Deeper Water: Exploring Barriers and Opportunities for the Emergence of Adaptive Water Governance

Feature-in-Progress

Guest Editors: Brian Chaffin, Julia Baird, Bimo Nkhata, Sechindra Vallury

Over the past decade, adaptive water governance (AWG) scholarship has illuminated new and innovative water governance arrangements emerging in response to the increasing challenges of meeting unprecedented demand for water in changing and unpredictable climates. Early scholarship on AWG is based on a limited set of case studies, many of which assess AWG in developed democracies of the Global North. In this special feature, we aim to expand empirical exploration of AWG, setting the stage for the next phase of scholarship with a focus on governance arrangements -- including policies and institutions -- that describe AWG across a diversity of cases and contexts, including the Global South.

Research

Assessing the institutional foundations of adaptive water governance in South India PDF

Sechindra Vallury, Hoon C. Shin, Marco A. Janssen, Ruth Meinzen-Dick, Sandeep Kandikuppa, Kaushalendra R. Rao, Rahul Chaturvedi
How do basin committees deal with water crises? Reflections for adaptive water governance from South America PDF

Micaela Trimble, Tomás Olivier, Lidiane A. P. Anjos, Natalia Dias Tadeu, Gabriel Giordano, Lara Mac Donnell, Rosana Laura, Franco Salvadores, Igor Matheus Santana-Chaves, Pedro H.C. Torres, Miguel Pascual, Pedro R. Jacobi, Nestor Mazzeo, Cristina Zurbriggen, Lydia Garrido, Esteban Jobbágy, Claudia Pahl-Wostl
Social influence shapes adaptive water governance: empirical evidence from northwestern Pakistan PDF

Rebecca Nixon, Zhao Ma, Bushra Khan, Trevor Birkenholtz, Linda S. Lee, Ishaq Ahmad Mian
Markets and misfits in adaptive water governance: how agricultural markets shape water conflict and cooperation PDF

Dustin Garrick, Fabiola Alvarado-Revilla, Rob C. de Loë, Rob C. de Loë, Isabel Jorgensen, Isabel Jorgensen, Isabel Jorgensen
Indigenous nations at the confluence: water governance networks and system transformation in the Klamath Basin PDF

Sibyl Diver, M. V. Eitzel, Madeline Brown, Ashley Hazel, Ron Reed, Susan Fricke
The politics of adaptive governance: water reform, climate change, and First Nations’ justice in Australia’s Murray-Darling Basin PDF

Carina A. Wyborn, Lorrae E. van Kerkhoff, Matthew J. Colloff, Jason Alexandra, Ruby Olsson
Scale, evidence, and community participation matter: lessons in effective and legitimate adaptive governance from decision making for Menindee Lakes in Australia’s Murray-Darling Basin PDF

Zoe E. Ford, Sue Jackson, Gilad Bino, Kate J. Brandis, Richard T. Kingsford
A tale of two cities: evidence from the Global South on established versus emerging cities’ approaches to adaptive and sustainable water governance PDF

Tahmina Yasmin, Megan A. Farrelly, Briony C. Rogers, Stefan Krause, Iseult Lynch
Translatability of water governance experiments across settings and scales PDF

Amanda T. Stahl, Alexander K. Fremier
Toward adaptive water governance: the role of systemic feedbacks for learning and adaptation in the eastern transboundary rivers of South Africa PDF

Sharon Rae Pollard, Edward Riddell, Derick R. du Toit, Daniel C. Retief, Ray L. Ison
Power research in adaptive water governance and beyond: a review PDF

Lisa McIlwain, Jennifer M. Holzer, Julia Baird, Claudia L. Baldwin

Insight

Water rights for groundwater environments as an enabling condition for adaptive water governance PDF

Rebecca L. Nelson
Participation and marginalization in water governance: probing the agency of powerholders PDF

Rebeca Biancardi Aleu, Rasmus Kløcker Larsen, Nadine Methner
The role of the Yangtze River Protection Law in the emergence of adaptive water governance in China PDF

Ruoying Li, Wang Jin

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