Abstract
In many areas of the world, groundwater resources are increasingly stressed, and unsustainable use has become common. Where existing mechanisms for governing groundwater are ineffective or nonexistent, new ones need to be developed. Local level groundwater governance provides an intriguing alternative to top-down models, with the promise of enabling management to better match the diversity of physical and social conditions in groundwater basins. One such example is emerging in California, USA, where new state law requires new local agencies to self-organize and act to achieve sustainable groundwater management. In this article, we draw on insights from research on common pool resource management and natural resources governance to develop guidelines for institutional design for local groundwater governance, grounded in California’s developing experience. We offer nine criteria that can be used as principles or standards in the evaluation of institutional design for local level groundwater governance: scale, human capacity, funding, authority, independence, representation, participation, accountability, and transparency. We assert that local governance holds promise as an alternative to centralized governance in some settings but that its success will depend heavily on the details of its implementation. Further, for local implementation to achieve its promise, there remain important complementary roles for centralized governance. California’s developing experience with local level groundwater management in dozens of basins across the state provides a unique opportunity to test and assess the importance and influence of these criteria.
Highlights
Groundwater is an increasingly important and increasingly stressed resource
We describe critical institutional design decisions and examine key design challenges facing local entities engaging in groundwater governance in California
We describe some of the hurdles that may emerge for governance and institutional design based on a critical examination of the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) model and suggest how effective local groundwater governance might overcome these challenges (Sections 5–7)
Summary
Groundwater is an increasingly important and increasingly stressed resource. Globally, groundwater provides half of the human drinking water supply and more than 40% of the irrigation water used for agriculture [1,2,3]. Governing groundwater effectively requires consideration of the full set of organizations, structures, rules, and processes that influence or control human actions impacting physical groundwater systems [12,13,14]. This includes attention to the operational rules that influence day-to-day practice, and the constitutional and collective choice rules that determine how policies are formulated, enacted, and enforced and who is involved in that process [15,16]. We describe how these criteria and systems could apply in California as it develops new Groundwater Sustainability Agencies (Section 8), emphasizing that, while this discussion focuses on local agencies, there remain important roles for external entities and centralized governance, both within and beyond California’s groundwater regulation system
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