Abstract
Ayre, M. L., and R. A. Nettle. 2017. Enacting resilience for adaptive water governance: a case study of irrigation modernization in an Australian catchment. Ecology and Society 22(3):1. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-09256-220301
Highlights
Governments, communities, and industries around the world are increasingly faced with governing major change processes in complex social-ecological systems (SES), such as catchments and irrigation systems
We present empirical research with agricultural industry stakeholders who are responding to a major change initiative to renew or modernize the largest irrigation system in Australia’s Murray Darling Basin and who ask: “What can a resilience assessment intervention contribute to adaptive water governance in this context?” Using resilience approaches and connecting these with insights from science and technology studies (STS), we found that a particular resilience assessment intervention supported dairy industry stakeholders to manage the complexity, uncertainty, and diversity of an irrigation modernization governance challenge
We provide an account of the everyday actions of governments, industry, and communities as they respond to the adaptive governance challenge of the Project and ask: what can a resilience assessment intervention contribute to adaptive water governance in this context? Our research adds to the current understanding on what supports adaptive governance and how it can be actively managed by industry, governments, and communities for improved outcomes for people and their places
Summary
Governments, communities, and industries around the world are increasingly faced with governing major change processes in complex social-ecological systems (SES), such as catchments and irrigation systems. Finding ways to improve outcomes for people and their organizations, as well as meeting environmental objectives of such change processes, will require governance approaches that address the inherent diversity (Mostert et al 2008, Bell et al 2011), complexity (Miller et al 2010), and uncertainty (Lebel et al 2006) of complex social-ecological systems This includes disparate and contested types and scales of activity (Folke 2006), multiple knowledges (Enserink et al 2007), and interests and objectives of communities along with incomplete knowledge and information related to SES dynamics (Fish et al 2010, Ison et al 2011, Pahl-Wostl et al 2012). Scholars have identified the outstanding need to operationalize (Bahadur et al 2010, Wardekker et al 2010, Rickards and Howden 2012, Davidson et al 2013) or enact (Wagenaar and Wilkinson 2013) resilience approaches to design and implement practical interventions for improving SES governance (Miller et al 2010, Ison et al 2011, Davidson et al 2013, Sinclair et al 2014)
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