Knowledge and perceptions in participatory policy processes: lessons from the delta-region in the Netherlands

Water resources management issues tend to affect a variety of uses and users. Therefore, they often exhibit complex and unstructured problems. The complex, unstructured nature of these problems originates from uncertain knowledge and from the existence of divergent perceptions among various actors. Consequently, dealing with these problems is not just a knowledge problem; it is a problem of ambiguity too. This paper focuses on a complex, unstructured water resources management issue, the sustainable development—for ecology, economy and society—of the Delta-region of the Netherlands. In several areas in this region the ecological quality decreased due to hydraulic constructions for storm water safety, the Delta Works. To improve the ecological quality, the Dutch government regards the re-establishment of estuarine dynamics in the area as the most important solution. However, re-establishment of estuarine dynamics will affect other uses and other users. Among the affected users are farmers in the surrounding areas, who use freshwater from a lake for agricultural purposes. This problem has been addressed in a participatory decision-making process, which is used as a case study in this paper. We investigate how the dynamics in actors’ perceptions and the knowledge base contribute to the development of agreed upon and valid knowledge about the problem–solution combination, using our conceptual framework for problem structuring. We found that different knowledge sources—expert and practical knowledge—should be integrated to create a context-specific knowledge base, which is scientifically valid and socially robust. Furthermore, we conclude that for the convergence of actors’ perceptions, it is essential that actors learn about the content of the process (cognitive learning) and about the network in which they are involved (strategic learning). Our findings form a plea for practitioners in water resources management to adopt a problem structuring approach in order to deal explicitly with uncertainty and ambiguity

The Impacts of Urban Green Infrastructure on Water and Energy Resources: Lessons from and the Need for Integrated Studies

Green infrastructure (GI) can bring both water and energy benefits to urban environments. Yet, installation and maintenance may incur additional water and energy demand. This chapter synthesizes to what extent and how existing empirical and modeling studies generally quantify GI impacts on urban water and energy resources and which impacts and performance affecting factors are applied in green roof studies. We conclude that relatively few studies quantify impacts on both water and energy resources. Studies tend to focus on positive impacts, such as heat abatement, energy savings, and runoff reduction, with little attention for negative impacts, such as energy demands or emissions. From a water and energy perspective, green roofs are the most promising urban GI. They are easy to install and maintain in dense urban areas, reduce energy demand, and require little water. Yet, impacts of green roofs highly depend on local climate and design, especially structural and storage parameters, vegetation, and soil depth. Moreover, their performance depends on vegetation, soil moisture, substrate characteristics and depth; and different combinations of these factors lead to important tradeoffs for water and energy. The results call for extending and improving life cycle assessments, by quantifying negative impacts such as the energy costs of irrigation, and optimizing the identified tradeoffs

Reorganization of water and waste water management in Romania:from local to regional water governance

Romania's drinking water and wastewater sector is currently going through a process of regionalization. This process involves a replacement of a local-focused governance structure by a regional-focused governance structure. The objective of this paper is to explore and explain this regionalization from a governance perspective. In two case studies, the situation before and after the regionalization are investigated. Analyses of the case studies show that the local-focused governance structure was highly incoherent. This resulted in a lack of financial resources needed to maintain and develop the water infrastructure. Romania's accession to the European Union affected several governance elements and evoked the regionalization. Real improvements are not visible yet as the time needed for actual services improvements is considerable and governance elements are still adjusting to each other. This means that there is still a need for ongoing support to arrive at a coherent governance structure