Pilot Projects in Water Management: Practicing Change and Changing Practice

Abstract

Pilot projects are widely applied in water management. They can be used to test risky innovations at confined scale, but can also be used to delay policy decisions or to advocate a particular innovation. In this book the phenomenon ‘pilot project’ is explored both theoretically and empirically. A framework to analyse pilot projects is developed and applied. Sixteen pilot projects conducted within the WINN innovation program in the Netherlands are analysed and three floodplain restoration pilot projects in the Rhine Basin are studied in-depth. These include the pilot projects on the floodplains of Beuningen (the Netherlands), in Polder Altenheim (Germany) and in Basel (Switzerland). Insights are developed regarding different types of pilot projects, different reasons actors have for initiating or participating in a pilot project, effects that pilot projects have on policy and practice, and factors that influence the diffusion process. By deepening understanding of pilot projects as instruments to practice changes and potentially change practices, this book contributes both to public policy theory and pilot project practice.Policy AnalysisTechnology, Policy and Managemen