The Impact of Collaboration Network on Water Resource Governance Performance: Evidence from China's Yangtze River Delta Region.

Hongtao Yi,Chao Zhou,Yan Yang

doi:10.3390/ijerph18052557

Abstract

Existing studies rarely examine the relationship between network structure and network performance. To fill this research gap, this article collects inter-local collaboration network data from 41 cities in the Yangtze River Delta region of China from 2009 to 2015. Based on the institutional collective action framework and social capital theory, we propose bridging and bonding hypotheses regarding the impact of network structures on governance performance. We employ social network analysis and panel data regression models to test the hypotheses. The results show that the coefficients for closeness centrality and clustering coefficient are statistically significant in this analysis, Wuxi played a central role in the collaboration network and the region had formed a close partner network, confirming the positive effect of bridging and bonding network social capital structures on network performance.

Highlights

The regression coefficient is significantly positively correlated at the level of 0.01, which strongly supports the correlation between the bond structure and the performance of network governance water resource
The results show that GDP has a positive effect in the performance of wastewater treatment network in model 1 and model 3, and the rate of GDP growth is negatively correlated with wastewater treatment
Based on social capital theory and the institutional collective action framework (ICA) framework, we propose that bridging network relationships and bonding network relationships have a positive effect on the performance of water resource governance

Summary

Methods

To test the relationship between the collaboration network and water management outcomes, we collected data from different sources, such as local media and statistical yearbook. City-level data are collected from 41 cities in the Yangtze River Delta region. To measure the performance of wastewater treatment in the Yangtze River Delta region, we selected the rate of wastewater treatment from 2009 to 2015 as the dependent variable. The wastewater treatment performance can be measured by the secondary use after the wastewater treatment. We collected wastewater treatment rate of the Yangtze River Delta region from statistical yearbook, and chose wastewater treatment rate as the dependent variable

Results

Discussion

Conclusion