9 research outputs found
COLLABORATIVE DECISION-MAKING FOR DROUGHT MANAGEMENT: IMPROVING MULTI-ACTOR APPROACHES
Drought management can be highly challenging; droughts can be experienced over a large geographic area, and the extent and severity of impacts can be exacerbated by local water uses.1 In Ontario, these uses might include agriculture, aggregate washing, and watering at golf courses. Oftentimes, droughts are part of normal ecological cycles, but the risk and hardship faced by water-based industries and the public make drought a particularly important policy challenge. Technical approaches to managing drought promote the use of monitoring standards, early warning systems, and planned management actions. Building social capital and strengthening relationships can also contribute to reducing vulnerability through building adaptive capacity and reducing exposure and sensitivity.2
Collaborative approaches, created by government to generate policy and program recommendations for drought management, can provide a local view on drought challenges and a balanced viewpoint that includes all voices affected by decisions. An example of this type of collaborative relationship is Ontario Low Water Response and Water Response Teams. Ontario Low Water Response convenes collaborative groups â known as Water Response Teams â to determine the severity of drought in local watersheds and provide recommendations to the provincial government, including recommendations to declare a drought âemergencyâ, which triggers water restrictions in affected areas. One key challenge of this process is that Water Response Teams have recommended declaring water restrictions during severe low water conditions. However, the province has never enforced restrictions. Governments not following the recommendations of collaborative groups they have created to comment on policy problems is a common finding in collaborative governance research. The key focus of this research is to understand the role of Water Response Teams in decision-making, and to explore how international experiences can inform the Ontario drought management process
COLLABORATIVE DECISION-MAKING FOR DROUGHT MANAGEMENT: IMPROVING MULTI-ACTOR APPROACHES
Drought management can be highly challenging and complex. To address this, Ontario uses a collaborative approach through Water Response Teams that are convened by the provincial government; teams provide policy and program recommendations. However, in some instances, the recommendations from teams are not included in final decisions. Uncertainties on the role and expectations of these collaborative groups can lead to challenges in implementing government programs and policies related to drought management.
This project explores the role of Water Response Teams in low water decision-making, and draws lessons from international drought management processes
Evaluating collaborative approaches to governance for water allocation in Canada: Lessons from Ontario
Collaborative approaches to environmental governance are becoming commonplace around the western world. In Canada, all jurisdictions are using various forms of collaboration to address water issues. With few exceptions, the collaborative processes address problems that exist in whole or in part in rural areas. Thus, the agriculture sector is a critical participant. This certainly is the case in Ontario, especially in the case of collaborative processes designed to address low water conditions and droughts. The purpose of this research was to evaluate the effectiveness and appropriateness of collaborative approaches to dealing with water scarcity and conflicting demands for water. The Province of Ontario provided the institutional setting for the study. We were particularly concerned with the extent to which collaboration provides an effective and appropriate basis for water sharing in cases where agriculture is a prominent user. This led us to a focus on the Ontario Low Water Response (LWR) program.
Ontario's Low Water Response program is the primary vehicle through which water shortages and droughts are addressed in the province. The program's overall functioning and effectiveness have been studied previously, but little or no attention has been given to understanding the extent to which this collaborative has produced outcomes that have been protected by the provincial government. This is a particularly important concern because the Province of Ontario, through the Ontario Ministry of the Environment (and Climate Change) has ultimate authority for dealing with water shortages through its Permit to Take Water Program. Experiences from around the world demonstrate that a failure to respect the outcomes of collaborative processes undermines their effectiveness and leads to considerable dissatisfaction. At the same time, from the perspective of democratic legitimacy, the province remains accountable. All jurisdictions are struggling to resolve the tension between these two objectives
Ăvaluation des approches collaboratives en matiĂšre de gouvernance de la rĂ©partition de lâeau au Canada : leçons provenant de lâOntario
Les approches concertĂ©es en matiĂšre de gouvernance de lâenvironnement sont devenues monnaie courante dans le monde occidental. Au Canada, toutes les administrations ont recours Ă diverses formes de collaboration pour aborder les enjeux de lâeau. Ă quelques exceptions prĂšs, les processus collaboratifs permettent de rĂ©gler, en totalitĂ© ou en partie, les problĂšmes existant dans les zones rurales. Câest pourquoi le secteur agricole est un participant essentiel. Câest certainement le cas en Ontario, en particulier dans les processus de collaboration conçus pour gĂ©rer les niveaux dâeau insuffisants et la sĂ©cheresse. Cette recherche a pour objectif dâĂ©valuer lâefficacitĂ© et la pertinence des approches de collaboration visant Ă gĂ©rer les manques dâeau et les demandes dâeau concurrentes. La Province de lâOntario a fourni le cadre institutionnel de lâĂ©tude. Nous Ă©tions particuliĂšrement intĂ©ressĂ©s par la mesure dans laquelle la collaboration offre une base efficace et appropriĂ©e pour le partage de lâeau dans des situations oĂč lâagriculture en est un utilisateur de premier plan. Cela nous a amenĂ©s Ă nous concentrer sur le Programme dâintervention en matiĂšre de ressources en eau de lâOntario.
Câest principalement par le biais de ce programme que la province traite les pĂ©nuries dâeau et les sĂ©cheresses. Le fonctionnement et lâefficacitĂ© du programme ont dĂ©jĂ Ă©tĂ© Ă©tudiĂ©s dans leur ensemble, mais on nâavait alors que peu ou pas cherchĂ© Ă comprendre la mesure dans laquelle la collaboration avait donnĂ© des rĂ©sultats entĂ©rinĂ©s par le gouvernement provincial. Il sâagit dâun sujet de prĂ©occupation particuliĂšrement important parce que la Province de lâOntario, par le biais du ministĂšre de lâEnvironnement (et de lâAction en matiĂšre de changement climatique) de lâOntario dĂ©tient le pouvoir ultime de gĂ©rer les pĂ©nuries dâeau par le biais de son Programme de rĂ©glementation des prĂ©lĂšvements dâeau. Des expĂ©riences dans le monde entier ont prouvĂ© que le non-respect des rĂ©sultats des processus collaboratifs compromet leur efficacitĂ© et mĂšne Ă un mĂ©contentement considĂ©rable. En outre, la province demeure responsable sur le plan de la lĂ©gitimitĂ© dĂ©mocratique. Toutes les administrations essaient de rĂ©soudre les divergences entre ces deux objectifs
A systematic review of water vulnerability assessment tools
The important relationship between health and water necessitates consideration of water vulnerability. Water vulnerability is contingent upon biophysical and social drivers operating at multiple scales, and is difficult to assess. This paper offers a systematic review of 50 water vulnerability assessment tools. We identify and synthesise the contents of these assessment tools (710 indicators) into five dimensions and 22 sub-dimensions and consider the extent to which they reflect environmental and social aspects. The findings are discussed in light of a holistic approach to water resources management, and specifically Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM). Significant opportunities exist to enhance the efficacy of water vulnerability assessment tools by incorporating indicators and operational measures for social considerations (e.g., adaptation, institutions, governance) that are developed outside the context of water.AuthorCount:3;</p
Local groundwater management studies in Ontario, Canada: a case for retraining a role for the state in community-based water research
Large-scale migration into Britain during the Middle to Late Bronze Age
Present-day people from England and Wales harbour more ancestry derived from Early European Farmers (EEF) than people of the Early Bronze Age . To understand this, we generated genome-wide data from 793 individuals, increasing data from the Middle to Late Bronze and Iron Age in Britain by 12-fold, and Western and Central Europe by 3.5-fold. Between 1000 and 875 BC, EEF ancestry increased in southern Britain (England and Wales) but not northern Britain (Scotland) due to incorporation of migrants who arrived at this time and over previous centuries, and who were genetically most similar to ancient individuals from France. These migrants contributed about half the ancestry of Iron Age people of England and Wales, thereby creating a plausible vector for the spread of early Celtic languages into Britain. These patterns are part of a broader trend of EEF ancestry becoming more similar across central and western Europe in the Middle to Late Bronze Age, coincident with archaeological evidence of intensified cultural exchange . There was comparatively less gene flow from continental Europe during the Iron Age, and Britain's independent genetic trajectory is also reflected in the rise of the allele conferring lactase persistence to ~50% by this time compared to ~7% in central Europe where it rose rapidly in frequency only a millennium later. This suggests that dairy products were used in qualitatively different ways in Britain and in central Europe over this period. [Abstract copyright: © 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited.