A Comprehensive Process for Stakeholder Identification and Engagement in Addressing Wicked Water Resources Problems (original) (raw)
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2014
We examine participation of stakeholders in transboundary water confl icts in the lower Colorado River basin. The analysis focuses on the impacts of institutional arrangements as they relate to two critical water issues in the Mexicali Valley: the salinity problem and the All-American Canal lining confl ict. The results show that farmers lost economic, political and organisational power during the period in between these two confl icts, which in turn reduced their role and infl uence in transboundary water management. During the salinity problem in the 1960s, unifi ed and strong leadership and widespread participation were credited with infl uencing benefi cial outcomes. However, the existence of many opposing points of view regarding the recent All-American Canal lining confl ict together with weak and dispersed leadership seem responsible for ineffective stakeholder participation in this later international resource confl ict.
Water (Switzerland), 2020
Collaborative water governance (CWG) has emerged as a promising framework to tackle water management challenges. Simple identification of participants however is not enough to unravel the intricacies of stakeholders' interlinkages, roles and influences for robust CWG. A clear understanding of the stakeholders' landscape is therefore required to underpin CWG. In this work, we combine stakeholder analysis (SA), social network analysis (SNA) and participatory processes (PP) under a theoretical collaborative governance framework to advance CWG in the contentious Rapel River Basin (RRB), Chile. By combining these techniques, we identified a cohort of leading (and secondary) stakeholders, their relationships and critical roles on basin-wide CWG-enabling networks (collaborative ties, information flows and financial exchanges) and their influence to achieve a shared vision for water planning. The results show members of this cohort perform critical roles (bridging, connecting and gatekeeping) across the networks and in influencing explicit elements of the shared vision. Specific CWG-enabling networks properties indicate a weak adaptive capacity of stakeholders to deal with potential water management challenges and strong prospects for sharing innovative ideas/solutions and achieving long-term water planning goals. A major CWG implementation challenge in the RRB is the lack of a leading organisation. One way forward would be formally organising stakeholders of the identified cohort to advance CWG in the RRB. By implementing the methodological framework, we facilitated social learning, fostered trust among stakeholders and mobilised efforts towards implementing CWG in practice in the contentious RRB.
Integrating stakeholder input into water policy development and analysis
Journal of Agricultural …, 2008
Agricultural water use is becoming an issue in much of the South due to population growth. Results of projects evaluating the impacts of conservation strategies aimed at reallocating or extending the life of water supplies are being met with great skepticism by stakeholder groups. In ...
Water, 2016
Stakeholder participation is a foundation of good water governance. Good groundwater governance typically involves the co-production of knowledge about the groundwater system. Models provide a vehicle for producing this knowledge, as well as a "boundary object" around which scientists and stakeholders can convene the co-production process. Through co-production, stakeholders and scientific experts can engage in exchanges that create system knowledge not otherwise achievable. The process involves one-way transfer of information, active two-way conversations, and integration of multiple kinds of knowledge into shared understanding. In the Upper Santa Cruz River basin in Arizona, USA, the University of Arizona Water Resources Research Center (WRRC) convened a project aimed at providing scientific underpinnings for groundwater planning and management. This project, entitled Groundwater, Climate, and Stakeholder Engagement, serves as a case study employing the first two stages of knowledge co-production using a hydrological model. Through an iterative process that included two-way communication, stakeholders provided critical input to hydrologic modeling analyses. Acting as a bridging organization, the WRRC facilitated a co-production process, involving location-specific and transferability workshops, which resulted in new knowledge and capacity for applying the model to novel problems.
Collaborative Modeling to Evaluate Water Management Scenarios in the Rio Grande Basin 1
2020
ABSTRACT: This article describes the collaborative modeling process and the resulting water resources planning model developed to evaluate water management scenarios in the transboundary Rio Grande basin. The Rio Grande is a severely water stressed basin that faces numerous management challenges as it crosses numerous jurisdictional boundaries. A collaborative process was undertaken to identify and model water management scenarios to improve water supply for stakeholders, the environment, and international obligations of water delivery from Mexico to the United States. A transparent and open process of data collection, model building, and scenario development was completed by a project steering committee composed of university, nongovernmental, and governmental experts from both countries. The outcome of the process was a planning model described in this article, with data and operations that were agreed on by water planning officials in each country. Water management scenarios were...
Water alternatives, 2018
This study uses semi-structured interviews and an online survey to explore the structure, challenges and outcomes of a five-year National Science Foundation-funded water scarcity modelling project in the Willamette River Basin of Oregon, USA. The research team chose to facilitate broader impacts by engaging stakeholders from the study’s inception (e.g. developing grant proposal, study implementations, defining model run scenarios) through its completion and extension of findings. The team used various engagement formats (field trips, small and large group meetings) and encountered many challenges, including the lack of a shared vision, different professional languages, research complexities and project management. Through stakeholder engagement the team overcame challenges, facilitated learning, and improved and extended the research process and results. Participation in engagement events was positively correlated with beneficial broader impact outcomes. We compare these outcomes wi...
Journal of Hydrology: Regional Studies, 2023
Study region: The Middle Rio Grande (MRG), defined by the portion of the basin from Elephant Butte Reservoir in New Mexico to the confluence with the Rio Conchos in Far West Texas, U.S.A. and Northern Chihuahua, Mexico. Study focus: The future of water for the MRG and many other arid and semi-arid regions of the world is challenged by a changing climate, agricultural intensification, growing urban populations,and a segmented governance system in a transboundary setting. The core question for such settings is: how can water be managed so that competing agricultural, urban, and environmental sectors can realize a sustainable future? We synthesize results from interdisciplinary research aimed at “water futures”, considering possible, probable, and preferable outcomes from the known drivers of change in the MRG in a stakeholder participatory mode. We accomplished this by developing and evaluating scenarios using a suite of scientifically rigorous computer models, melded with the input from diverse stakeholders. New hydrological insights for the region: Under likely scenarios without significant interventions, relatively cheap and easy to access water will be depleted in about 40 years. Interventions to mitigate this outcome will be very costly. A new approach is called for based on “adaptive cooperation” among sectors and across jurisdictions along four important themes: information sharing, water conservation, greater development and use of alternative water sources, and new limits to water allocation/withdrawals coupled with more flexibility in uses.
2016
We implemented a participatory process with water stakeholders for improving resilience to drought at watershed scale, and for reducing water pollution disputes in drought prone areas. The purpose is to facilitate participatory decision making in a rural watershed impacted by recurrent droughts related to ENSO in Northwestern Costa Rica. The process involved co-designing “ContaMiCuenca”, a hybrid agent-based model, as a mediation object. We followed a Companion Modeling approach and organized 6 workshops that included research techniques such as participatory diagnostics, ARDI diagrams (actor-resources-interaction), agent-based model design and interactive simulation sessions. We collectively assessed the main water issues in the watershed, prioritized their importance, defined the objectives of the process, and pilot-tested the use of ContaMiCuenca for environmental education with adults and children. Simulation sessions with adults resulted in debates about the need to improve the...
Environmental Development, 2021
Maintaining and restoring freshwater ecosystem services in the face of local and global change requires adaptive research that effectively engages stakeholders. However, there is a lack of understanding and consensus in the research community regarding where, when, and which stakeholders should be engaged and what kind of researcher should do the engaging (e.g., physical, ecological, or social scientists). This paper explores stakeholder engagement across a developing network of aquatic research sites in North and South America with wide ranging * Corresponding author. Environmental and Urban Studies, Bard College,
Sustainability
Multi-stakeholder platforms (MSPs) have gained momentum in addressing contentious and cross-sectoral aspects of natural resources management. They have helped to enhance cross-learning and the inclusion of marginalized groups. Tanzania’s water resources management sub-sector has championed these platforms as a means of breaking silos around planning, coordination, and resource mobilization. However, it is not uncommon to experience the occasional dominance of some influential sectors or groups due to their resources contribution to the process, contemporary influence, or statutory authority. Between 2013 and 2020, Tanzania has pioneered the establishment of MSPs at a national level and across the river and lake basins. This paper examines the representation of stakeholder groups in these platforms. Additionally, it establishes the baseline information that contributes to unlocking the current project-based platform design characterized by inherent limitations to potential changes in...