Abstract
This paper analyses five major transitions in watershed management in the Lower Mississippi River from the early 19th century to the present. A conceptual framework is developed for analysing the role of visions, agency, and niches in water management transitions and applied to a historical case on water management in the Lower Mississippi River. It is shown that water management regimes change over time and that major transitions were preceded by niches, in which new visions were developed and empowered. The case shows that: (i) emerging visions play an important role in guiding transitions; (ii) agency enables the further diffusion of visions and niches; (iii) vision champions play an important role in transitions, but are not decisive; (iv) each transition has led to an extension of the number of societal functions provided, which has led to more complex water management regimes in which functions are combined and integrated; and (v) external landscape factors are important, as they can lead to awareness and urgency in important decision making processes.
Highlights
From the 20th century onwards, the management of water resources has undergone at least four major paradigm shifts [1]
The aim of the paper is to develop and apply a framework for analysing water management transitions and emerging visions and niches and to enhance our understanding on: (i) what is the role of emerging visions and niches in such transitions and (ii) what is the role of agency and how does it relate to vision development and niche formation?
We have developed a conceptual framework for studying the interplay of visions and actors in niche-based change in water management regimes
Summary
From the 20th century onwards, the management of water resources has undergone at least four major paradigm shifts [1]. At the beginning of this century, the dominant paradigm was single purpose water resources management in all industrialised countries. Cities were served with domestic water from wells and storage dams, and streams were rendered navigable by channel works. This was done without taking the interconnectedness of different functions of rivers into account [2]. By the 1930s, the prevailing paradigm had become multi-purpose water resource management, which aimed at combining functions of rivers In this period, it had become possible to build dams to generate hydroelectric power, while storing water for other purposes like agricultural irrigation, increasing the security of fresh water and water safety
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