9 research outputs found
Recommended from our members
Collaborative governance and stakeholder participation in the colorado river basin: An examination of patterns of inclusion and exclusion
The Colorado River Basin has a long history of conflict among water users that covet its limited supply. However, with an unprecedented drought and dwindling water supplies in key reservoirs, conflict has given way to collaboration as the strategy of choice in addressing water issues. In keeping with the decentralized management system in the Basin, numerous collaborative venues have been created to address emerging water issues; yet, there is limited information on the pattern of stakeholder participation in these venues. Understanding who is included and excluded from the decision-making process is vital for forging collaborative solutions that are fair, equitable, and balance competing water interests. In this article, we examine the institutional design of stakeholder participation in five formal collaborative venues: Colorado River Basin Salinity Control Program, Upper Colorado River Endangered Fish Recovery Program, Glen Canyon Dam Adaptive Management Program, Lower Colorado River Multi-Species Conservation Program, and United States-Mexico Binational Forum for the Colorado River Delta. We compare institutional arrangements at two levels, constitutional and collective-choice, which inform the governance and organizational structure of the five venues. We find that while the evolution of institutional arrangements has resulted in the broadening of stakeholder composition over time, there continues to remain unevenness in participation within and across venues. We build on our assessment and conclude by posing process and outcome-oriented questions related to stakeholder participation that will merit further attention if we are to build inclusive, participatory collaborative venues in the Colorado River Basin. © 2020, University of New Mexico. All rights reserved.Open access journalThis item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at [email protected]
River Basin Organizations in the Global Water Discourse: An Exploration of Agency and Strategy
Epistemic Forms of Integrated Water Resources Management: Towards Versatility of Knowledge
In the past two decades, integrated water resources management (IWRM) has come to represent a dominant policy narrative in the field of water policy and governance. However, IWRM has come under strong criticism in recent years for what critics see as a poor record of implementation and heavy emphasis on technocratic solutions. We outline how the present debate around IWRM has become narrowly construed by focusing exclusively on IWRM as an analytical and prescriptive concept. We argue that this narrow conceptualization of IWRM, or the prescriptive epistemic form, which sets forth a set of guidelines for implementation in accordance with the logic of instrumentality, has in part resulted in a stalemate manifested in less research on the subject and scarcer attention of policy makers. To help advance beyond the stalemate, we propose two additional epistemic forms: discursive, as a point of reference for the discussion of power and values in water management and practical, or experiential and context-based understanding of water management. Recognizing this diversity of epistemic forms of IWRM to include the discursive and practical can create a shared space for multiple conflicting epistemologies and allow ways of knowing of non-expert stakeholders, thereby lessening the polarized nature of the discourse. Our typology of three epistemic forms—prescriptive, discursive and practical—offers public policy scholars a heuristic tool to approach policy concepts from multiple dimensions. Recognizing multiple epistemic forms requires new skills from policy workers and analysts, as well as institutional arrangements for articulating and translating across these forms
Recommended from our members
Viewpoint: An Intersectional Approach to Water Equity in the US
In the United States today,there is growing concern over what is being referred to as a 'water crisis',but which is,in fact,a crisis of equity in water access. This concern has been exacerbated and illuminated by the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper draws on reports from leading NGOs,activist groups and media sources,on commentary from high-profile water actors,and on emerging academic literature. In the process of these investigations,it uncovers a tendency to frame the water crisis primarily in terms of affordability; it also notes widespread concern over access and water quality issues. All of these are fundamentally related to equity principles. We argue here that seeing America’s water crisis as being about equity of access provides an opportunity to foreground the historic inequities revealed by the pandemic and by the subsequent economic downturn. A broader,intersectional approach can open-up the problem framing of water equity in the US to include histories of racism and colonialism. An intersectional approach allows for a more integrated and holistic analysis of the ways in which social difference shapes access,quality and affordability of water. Underlying power structures can be revealed through a better understanding of how water inequities result from broader patterns of systemic racism and colonial relations. Ultimately,this improved understanding can result in interventions that disrupt familiar patterns of inequality. As the idea of a water crisis in the US comes into the mainstream,the paper offers a point from which academics can begin to frame their research and a base from which practitioners can consider how to better achieve equity in water governance. © This Article Is Distributed Under The Terms Of The Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Sharealike License Which Permits Any Non Commercial Use,Distribution,And Reproduction In Any Medium,Provided The Original Author(S) And Source Are Credited. See Https://Creativecommons.Org/Licenses/By-Nc-Sa/3.0/Fr/Deed.EnOpen access articleThis item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at [email protected]
Greater exchange, greater ambiguity: water resources data and information exchange in transboundary water treaties
Recommended from our members
The Gnat and the Bull evaluating regional climate outlook forums
6 month embargo; published online: 04 November 2021This item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at [email protected]