Governance of a complex system: water

This paper sets out a complex adaptive systems view of water governance. Overview Fresh water is a life - enabling resource as well as the source of spiritual, social and economic wellbeing and development. It is continuously renewed by the Earth’s natural recycling systems using heat from the sun to evaporate and purify, and then rain to replenish supplies. For thousands of years people have benefited from these systems with little concern for their ability to keep up with human population and economic development. Rapid increases in population and economic activity have brought concern for how these systems interact with human social and economic systems to centre stage this century in the guise of a focus on water governance. What do we mean by governance and how might we better understand our water governance systems to ensure their ongoing sustainability? This paper sets out a complex adaptive systems view of water governance. It draws on the academic literature on effective governance of complex systems and effective water governance to identify some principles for use in water governance in New Zealand. It illustrates aspects of emerging water governance practice with some examples from New Zealand which have employed a multi-actor, collaborative governance approach. The paper concludes with some implications for the future evolution of effective water governance in New Zealand. Collaborative governance processes are relatively unfamiliar to New Zealand citizens, politicians and other policy actors which makes it more important that we study and learn from early examples of the use of this mode of governance

Collaborative governance case studies: the Land and Water Forum

This paper examines the progress of the Land and Water Forum, which was a stakeholder-led collaborative governance process established to recommend potential reform of New Zealand’s fresh water management. Introduction: Looking at collaborative processes in retrospect is always easier than it was at the time they were first happening. They tend to look more designed, orderly, and less messy than they actually were. In Land and Water Forum case, a number of strands of activity/inactivity and actors came together to construct the beginning. By 2008, progress to establish a framework for land and water protection and use in New Zealand, beyond earlier policy initiatives (1967 Water and Soil Conservation Act to the RMA in 1991), had stalled, and processes around water governance had become increasingly conflict-riven and uncertain. A voluntary Accord between dairy farmers and government agencies to stem the environmental effects of run-off contaminants into streams and rivers, occurring from increased dairying, was seen as inadequate for stemming a growing water pollution problem. Most environmental advocates, wanted a more effective and nationally consistent approach to regulation than the regional councils, empowered by the RMA, were delivering. Guy Salmon, a well-known and widely respected environmental advocate had been funded to examine more collaborative approaches to environmental policy used in the Nordic countries. Salmon reported on his findings to an audience at an environment conference which included a wide range of the key players with an interest in the environment and environmental regulation. According to Salmon, the Nordic countries had some impressive achievements in making major changes to create more sustainability in infrastructure and resource use using collaborative approaches. Salmon’s research and advocacy for a more collaborative approach to solving New Zealand’s impasse gained support from some key actors attending an environment conference such as the Environmental Defence Society, iwi, agricultural business interests. Continuing discussions among key people and also the person who would become the Minister for the Environment after an election that changed the government in late 2008, opened up the possibility of the application of the approach in New Zealand. In late 2008, Ministers in the then new National-led government saw this increasing difficulty in establishing a consensus about what constituted sustainable land use and its implications for freshwater governance as an opportunity to back a different approach. The willingness of a critical number of keys actors representing powerful environment, agricultural business, and iwi interests to work actively on a solution and the willingness of Ministers to give support to a collaborative process took some months of negotiation to secure. Agreement first had to be reached about the problem that the various key stakeholder interests were willing to work on and the mandate that ministers were willing to give to a learn-as-you-go collaborative process. The result was that in July 2009 Cabinet gave the Minister for the Environment (Nick Smith) and the Minister for Agriculture, later Primary Industries, (David Carter) permission to initiate a stakeholder-led collaborative governance process to recommend reform of New Zealand’s freshwater management. The Land and Water Trust was formed by key non-government actors (with trustees from Ngati Tuwharetoa, Dairy New Zealand; Forest and Bird; and Alastair Bisley as Chair) to create a vehicle which could support a collaborative process separate from government

Improving New Zealand water governance: challenges and recommendations

The overwhelming majority of New Zealand’s exports – not least agricultural and horticultural – require water, and in large quantities. Indeed, in many respects water is New Zealand’s largest export. Yet the management of our fresh water has not been ideal. We have over-allocated and badly polluted some of our water resources. Such problems point to significant weaknesses in the governance of fresh water in this country. This article explores these governance issues through a complex adaptive systems lens and outlines some possible solutions

Voyage: A Passage Through Orientation

Dedication This DNP project is dedicated to my husband, Jim who carried my school bags to and from the car on every hockey trip, dance competition trip, camping trip, and every other trip, just so I could say I had my homework in case I found time to study. Thank you for making dinners, doing dishes, vacuuming, and providing unwavering support for me through these past years. I also dedicate this project to my children Jacob and Sophia, who always seemed to migrate their way into the dining room late at night for talks when I was up studying. No matter how tired I was back then, I would never trade those precious moments for anything in the world. I love all three of you to the moon and back and could never have done this without your encouragement and love. Acknowledgments This DNP project was not a work completed in a silo, for it took many people to make the Voyage: A passage through orientation a success. I have been so blessed to have leaders like, Rea, Annette, Tom, and Teri that have provided me with ongoing support throughout the years and believed that I could succeed. I am so grateful for their leadership and most of all their friendship. What awesome humans they are. Thank you to the professors at SIUE, who guided me through the DNP process. I want to especially thank Dr. Wendy Hochreiter who took me on and got me back on the DNP track. Without her guidance and expert knowledge, I know for sure I would not have continued a course for my DNP. She has been my faithful and patient advisor and I am so thankful to have taken this voyage with her. The unit educators, past and present, were the ones who made the Voyage orientation model a success. Without Jocelyn Wyms, Cheryle Phillips, Katelyn Bartels, Jacqueline Curtis, Tiffany Cornelius, and Angel Wilson writing the competencies for their units, the Voyage would not have come to fruition. Without the dedication of Jocelyn’s, Tiffany’s, Katelyn’s, Angel’s, and Stacey’s desire to improve the on-boarding process for new graduate nurses, the Voyage model would not have become the standard of practice for orientation. They endured a pandemic and rolled out the Voyage all at the same time. Collaborating with this group of professionals has been so enjoyable and most inspiring to me. I am forever grateful to them. My CTD family has been so supportive throughout this process. Angela, Lisa, Donna, Jeremy, MaryAnn and now Stacey, have been my rocks through the challenges and successes of my DNP journey. Their listening ears and constructive feedback has been invaluable. I cannot thank each of them enough for always being there for me. A special thanks to MaryAnn, my mentor, who while on her own PhD journey, still found time to assist me when I asked for her expertise. A special thanks to Jeremy for standing with me through the Covid-19 summer of 2020. Your presence in our vacant office, made the lonely times more bearable. Lisa and Jeremy, your DNP journey will also end this year. I am so very proud of what you are accomplishing. Lastly, I want to thank my family and my extended family of friends. You know who you are, and you know that I could never be successful without your steadfast support. Whether you just listened, or you were just there, your love and friendship was what made me stay strong in my pursuit of my DNP. Thanks so much to all of you for being there for me every time, all the time. A special thank you to Zandra who told me we had to start our DNP together. It was wonderful having you there in classes and you there to validate my DNP woes. Though I took a little longer than you to finish, we persisted and we did it! We are Doctors in Nursing now! To Julie, my BFF, words are not enough to tell you what it means to have someone like you love me always and forever. And to my parents, who without their solid foundation given to me at the beginning of life, this DNP would not have happened. They instilled in me that learning is a lifetime event, not a onetime event. Thanks again to everyone who has been on this DNP voyage with me. The waters may have been rough at times, but the beauty of accomplishment, made the rough waters calm again. Abstract In the summer of 2020, 21 new graduate nurses (NGN) began their orientation at a community hospital in the St. Louis metropolitan area. It was at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. The transition from an academic environment to a hospital environment was stressful enough for an NGN without a pandemic. It was imperative that a structured orientation plan be implemented to promote a smooth transition into professional practice in a hospital setting for the NGN. A tiered skills acquisition model (TSAM) was developed and entitled, Voyage: A passage through orientation, which incorporated a married state between the NGN and preceptor. Though the Voyage TSAM was initiated during a pandemic, the model was accepted and valued as the standard of practice for NGN orientation. After completing orientation, the NGNs were still overwhelmed, but with the Voyage, the NGNs were better organized, confident, and more prepared to care for patients independently

Canterbury water management strategy: ‘a better way’?

A refrain heard often in respect of Canterbury’s current approach to water governance is ‘there had to be a better way’. Canterbury has 12.7% of the national population, contributes 13% to GDP, and yet encompasses 17% of New Zealand’s land area, much of which, because of soil type and slope, is considered irrigable. What happens in Canterbury has material significance for the country as a whole. So, what is Canterbury doing about the management of its water resources, why do those involved think it could be ‘a better way’, and is there evidence that they might be right