and implement more integrated approaches, coordination problems persist and impede sustainable water governance and management. This paper introduces a framework for guiding a transdisciplinary diagnostic approach (i.e. a context-sensitive assessment of multi-level water governance, which is combined with a change management process) to address such coordination problems. The approach aims at addressing some of the challenges identified in scientific scholarship and water governance practice by combining context-specific participatory assessments of individual cases with comparative case analysis guided by a generic conceptual framework. The focus is on implementation processes at regional and local scale and their embedding in a multi-level water governance system and a specific environmental and societal context.
A coherent approach and formalized representation across individual cases is essential to develop cumulative knowledge and to improve the diagnostic strength of the approach. Based on a broad literature review and exploratory study of multiple, diverse cases conceptual framework identifies a variety of factors that are expected to be important for understanding the performance of environmental governance and management systems. The paper makes explicit the hypotheses on relationships between core variables that resulted from framework development. The framework, including the collection of hypotheses, offers a structured approach for analysing a phenomenon as complex and multi-facetted as coordination. It allows identification of multiple pathways that may lead an improvement or a decline in performance, respectively. The framework can find more widespread application in supporting comparative case study analyses with a focus on improving the understanding of policy implementation also beyond the field of water governance and management.
A coherent approach and formalized representation across individual cases is essential to develop cumulative knowledge and to improve the diagnostic strength of the approach. Based on a broad literature review and exploratory study of multiple, diverse cases conceptual framework identifies a variety of factors that are expected to be important for understanding the performance of environmental governance and management systems. The paper makes explicit the hypotheses on relationships between core variables that resulted from framework development. The framework, including the collection of hypotheses, offers a structured approach for analysing a phenomenon as complex and multi-facetted as coordination. It allows identification of multiple pathways that may lead an improvement or a decline in performance, respectively. The framework can find more widespread application in supporting comparative case study analyses with a focus on improving the understanding of policy implementation also beyond the field of water governance and management.
12 Pahl-Wostl, C.; Lukat, E.; Stein, U.; Troltzsch, J.; Yousefi, A. 2022. Improving the socio-ecological fit in water governance by enhancing coordination of ecosystem services used. Environmental Science and Policy, 139:11-21. (Online first) [doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2022.10.010]
Water governance ; Ecosystem services ; Social aspects ; Water security ; Sustainability ; Water management ; River basins ; Water supply ; Stakeholders ; Case studies / Germany / South Africa / Iran (Islamic Republic of) / Emscher Catchment / Weser-Ems Basin / uMngeni / Zayandeh-Rud Basin
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H051483)
(1.46 MB)
Water governance systems have evolved around the exploitation of provisioning ecosystem services. The overexploitation of provisioning and the degradation of regulating services have led to a decline in the capacity of ecosystems to provide any services at all. Decisions affecting water-related ecosystem services are often not made in the water sector. Governance that does not take into account ecological interdependencies lead to unsustainable use of resources. In such situations, one can speak of a misfit between interdependencies of ecosystem services and coordination processes that would allow addressing them. The article introduces an approach to identify such misfits and potential solutions to overcome them and applies the approach to case studies in Germany, South Africa and Iran. The context-sensitive analyses highlight factors that contribute to or even determine prevailing practices in water management. The fit with the pattern of ecosystem service uses was found to be higher for governance processes in practice (formal and informal) than for formal coordination instruments on paper. Actors may not lack opportunities to exchange but these are not translated into tangible coordination outcomes. To reduce trade-offs between the uses of ecosystem service, improved synergies are needed between formal and informal institutional settings. Instruments need to be tailored to local circumstances. Scope and effectiveness of local action may be limited by higher governance levels. The analyses have demonstrated that the path from improving social-ecological fit to achieving sustainability is long. Addressing institutional deficits requires transformational change rather than short-term measures for addressing isolated problems or crisis situations.
13 Trimble, M.; Olivier, T.; Anjos, L. A. P.; Tadeu, N. D.; Giordano, G.; Donnell, L. M.; Laura, R.; Salvadores, F.; Santana-Chaves, I. M.; Torres, P. H. C.; Pascual, M.; Jacobi, P. R.; Mazzeo, N.; Zurbriggen, C.; Garrido, L.; Jobbagy, E.; Pahl-Wostl, C.. 2022. How do basin committees deal with water crises? Reflections for adaptive water governance from South America. Ecology and Society, 27(2):42. [doi: https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-13356-270242]
River basins ; Committees ; Water governance ; Centralization ; Water supply ; Watersheds ; Drinking water ; Stakeholders ; Participation ; Case studies / South America / Argentina / Brazil / Uruguay / Chubut River Basin / Piracicaba River Basin / Capivari River Basin / Jundiai River Basin / Laguna del Cisne Basin
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H051463)
https://ecologyandsociety.org/vol27/iss2/art42/ES-2022-13356.pdf
https://vlibrary.iwmi.org/pdf/H051463.pdf
https://vlibrary.iwmi.org/pdf/H051463.pdf
(3.89 MB) (3.89 MB)
Adaptive water governance involves collaboration among multiple actors, social learning, and flexibility to deal with shocks and surprises. Crises thus become a useful context to assess how the institutional arrangements contribute to adaptation. However, an important part of the specialized literature has focused on these issues as they occur in highly institutionalized settings in the Global North. This paper, instead, analyzes basin organizations in settings with variable degrees of institutionalization in South America. The objective is to analyze the actions (or lack thereof) conducted or encouraged by basin committees in watersheds of Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay, in the face of water crises. We analyze three case studies, involving basin committees that faced different water crises (all affecting drinking water supply) at different scales: (1) Chubut River Basin committee and a turbidity crisis in the Lower Valley in 2017 (Chubut, Argentina), (2) Piracicaba-Capivari-Jundiaí (PCJ) River Basins committee and a drought that occurred in 2014–2015 (São Paulo, Brazil), and (3) Laguna del Cisne Basin commission and a crisis associated with a failure in the water treatment operation in 2019 (Canelones, Uruguay). In each case, we analyze the institutional design of the committee and the actions (or lack thereof) undertaken regarding the crisis, including the perceptions of key stakeholders of those actions. Findings showed that stakeholders tend to act and communicate through fast channels when water crises occur, referring to basin committees only for technical and additional support (Brazil), information sharing (Uruguay), or not convening the committee at all (Argentina). Our cases in South American countries with different contexts provided empirical evidence of the barriers that basin committees face as political– institutional frameworks to foster adaptive water governance (e.g., limited stability, centralization, lack of leadership).
14 Lukat, E.; Pahl-Wostl, C.; Lenschow, A. 2022. Deficits in implementing integrated water resources management in South Africa: the role of institutional interplay. Environmental Science and Policy, 136:304-313. [doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2022.06.010]
Integrated water resources management ; Institutional development ; Decision making ; Policies ; Water governance ; Stakeholders ; Watershed management / South Africa / UMngeni River Basin / KwaZulu-Natal
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H052123)
(0.86 MB)
Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) has been transferred from the Global North to the Global South. Decades after adopting IWRM in formal policies, countries in the Global South in particular are struggling to implement it in practice. We believe the interplay of formal and informal institutions to be a reason for the failed transfer, but institutional interplay is rarely considered when policies are transferred. Based on a case study of water governance in the uMngeni river basin in South Africa, we investigate how specific types of informal institutions affect the practical implementation of selected aspects of IWRM: subsidiarity, stakeholder involvement, and securing access to water and sanitation. We explore (1) informal institutions that supported previous formal legislation and are still actively reproduced, (2) bureaucratic cultures operationalised through governance modes, and (3) traditional governance as part of a dual governance system. We find that in most cases, a higher level of similarity between formal and informal institutions leads to the more frequent implementation of formal provisions, and hence converging interplay between institutions. Passed-down power structures, another aspect of informal institutions, proved particularly resistant to institutional change. We conclude that analysing the setting of informal institutions before making policy reforms would provide a more realistic assessment of the results to be expected. Understanding institutional interplay in policy transfer processes is hence essential to designing more effective policies and avoiding the pitfalls inherent to blueprint solutions.
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