Stakeholder involvement in water management: the role of the stakeholder analysis within participatory processes

Water Policy ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 675-694 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paola Sabina Lupo Stanghellini
Keyword(s):  
Water Management ◽  
Water Resource Management ◽  
Stakeholder Participation ◽  
Stakeholder Analysis ◽  
Stakeholder Involvement ◽  
Integrated Water Resources Management ◽  
Catchment Management ◽  
Analysis Methodology ◽  
Management Plans ◽  
Future Challenges

Water is a central resource supporting human activities and ecosystems and it is required for different purposes and uses that are often conflicting. Existing water-related problems are expected to increase and conventional water resource management systems are not likely to be able to face future challenges. There is the need for an integrated water resources management, which should be participatory, technically and scientific informed and which should be based on bottom-up approach. The Directive 2000/60/EC is based on principles of integrated planning and calls for stakeholder involvement in water management. Involving stakeholders is an important step to ensure that catchment management plans take into consideration local needs, experiences and interests. This paper presents a stakeholder analysis methodology that was developed to support stakeholder participation in water management. The methodology was implemented as a preliminary step in a stakeholder participation project in an alpine sub-catchment in Northern Italy.

scholarly journals Stakeholder discourse and water management – implementation of the participatory model CATCH in a Northern Italian alpine sub-catchment

2008 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 317-331 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. S. Lupo Stanghellini ◽  
D. Collentine
Keyword(s):  
Water Management ◽  
Stakeholder Participation ◽  
Catchment Management ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Flexible Tool ◽  
Small Catchment ◽  
Alpine Valley ◽  
North East ◽  
Management Plans ◽  
The Impact

Abstract. The Water Framework Directive (WFD, directive 2000/60/EC) was created to ensure the sustainable use of water resources in the European Union. A central guideline included throughout the directive is a call for the participation of stakeholders in the management of these resources. Involving stakeholders is an important step to ensure that catchment management plans take into consideration local experience in the development of these plans and the impact of the plans on local interests. This paper describes and analyses the results of a series of workshops to facilitate implementation of the WFD at a catchment level based on the stakeholder participation model, CATCH. To test the usefulness of the CATCH model, developed for water management in a catchment area, a sub-catchment in an alpine valley in the north-east of Italy, the Alta Valsugana in the Province of Trento, was chosen as the setting for a series of workshops. In this valley water is fundamental for activities associated with agriculture, domestic use, energy production, sports and recreation. In the recent past the valley has had serious problems related to water quality and quantity. Implementation of water management plans under the WFD may lead to conflicts within the catchment between different stakeholder interest groups. Including stakeholders in the development of management plans not only follows the guidelines of the WFD but also could result in a more locally adapted and acceptable plan for the catchment. A new stakeholder analysis methodology was developed and implemented in order to identify the relevant stakeholders of the area and then two sets of workshops involving the key stakeholders identified were conducted in Spring 2006. The CATCH meetings were a new experience for the participants, who had to deal with both the principles of the WFD in general and the participation requirement in particular. During the meetings, the CATCH model played a very important role in structuring the participatory process. It provided a general framework consisting of a sequence of steps that helped the participants to reach the goal of the process: the identification and evaluation of measures to improve water management in the catchment. This test of the CATCH model showed it to be a dynamic and flexible tool, useful for structuring and guiding the participation process, without imposing undue restrictions on influencing the outcome of stakeholder participation in a small catchment.

scholarly journals Stakeholder discourse and water management in a catchment in northern Italy

2007 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 1729-1765
Author(s):  
P. S. Lupo Stanghellini ◽  
D. Collentine
Keyword(s):  
Water Management ◽  
Stakeholder Participation ◽  
Catchment Management ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Flexible Tool ◽  
Small Catchment ◽  
Alpine Valley ◽  
North East ◽  
Management Plans ◽  
The Impact

Abstract. The Water Framework Directive (WFD; directive 2000/60/EC) was created to ensure the sustainable use of water resources in the European Union. A central guideline included throughout the directive is a call for the participation of stakeholders in the management of these resources. Involving stakeholders is an important step to ensure that catchment management plans take into consideration local experience in the development of these plans and the impact of the plans on local interests. This paper describes and analyses the results of a series of workshops to facilitate implementation of the WFD at a catchment level based on the stakeholder participation model, CATCH. To test the usefulness of the stakeholder participation model CATCH for water management in a catchment area, a sub-catchment in an alpine valley in the north-east of Italy, the Alta Valsugana in the Province of Trento, was chosen as the setting for a series of workshops. In this valley water is fundamental for activities associated with agriculture, domestic use, energy production, sports and recreation. In the recent past the valley has had serious problems related to water quality and quantity. Implementation of water management plans under the WFD may lead to conflicts within the catchment between different stakeholder interest groups. Including stakeholders in the development of management plans not only follows the guidelines of the WFD but also could result in a more locally adapted and acceptable plan for the catchment. A new stakeholder analysis methodology was developed and implemented in order to identify the relevant stakeholders of the area and then two sets of workshops involving the key stakeholders identified were conducted in Spring 2006. The CATCH meetings were a new experience for the participants, who had to deal with both the principles of the WFD in general and the participation requirement in particular. During the meetings, the CATCH model played a very important role in structuring the participatory process. It provided a general framework consisting of a sequence of steps that helped the participants to reach the goal of the process; the identification and evaluation of measures to improve water management in the catchment. This test of the CATCH model showed it to be a dynamic and flexible tool, useful for structuring and guiding the participation process, without imposing undue restrictions on influencing the outcome of stakeholder participation in a small catchment.

scholarly journals Developing a dynamic framework to examine the interplay between environmental stress, stakeholder participation processes and hydrological systems

2014 ◽  
Vol 364 ◽  
pp. 326-332
Author(s):  
G. Carr ◽  
G. Blöschl ◽  
D. P. Loucks
Keyword(s):  
Water Management ◽  
Resource Management ◽  
Environmental Stress ◽  
Water Policy ◽  
Water Resource Management ◽  
Water Governance ◽  
Stakeholder Participation ◽  
Institutional Conditions ◽  
Dynamic Framework ◽  
Environmental Events

Abstract. Stakeholder participation is increasingly discussed as essential for sustainable water resource management. Yet detailed understanding of the factors driving its use, the processes by which it is employed, and the outcomes or achievements it can realise remains highly limited, and often contested. This understanding is essential to enable water policy to be shaped for efficient and effective water management. This research proposes and applies a dynamic framework that can explore in which circumstances environmental stress events, such as floods, droughts or pollution, drive changes in water governance towards a more participatory approach, and how this shapes the processes by which participation or stakeholder engagement takes place, and the subsequent water management outcomes that emerge. The framework is able to assess the extent to which environmental events in combination with favourable contextual factors (e.g. institutional support for participatory activities) lead to good participatory processes (e.g. well facilitated and representative) that then lead to good outcomes (e.g. improved ecological conditions). Through applying the framework to case studies from the literature it becomes clear that environmental stress events can stimulate participatory governance changes, when existing institutional conditions promote participatory approaches. The work also suggests that intermediary outcomes, which may be tangible (such as reaching an agreement) or non-tangible (such as developing shared knowledge and understanding among participants, or creating trust), may provide a crucial link between processes and resource management outcomes. If this relationship can be more strongly confirmed, the presence or absence of intermediary outcomes may even be used as a valuable proxy to predict future resource management outcomes.

Tools to improve the management of transboundary river basins for disaster risk reduction

2014 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 698-707
Author(s):  
Anna Rubert ◽  
Philip Beetlestone
Keyword(s):  
Risk Reduction ◽  
Southern Africa ◽  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Disaster Risk Reduction ◽  
Water Resource Management ◽  
Stakeholder Participation ◽  
Disaster Risk ◽  
Transboundary River Basins ◽  
Management Plans ◽  
International River

This paper firstly presents a brief overview of the complex environment of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region in the context of disaster risk reduction (DRR), analyzing characteristics of the major hazards and actors involved. Secondly, it argues that the SADC Water Division and International River Basin Organizations (RBOs) in Southern Africa can play a crucial role in DRR in the water sector, providing a platform where agreements on data and information sharing are reached, best practices are exchanged, policies harmonized, new collaboration mechanisms are discussed, and coordinated interventions are decided upon. Moreover, RBOs can facilitate the adoption of basin-wide Integrated Water Resource Management plans, building on the pillars of economic efficiency, social equity and environmental sustainability with the result of reducing hazards and increasing resilience. RBOs can represent the shared interests of riparian states from a basin perspective to other international actors. To achieve these goals, RBOs in Southern Africa face significant challenges: broadening stakeholder participation, gaining buy-in from Member States on their representation and facilitation of specific matters. Possible approaches to overcome these challenges will be suggested in this paper.

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.

scholarly journals Retrospective Analysis of Water Management in Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Water ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (8) ◽  
pp. 1099
Author(s):  
Sannah Peters ◽  
Maarten Ouboter ◽  
Kees van der Lugt ◽  
Stef Koop ◽  
Kees van Leeuwen
Keyword(s):  
Water Management ◽  
The Netherlands ◽  
Retrospective Analysis ◽  
Knowledge Exchange ◽  
Integrated Water Resources Management ◽  
Water Infrastructure ◽  
Water Safety ◽  
Governance Practices ◽  
Future Challenges ◽  
The City

The capital of The Netherlands, Amsterdam, is home to more than 800,000 people. Developments in water safety, water quality, and robust water infrastructure transitioned Amsterdam into an attractive, economically healthy, and safe city that scores highly in the field of water management. However, investments need to be continued to meet future challenges. Many other cities in the world have just started their transition to become water-wise. For those cities, it is important to assess current water management and governance practices, in order to set their priorities and to gain knowledge from the experiences of more advanced cities such as Amsterdam. We investigate how Amsterdam’s water management and governance developed historically and how these lessons can be used to further improve water management in Amsterdam and other cities. This retrospective analysis starts at 1672 and applies the City Blueprint Approach as a baseline water management assessment. It shows that developments in water infrastructure and water management have often been reactive in response to various crises. International knowledge exchange, implementation of integrated water resources management, and long-term planning improved the city considerably. We conclude that experiences from the past can be used to meet present and future challenges in many cities across the globe.

scholarly journals Bayesian belief networks as a tool for participatory integrated assessment and adaptive groundwater management: the Upper Guadiana Basin, Spain

2007 ◽  
Vol 13 ◽  
pp. 69-72 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hans Jørgen Henriksen ◽  
Per Rasmussen ◽  
John Bromley ◽  
Africa De la Hera Portillo ◽  
M. Ramón Llamas
Keyword(s):  
Water Management ◽  
Resource Management ◽  
Water Resource ◽  
Integrated Assessment ◽  
Water Resource Management ◽  
Stakeholder Participation ◽  
Bayesian Belief Networks ◽  
La Mancha ◽  
Guadiana Basin ◽  
The Eu

Las Tablas de Daimiel, together with other wetlands in La Mancha, Spain, situated in the Upper Guadiana Basin (Fig. 1), has been catalogued as a Biosphere Reserve Area since 1981 as part of the UNESCO Man and the Biosphere programme. Between the mid-1970s and late 1980s, over 150 000 hectares of new irrigation areas were established, mainly as a result of private initiative. The average recharge rate of groundwater in the western La Mancha aquifer in the Upper Guadiana Basin is estimated to be between 200 and 500 million m3 per year, in dry and wet years respectively. Rec harge also depends on the depth of the water table (Martínez-Cortina & Cruces 2003). Abstraction reached 600 million m3 per year by the end of the 1980s. Up to this time a total of 3000–5000 million m3 of the Upper Gua- diana Basin aquifer’s water reserves was withdrawn (Bromley et al. 2000; Lopéz-Geta et al. 2006). The intensive use of groundwater has been a main factor for the improvement of the social and economic situation in this region, with a population of about half a million people, and where the agricultural sector is very important (Llamas et al. 2006). Water-table drawdown due to the intensive abstraction of groundwater for irrigation has caused severe negative impacts on wetlands, streams and rivers, and has resulted in a lowering of groundwater levels by up to 50 m. The main conflicts in the area are between farmers and conservationists, between central, regional and local government water agencies, and between small farmers and big farmers. The conflicts began about three decades ago (Llamas 1988) and have not yet been settled. In 2001 the Spanish Parliament asked the Govern- ment to present a hydrological plan for the Upper Guadiana Basin within one year. More than 20 draft proposals have been presented, the last one in 2006 with a budget of almost four billion Euros. This proposal has been met with strong opposition from most farmer lobbies. The Guadiana Basin is one of seven transboundary case studies of the EU NeWater research project (New Approaches for Adaptive Water Management under Uncertainty). The prin cipal water-management issues in the project are addressed by adaptive and integrated water-resource manage ment. This includes uncertainty and risk mitigation, gov er n ance, crosssectoral integration, scale analysis, information management, stakeholder participation, financial aspects, system resilience and vulnerability. One work block in the NeWater project has the task of translating research outputs into tools for practitioners and end-users. As part of this effort, Bayesian belief networks (Bns) were selected as one possible tool to be developed as an aid to stakeholder participation in integrated assessment of gaps, being a suitable tool for dialogue in order to identify gaps in water-resource management functions, gaps to meet the goals of the EU Water Framework Directive and to analyse management potentials and constraints. The purpose of this paper is to describe the testing of Bns as a tool for participatory integrated assessment and adaptive and integrated water-resource management in the Upper Guadiana Basin.

scholarly journals Hydrology and Integrated Water Resource Management for Sustainable Watershed Management in Kenya

2013 ◽  
pp. 352-375 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Misati Ondieki
Keyword(s):  
Water Resources ◽  
Watershed Management ◽  
Water Resource ◽  
Water Resources Management ◽  
Water Resource Management ◽  
Integrated Water Resources Management ◽  
Environmental Conservation ◽  
Resource Exploitation ◽  
Resources Management ◽  
Management Plans

Degradation of watersheds and diminishing water resources lead to unsustainable environmental and socio- economic development. The hydrological characteristics are desirable for sustainable water resource exploitation. Hydrological and water resources research were examined in three case watersheds in Kenya leading to the need for integrated water resources management, environmental conservation, and watershed management plans as a result of the major challenges of climate change and variability and uncoordinated watershed resource utilization. Well-managed hydro-meteorological networks at different scales of hydrological systems have been proposed to assess potential for optimal resource use and harmony involving all stakeholders for reduced water stress and future water conflicts. Updates of information and methodologies for watershed management that emphasize collaborative efforts and use of sustainable best practices would require input of various stakeholders including Water Resources Management Authority (WRMA), Basin Authorities, and National Environmental Management Authority (NEMA).

scholarly journals Hydrology and Integrated Water Resource Management for Sustainable Watershed Management in Kenya

2013 ◽  
pp. 798-815 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Misati Ondieki
Keyword(s):  
Water Resources ◽  
Watershed Management ◽  
Water Resource ◽  
Water Resources Management ◽  
Water Resource Management ◽  
Integrated Water Resources Management ◽  
Environmental Conservation ◽  
Resource Exploitation ◽  
Resources Management ◽  
Management Plans

Degradation of watersheds and diminishing water resources lead to unsustainable environmental and socio- economic development. The hydrological characteristics are desirable for sustainable water resource exploitation. Hydrological and water resources research were examined in three case watersheds in Kenya leading to the need for integrated water resources management, environmental conservation, and watershed management plans as a result of the major challenges of climate change and variability and uncoordinated watershed resource utilization. Well-managed hydro-meteorological networks at different scales of hydrological systems have been proposed to assess potential for optimal resource use and harmony involving all stakeholders for reduced water stress and future water conflicts. Updates of information and methodologies for watershed management that emphasize collaborative efforts and use of sustainable best practices would require input of various stakeholders including Water Resources Management Authority (WRMA), Basin Authorities, and National Environmental Management Authority (NEMA).

Watershed management: review of Canadian diversity

Water Policy ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 7 (5) ◽  
pp. 509-522 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine Senecal ◽  
Chandra A. Madramootoo
Keyword(s):  
Water Resources ◽  
River Basin ◽  
Watershed Management ◽  
Stakeholder Participation ◽  
Stakeholder Involvement ◽  
Integrated Water Resources Management ◽  
River Basin Management ◽  
Basin Management ◽  
Roles And Responsibilities ◽  
Management Context

Watershed management combines the concept of the watershed as the most appropriate spatial management unit for water resources and the concept of integrated water resources management. The movement toward this form of management has resulted in the emergence of new forms of governance in Canada. The Canadian water management context has resulted in various forms of river basin management organizations co-existing within the same country. Four examples are presented of river basin management organizations as they have evolved in Ontario, British Columbia, Quebec and the Prairies, with emphasis on government policy, organizational structure, roles and responsibilities, sources of funding and implementation of integrated watershed management programs and policies. These case studies are selected because they range from government institutions to organizations partially supported by government, to grass roots and stakeholder involvement models, reflecting different levels of funding and stakeholder participation.

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