In search of good water governance

Inleiding Voor u ligt het eindrapport van een verkenning van vormen van watergovernance buiten Nederland. RWS Waterdienst is de opdrachtgever voor het onderzoek. Op verzoek van DG Water van het Ministerie van Verkeer en Waterstaat gaf de Waterdienst de volgende doelstelling aan de onderzoekers mee: zoek naar inspirerende voorbeelden in het buitenland van de wijze waarop de bestuurlijke organisatie van het waterbeheer en beleid functioneert. De verkenning is vooral een zoektocht naar opvallende vraagstellingen en aanpakken in het buitenland, en biedt het kader om op een aantal zaken meer systematische, in de governance theorie verankerderde vergelijkende studies aan te vatten. De verkenning is uitgevoerd door onderzoekers van DHV, Grontmij en Indiana University. Om de verkenning te verbinden met de bestaande wetenschappelijke inzichten over watergovernance heeft een wetenschappelijke commissie onder leiding van hoogleraar Bestuurskunde, prof. Geert Teisman het onderzoek begeleid

Evaluating strategic environmental assessment in the Netherlands: Content, process and procedure as indissoluble criteria for effectiveness

To assess the effectiveness of strategic environmental assessment (SEA) we distinguish between its contribution to the quality of the ultimate policy choice (usefulness, applicability), the procedural quality of the planning process (transparency, timeliness) and the quality of stakeholder participation in the planning process (openness, equity, dialogue). In the context of two case studies involving Dutch planning practice, we argue that when and how an SEA is applied is crucial to understanding its e

Transcriptional regulation of the cinnamyl alcohol dehydrogenase gene from sweetpotato in response to plant developmental stage and environmental stress

Cinnamyl alcohol dehydrogenase (CAD) is a key enzyme in the biosynthesis of lignin. We have isolated full length of a cDNA encoding CAD (IbCAD1) that was previously identified as the most abundant gene in an EST library of sweetpotato suspension cells. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that IbCAD1 belongs to the family of defense-related CADs. High levels of IbCAD1 mRNA were found in the roots of sweetpotato, but not in the leaves and petioles. The IbCAD1 gene transcripts were highly induced by cold, wounding, and reactive oxygen species. Analyses of transcriptional regulation of the IbCAD1 gene in transgenic tobacco plants carrying the IbCAD1 promoter–GUS revealed that IbCAD1 promoter expression was strong in the roots, but barely detectable in the cotyledons. IbCAD1 promoter activity increased with increasing root age, and strong promoter expression was observed in the lateral root emergence sites and in root tips. Weak GUS expression was observed in lignified tissues of vascular system of mature leaves and stems. IbCAD1 promoter activity was strongly induced in response to the biotic and abiotic stresses, with the strongest inducer being wounding, and was also induced by salicylic acid (SA) and jasmonic acid (JA) as well as by abscisic acid (ABA) and 6-benzylaminopurine. Taken together, our data suggest that IbCAD1 can be involved in JA- and SA-mediated wounding response and ABA-mediated cold response, respectively. The IbCAD1 gene may play a role in the resistance mechanism to biotic and abiotic stresses as well as in tissue-specific developmental lignification