Micro-level crafting of institutions within integrated catchment management: Early lessons of adaptive governance from a catchment-based approach case study in England

Abstract

Official URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1462901115300125 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2015.06.009 EPrint URI: http://eprints.glos.ac.uk/id/eprint/2500 DisclaimerThe University of Gloucestershire has obtained warranties from all depositors as to their title in the material deposited and as to their right to deposit such material.The University of Gloucestershire makes no representation or warranties of commercial utility, title, or fitness for a particular purpose or any other warranty, express or implied in respect of any material deposited.The University of Gloucestershire makes no representation that the use of the materials will not infringe any patent, copyright, trademark or other property or proprietary rights.The University of Gloucestershire accepts no liability for any infringement of intellectual property rights in any material deposited but will remove such material from public view pending investigation in the event of an allegation of any such infringement. PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR TEXT.This is a peer-reviewed, post-print (final draft post-refereeing) version of the following published document: We recommend you cite the published (post-print) version when available. The URL for the published version is not yet available. DisclaimerThe University of Gloucestershire has obtained warranties from all depositors as to their title in the material deposited and as to their right to deposit such material.The University of Gloucestershire makes no representation or warranties of commercial utility, title, or fitness for a particular purpose or any other warranty, express or implied in respect of any material deposited.The University of Gloucestershire makes no representation that the use of the materials will not infringe any patent, copyright, trademark or other property or proprietary rights.The University of Gloucestershire accepts no liability for any infringement of intellectual property rights in any material deposited but will remove such material from public view pending investigation in the event of an allegation of any such infringement. PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR TEXT. Micro-level crafting of institutions within integrated catchment management: early lessons of adaptive governance from a catchment-based approach case study in EnglandChristopher Short (cshort@glos.ac.uk) Countryside and Community Research Institute, University of Gloucestershire, GL2 9HW, United Kingdom AbstractThere has been considerable interest and discussion surrounding institutional design and governance in the areas of planning, political studies and policy development and more recently natural resource management. Within England, like much of Europe, an integrated catchment management, called the catchment-based approach (CaBA), has been developed when implementing the European Union (EU) Water Framework Directive (WFD). This is seen as both a driver for stricter standards for water quality and ecological status in water course and encouraging the active involvement of stakeholders and communiti...

Participatory Water Governance and Organisational Change: Implementing the Water Framework Directive in England and Wales

“…The 2008 financial crisis had a major effect on the resources available to WFD implementation, the incoming 2010 Tory government left their own trace on environmental policy making in the UK, the 2013 devolution of environmental competencies to authorities in Wales distracted the Agency and, most importantly, the implementation of the catchment-based approach in the same year brought about fundamental changes, in particular as to the relations between actors at different policy levels. While first assessments of the catchment-based approach are available [56][57][58][59], we know too little about its prehistory, and relevant considerations within central government and the EA about it, to fully assess the causal effect that the new approach and the other events had on the way public participation operates. This reflects a typical challenge in implementation and evaluation research: external factors influence the implementation of a programme and make it harder to isolate its effect on the ground [73].…”

“…The idea is to utilise existing catchment partnerships and to promote the creation of new ones, during the implementation of the WFD with a view to bringing water management activities closer to affected communities. However, catchment-based arrangements did not replace public participation at river basin district level, and while it is plausible to assume that the catchment-based approach has relaxed the degree of control held by the EA, published research suggests (and my own fieldwork confirms) that a final judgment is still due [56][57][58][59].…”

Capturing the multiple benefits associated with nature‐based solutions: Lessons from a natural flood management project in the Cotswolds, UK

“…By participating in this collective process, those involved in developing and deploying NBS learn through involvement in action, communication, and negotiation (Barton & Tusting, ). Such regular and directed interactions (in‐the‐field and face‐to‐face) result in new ways of seeing the world and learning collectively how to better address or deal with complex issues through a shared repertoire of resources and practices (Short, ). Such multistakeholder and collaborative activity is crucial to underpin the paradigm shift that the widespread introduction of NBS would require across Europe, and this paper will highlight how experiences gained from the Stroud SF Project would serve as a good practice to ensure successful implementation in other catchments.…”

Integrated and adaptive water resources management: exploring public participation in the UK

“…However, given that catchment management in England often builds on existing catchment partnerships, one might argue that this would somewhat loosen the grip of the EA on collaborative processes and provide more agency to nonstate actors at local and catchment level. However, the empirical evidence so far is scarce, and existing works tend to confirm the importance of path-dependency (Cook et al 2012;Short 2015).…”