Environmental Governance Strategies Research Articles

Evaluation of Rural Environmental Governance Efficiency and Influencing Factors in the Yangtze River Delta Region under the Goal of “Dual Carbon”

In the face of deteriorating ecological problems such as pollution from agricultural production, pollution from farmers' lives, and pollution from township industries in the Yangtze River Delta region, as well as the plight of an imperfect rural environmental governance system and insufficient governance capacity, there is an urgent need to set up a comprehensive assessment system for the efficiency of rural environmental governance, improve the rural environmental governance system, and modernize the capacity of environmental governance. This project will firstly sort out the research results of rural environmental governance at home and abroad, and systematically analyze the theory of rural environmental governance; secondly, analyze the spatial changes of environmental pollution in rural areas during different periods, and analyze the efficiency of environmental governance in the rural areas of the Yangtze River Delta in different dimensions; finally, analyze the influencing factors of the efficiency of rural environmental governance under the constraints of the target of “double carbon”, and analyze the factors of economic development, economic development, and the impacts on the efficiency of rural environmental governance. Finally, we analyze the influencing factors of rural environmental governance efficiency under the constraint of the “double carbon” goal, and analyze the impacts of economic development, policy formulation, villagers' motivation and other factors on rural environmental governance efficiency. The results of this study provide an important reference for further promoting the realization of the dual-carbon goal and scientific environmental governance in the Yangtze River Delta region, and also provide a strong case study and reference for environmental governance strategies in other regions.

Exploring the missing link between top management teams' characteristics and environmental information disclosures of construction corporations

PurposeGiven the heavy pollution feature of the construction industry, construction corporations need to adopt an effective environmental governance strategy. The quality and quantity of environmental information disclosure (EID) implementation, as an essential part of a corporate environmental governance strategy, is impacted by the characteristics of the top management team (TMT). This paper aims to analyze the relationship between the demographic characteristics of the TMT (i.e. gender, age, tenure, educational level, and duality) and corporate EID.Design/methodology/approachUsing data from listed construction corporations generated between 2014 to 2018 in China, this study employs the Tobit regression model to test the research hypotheses. Also, this study applies a novel analytical approach, necessary condition analysis (NCA), to conduct a series of additional tests.FindingsThe results reveal that tenure and educational level are significantly and positively related to EID, while gender, age, and duality in the executive role are not significantly related to EID. When considering the TMT size as a moderator, the TMT age is positively related to the corporate EID, and the size of the TMT acts as a moderator to weaken the positive effect of the TMT age on the EID. The NCA results show that TMT gender, age, tenure, and educational level are necessary when the levels of EID exceed 40%.Originality/valueOur findings suggest that TMT characteristics have a relatively significant effect on corporate EID levels, which extends EID research to the construction industry. Corporate planners can endeavor to shape TMT characteristics to improve EID levels. The results of NCA provide insights into what TMT characteristics construction corporations need to satisfy in their pursuit of transparent EID, as well as the levels at which these characteristics are desired.

Conflict or coordination? The cross-departmental interaction in local environmental governance of China

Organizational coordination has been regarded as a vital factor to determine the environmental governance efficiency of local authority, while existing empirical studies mainly discuss the vertical decentralization but largely ignore the horizontal cross-departmental interaction within single government. Based on the data of 31 Chinese provinces from 2003 to 2017, this paper uses a panel vector autoregression (PVAR) approach, two-way fixed-effect models and dynamic panel regression with system generalized method of moments estimation (SYS-GMM) to investigate the environmental strategic interaction between two representative departments (finance department and environmental protection department) within local governments. The results indicate, on the whole, their environmental governance strategies show a significantly co-directional coordination. However, the cross-departmental interaction obviously varied in different periods and regions (even showed as conflict sometimes), and was synchronized with the dynamic trade-off between economic and environmental targets of China. This research helps understand the inner logic of environmental governance of Chinese government, and can be valuable guidance for other countries to accomplish multi-departmental sustainable development goal.

Haze Management Competition and Industrial Green Transformation

To clarify the relationship between haze management competition and industrial green transformation, this paper is based on the theoretical perspectives of local government competition and environmental federalism, the specific form of haze governance competition is analyzed by applying the two-region spatial Durbin model, and then the impact of haze governance competition on industrial green transformation and its transmission mechanism is explored by constructing a spatial panel linkage model and adopting the generalized spatial three-stage least squares method. The empirical results show that, with the profound changes in the performance appraisal system since the 18th National Congress, the interaction of environmental governance strategies between geographically adjacent provinces is imitative. In contrast, that which is between economically adjacent provinces is a “race to the top”, and haze governance is conducive to promoting the development of industrial green transformation. Further research found that the competition of haze governance is heterogeneous, and smog control in the eastern region contributes to the green transformation of local industries, while smog control in the central and western regions inhibits their industrial green transformation, and haze governance mainly enhances industrial green transformation through the innovation compensation effect, the human capital effect, and the industrial structure optimization effect. Therefore, the central government should carry out overall planning for the industry, and local governments should strengthen the joint prevention and control of haze and promote technological innovation, to improve environmental quality and realize high-quality economic development.

Coordination Relationship of Carbon Emissions and Air Pollutants under Governance Measures in a Typical Industrial City in China

Coordinating and controlling carbon and atmospheric pollutant emissions in industrial cities poses challenges, making it difficult to formulate effective environmental governance strategies in China. This study used the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) and Long-range Energy Alternatives Planning (LEAP) models, with a typical industrial city in the Sichuan Basin as the case study. Five emission reduction scenarios, one integration scenario, and one baseline scenario were set to quantitatively analyze the synergistic effect between carbon emissions and atmospheric pollutant emissions. The results indicate a high synergy between sulfur dioxide and greenhouse gases. For every one-point decrease in the Air Quality Composite Index (AQCI), the Industrial Restructuring Scenario (IR), Other Source Management Scenario (OSM), Transportation Energy Efficiency Improvement Scenario (TEEI), Industrial Energy Efficiency Improvement Scenario (IEEI), and Transportation Restructuring (TR) scenarios would require a reduction in carbon emissions by 56,492.79 kilotons, 39,850.45 kilotons, 34,027.5 kilotons, 22,356.58 kilotons, and 3243.33 kilotons, respectively. The results indicate that governance measures, such as improving transportation structure and upgrading industrial technologies, provide stronger support for simultaneous carbon emissions reductions and air quality improvement.

Challenging the nexus of power: The gaming dilemma of collaboration between government and enterprises in environmental management

This study presents a novel approach to analysing environmental governance by Chinese governments through the lens of a tripartite evolutionary game model. The key novelty of our research lies in the explicit incorporation of a reputation mechanism into the evolutionary game analysis, which significantly influences government decision-making, environmental governance strategies, and the dynamics of the relationship between government and polluting enterprises. By assessing the marginal effects of conventional governance and mobilization-based governance on the environmental mechanism, as well as the collusion behaviours between government and polluting enterprises, our study sheds light on previously unexplored aspects of environmental governance. Our findings indicate that the reputation mechanism plays a crucial role within the evolutionary game system of environmental governance, exerting a substantial impact on government decision-making. Furthermore, we demonstrate that policy interventions, such as increasing the cost of penalties under regulatory policies, can encourage compliance strategies among enterprises. Additionally, our research highlights the high sensitivity of reputation signals towards local government's environmental governance strategies, directly impacting their credibility and influencing the adoption of proactive environmental governance strategies. Moreover, we emphasize the role of the central environmental inspection system as a means to facilitate the transmission of environmental governance pressures between central and local governments, ultimately fostering a green development concept and promoting coordinated development between the economy and ecological civilization. Overall, this study provides valuable insights into the intricacies of environmental governance in China and underscores the importance of reputation mechanisms and policy interventions in promoting sustainable development.

Identifying spatiotemporal characteristics and driving factors of industrial land use morphology in China

Rapid urbanization and industrialization have led to considerable changes in China and now there is a need for effective development of industrial land use morphology rather than extensive. Thus, the characteristics and driving mechanism of industrial land use morphology (ILUM) must be recognized to address the shortage of construction land supply and green development. However, the existing research has not comprehensively measured the industrial landform and explored its impact mechanism. Based on the balanced panel data of 268 cities in China from 2003 to 2018, this study analyzes the driving mechanisms of ILUM to construct an index system to measure ILUM from dominant andrecessive aspects. The geographic and time-weighted regression model was used to explore the spatiotemporal impacts of ILUM in different regions. The results show that the value of industrialland-usedominant morphology presents a slow upward trend. Taking 2013 as the dividing line, the value of industrialland-userecessive morphology presents a trend of rapid growth and then relatively slow growth. There are obvious regional heterogeneous effects of industrial evolution, environmental regulation, and government intervention on ILUM. There is a need to develop differentiated industrial development and environmental governance strategies based on regional development, guiding the transformation of industrial land morphology intensively and efficiently.

Impact of air pollutants on influenza-like illness outpatient visits under COVID-19 pandemic in the subcenter of Beijing, China.

This study aimed to explore the association between air pollutants and outpatient visits for influenza-like illnesses (ILI) under the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) stage in the subcenter of Beijing.The data on ILI in the subcenter of Beijing from January 1, 2018 to December 31, 2020 were obtained from the Beijing Influenza Surveillance Network. A generalized additive Poisson model was applied to examine the associations between the concentrations of air pollutants and daily outpatient visits for ILI when controlling meteorological factors and temporal trend.A total of 171 943 ILI patients were included. In the pre-coronavirus disease 2019(COVID-19) stage, an increased risk of ILI outpatient visits was associated to a high air quality index (AQI) and the high concentrations of particulate matter less than 2.5 (PM2.5 ), particulate matter 10 (PM10 ), sulphur dioxide (SO2 ), nitrogen dioxide (NO2 ), and carbon monoxide (CO), and a low concentration of ozone (O3 ) on lag0 day and lag1 day, while a higher increased risk of ILI outpatient visits was observed by the air pollutants in the COVID-19 stage on lag0 day. Except for PM10 , the concentrations of other air pollutants on lag1 day were not significantly associated with an increased risk of ILI outpatient visits during the COVID-19 stage.The findings that air pollutants had enhanced immediate effects and diminished lag-effects on the risk of ILI outpatient visits during the COVID-19 pandemic, which is important for the development of public health and environmental governance strategies.

Corporate Environmental Governance Strategies Under the Dual Supervision of the Government and the Public

External regulatory and normative pressures from both the Chinese central environmental protection inspection (CEPI) program and public participation can act together to influence corporate environmental governance behavior. This research uses the multiperiod Difference-In-Differences method to test the compound impact of CEPI and public participation on corporate environmental governance strategies and investigate the underlying influence mechanisms. The results show that CEPI and public participation have a positive compound effect on the corporate “source-control” strategy. A reasonable reduction in pollution charges and increased environmental subsidies are essential to stimulate the green innovation potential of heavily polluting firms. Our research helps clarify the game relationship between the central and the local governments and analyzes how the relationship between the government, the public, and corporates affects environmental governance, thereby advancing principal-agent theory and expanding the current research on institutional pressures and corporate environmental governance.

How do environmental protection expenditure and green technology innovation affect synergistically the financial performance of heavy polluting enterprises? Evidence from China

In recent years, economic growth has caused an increasing number of environmental problems in China. In order to achieve the goal of carbon peak on schedule, enterprises need to accelerate green transformation and upgrading. Environmental protection expenditure and green technology innovation are important means of corporate environmental governance strategy, but it is unknown whether they can promote the sustainable development of enterprises. Therefore, this article will analyze the effect of enterprise environmental protection expenditure and green technology innovation on financial performance. Based on relevant theories, this study builds a theoretical model to demonstrate how enterprise environmental protection expenditure and green technology innovation can affect the financial performance of heavy polluting enterprises. Empirical tests are carried out using 293 heavy polluting enterprises in China as the sample. The results reveal that: (i) Enterprise environmental protection expenditure has significant negative effects on current enterprise financial performance, while green technology innovation can significantly promote enterprise financial performance. (ii) When the lag period is two periods, the enterprise environmental protection expenditure and green technology innovation have positive effects on enterprise financial performance respectively, and the effects are the most significant. (iii) Enterprise environmental protection expenditure and green technology innovation synergistically promote enterprise financial performance in the current period, and the impact has a lag effect. (iv) In state-owned enterprises and enterprises with higher corporate governance level, the synergetic promotion effect of environmental protection expenditure and green technology innovation on enterprise financial performance is more significant. Finally, this study provides suggestions for promoting the transformation and upgrading of heavy polluting enterprises and achieving sustainable development from the perspectives of the government, enterprises and the public.

Long-Term Temporal and Spatial Distribution of Coliform Bacteria in Jiaozhou Bay Associated With Human Activities and Environmental Governance

Coliform bacteria (CB) can be used as an indicator of seawater quality. Long-term monitoring of seawater quality based on CB abundance is lacking in Jiaozhou Bay. In this study, CB abundance in surface seawater of 12 different stations in Jiaozhou Bay was investigated by culturing method. The results showed that: (1) the abundance of CB showed a decreasing tendency during the investigation. During 2004–2007, 2008–2013, and 2014–2017, the average CB abundance decreased significantly, forming a “three stages phenomenon”; (2) the average CB abundance in the first half of the year was lower than that in the second half; (3) the CB abundance in Jiaozhou Bay was spatially heterogeneous. The maximum average CB abundance was observed in the estuary area, and followed by the bay mouth area, the outer bay area, and the inner bay area. The highest abundance may be associated with sewage discharge related to human activities; (4) the abundance of CB was most positively correlated with the concentration of ammonium salt and nitrate, while most negatively correlated with salinity; (5) the years 2007 (2008) and 2013 (2014) were time points of the “three stages phenomenon.” These time points coincide with environmental governance actions, indicating that the actions have played a prominent role in improving seawater quality. Long-term survey of CB can not only serve as an indicator of seawater quality, but also provide a basis for the development of environmental governance strategies and pollution control.

Place-making, place-disruption, and place protection of urban blue spaces: perceptions of waterfront planning of a polluted urban waterbody

ABSTRACT Urban waterfronts are experiencing a renaissance, as it is estimated that by 2030 more than 60 percent of the world's population will live in cities, the majority of which are located in coastal or riparian regions. On a global level, changing public demands have spurred a new language of sustainability, revitalisation, and resilience with regard to urban waterfronts. Prior research has explored the potential ecological and social impacts of these trends, both in terms of benefits such as opportunities for recreation, as well as negative consequences such as increasing gentrification. Less explored, however, are how these planning and development processes can alternately support and/or interrupt existing “sense of place” that people hold with waterfront spaces, particularly spaces considered to be degraded and/or that are located in marginalised communities. This paper explores place-making, place-disruption and place protection associated with Coney Island Creek, a heavily polluted waterbody in New York City. We find that the creek provides recreation, sustenance, and social connections for substantial numbers of people, and we discuss these findings in the context of proposed resiliency planning and development projects that are perceived by some local stewards to threaten existing place attachments and meanings. In particular, we emphasise the importance of incorporating local knowledge and values in waterfront planning, especially in neighbourhoods that have been historically marginalised. This study contributes to a growing literature on values associated with urban blue spaces, thus furthering knowledge of how to improve current environmental governance strategies in coastal cities around the world.

Agglomeration externalities and the non‐linear performance of environmental regulation: Evidence from China

AbstractThe pollution abatement effect of environmental regulation changes periodically in terms of local economic agglomeration levels, because of agglomeration externalities could influence firms' regulatory response by changing the compliance cost. Based on a panel dataset of 30 provinces in China from 1999 to 2017, this paper engages in threshold model and mediation analysis to examine the thresholds of economic agglomeration for environmental regulation to take effect and the influencing paths of environmental regulation at different agglomeration levels. The economic agglomeration degree is measured by the economic density of the built‐up area. The threshold test recognizes two thresholds of economic density, which are 0.3 CNY billion/km2 and 1.7 CNY/km2. Only when economic density exceeds the thresholds, can environmental regulation significantly reduce industrial emission intensity and emission density, respectively. At the first threshold, environmental regulation takes effect mainly through improving local industrial structure; at the second threshold, environmental regulation takes effect mainly through downsizing the scale of polluting industries. The policy enlightenment provided by this article is to formulate differentiated environmental governance strategies according to local conditions and the characteristics of the development stage of each region.

Deciding over the territory governance of mining conflicts. The cases of andalgalá, in catamarca, and famatina, in La rioja, Argentina. (2005–2016)

In recent times, two global phenomena have converged: the growing demand for natural resources and a mobilized citizenry that claims participation in the decisions about their territories. Thus, socio-environmental conflicts often arise where communities, appealing to environmental and cultural values, confront transnational companies and governments interested in natural resources exploitation. Despite the multiplication of literature and environmental governance strategies, these disputes continue to be characterized more by the trend toward radicalized conflict than by consensus and democratic resolutions. Aiming to deepen the understanding of this phenomena, we study the conflicts unleashed from the installation of open-pit mining projects in the provinces of Catamarca and La Rioja in Argentina. We look for the characteristics of the interactions between the State, the civil society and the business sector that hinder the progress towards governance processes that bring by democratic resolutions to mining conflicts. Based on a comparative study at the subnational level, it is shown that mining conflicts are characterized by not developing effective governance processes. We argue that this is related to three central factors. First, a failed articulation between the actors, ineffective negotiation instances, disparate normative and cognitive frameworks, inefficient external agents, and the absence of joint public policy proposals. Second, the lack of will and capacity of the provincial governments combined with the weakness of the institutional mechanisms. And finally, the generation of a deep antagonism in the positions and discourses of the actors provoked by the particularities of the mining projects.

An Evaluation of Environmental Governance in Urban China Based on a Hesitant Fuzzy Linguistic Analytic Network Process.

The aim of this study is to evaluate the performance of urban environmental governance by developing hesitant fuzzy linguistic analytic network process (HFL-ANP). The study bridges the gaps in current knowledge in the following ways: the study methodically develops the HFL-ANP method to evaluate and pick the optimal environmental governance strategy from alternatives; theoretically, network structure of evaluation indicators system on environmental governance is constructed, and the objective and subjective information in the evaluation process of environmental governance is combined. In detail, based on the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) and the pollution haven hypothesis, the paper constructs the evaluation indexes system of environmental governance and takes observation time length into consideration. Then, we choose three urban cases of environmental governance by exploring the existing literature. Furthermore, we develop the HFL-ANP method and apply it to the cases. The study calculates the initial weights of all indexes by using multiplicative consistency of the HFL preference relation, and derives the decision matrix through combining objective information with subjective information of environmental governance. Finally, we come to the following conclusions: ANP network stricture is close to real-world practical problems and provides the basis for HFL-ANP method; HFL-ANP is a very suitable method of assessing environmental governance; and based on the urban cases of environmental governance, Shanghai is the optimal alternative. In addition, this indicator system can only be applied to cities in China, and the administrative hierarchy of policies has not been considered by this method. Thus, future studies should expand this method and indicator network to contain different countries and different administrative hierarchy.

Green DIY store choice among socially responsible consumer generations

The purpose of our empirical investigation, based on the theory of reasoned action and generational theory, is to study the green DIY retail store choice of socially responsible consumer generations (Baby Boomers, Millennials, Gen X-ers and Gen Zs). The authors base their quantitative research on structural equation modelling in an emerging market (Romania) to highlight the socially responsible consumption behavioural factors (education on environmental protection and social responsibility, rational use of resources and financial sacrifice necessary to protect the environment) which drive the customers of international DIY store chains operating in Europe in their choice of retail formats. The results reveal that there is a difference between Romanian and European-based retail chains with respect to the impact of socially responsible consumption behavioural dimensions on the choice of retail format, due to their respective communication of environmental governance strategies and different actions implemented. The research contributes to the development of the literature by establishing a connection between socially responsible consumption behaviour and retail format choice in green DIY retailing. From the management perspective, the paper provides retailers operating in emerging markets with possible directions to adapt their strategies when approaching these markets. The value of the paper lies in the application of socially responsible consumption behaviour scale and generational theory in green DIY retailing to a fast-growing emerging market, with a view to enhancing consumer retail format choice, depending on their attitudes towards social responsibility and propensity towards environmental protection.

Environmental governance strategies in a two-echelon supply chain with tax and subsidy interactions

Environmental impact is one of the major causes of tax and subsidy interactions between the government and firms. The government sets the tax of the upstream impact and designs the subsidy threshold value to promote the green effort of firms. This paper presents the optimal decision of the supply chain and the effective environmental governance strategy of the government. A Stackelberg game between the government and a two-echelon supply chain is constructed, where a supplier makes core parts for a manufacturer. First, we compared the effects of subsidy on the pricing decisions of firms and identified the profitable condition of the green effort of manufacturers. Results corroborate that a negotiated space for suppliers and manufacturers exists to reduce the environmental impact from the source, especially when the tax legislation is strict. Second, we obtained the optimal upstream contract of environmental impact in supply chains, which appears a phenomenon of the Matthew effect under any type of governance strategies. This finding affirms that subsidies make supply chains inclined to choose a greener upstream decision. The condition when subsidies make sense by effective environment improvement in the supply phase was further derived. Finally, with tax and subsidy governance strategies, the multi-perspective social welfare was simulated and analyzed. Accordingly, we verified that the growth boundary of the supply-chain profit with high subsidy threshold is better than that of the social welfare or the environment performance. It implies that setting the green subsidy standard originally high is a comprehensively sustainable choice for social welfare. In addition, the simulations of three tax structures were analyzed in extensions.

Local environmental governance innovation in China: staging ‘triangular dialogues’ for industrial air pollution control

Studies of environmental governance in China mainly discuss bilateral encounters, such as popular protests against polluting companies, NGO collaboration with local authorities, or local government collusion with enterprises which can lead to the sabotage of effective pollfution controls. This article studies a case in which a communication mechanism involving multiple actors created a basis for the innovative and successful enforcement of air pollution regulation. Pressurized by popular protests and superior level policy mandates, the Environmental Protection Bureau (EPB) in Hangzhou City started to employ a dialogue forum which ultimately brought residents, enterprises as well as government agencies together to implement local air pollution control measures. Through information-sharing, interest mediation and trust building in a gradually more horizontal process, the government-led multiple stakeholders’ dialogue helped to overcome the agency’s structural weakness, regulate the polluting companies and address residents’ complaints. We conclude that this case study can provide some insights into the ways in which opportunities for driving forward innovative and effective environmental governance strategies at the local level emerged against the background of recently enforced top-level environmental protection policies in China.

Performance Evaluation and Environmental Governance: From a Perspective of Strategic Interaction between Local Governments

At present, China’s environmental problem has become a problem that has to be solved on the road to the healthy development of the economy and society. Under the Chinese style of decentralization, performance evaluation becomes an important factor affecting the implementation of environmental policies. Based on the strategic interaction among local governments, this paper combines the theories of decentralization, administrative subcontract and political tournament, and puts forward relevant hypotheses: the greening of performance assessment helps make good competition between local governments in environmental governance; decentralization affects the relationship between performance appraisal and environmental governance strategic interaction among local governments. This paper uses the panel data of 272 prefecture-level cities in China between 2003 and 2014 to build the spatial Durbin model, and uses maximum likelihood estimation（MLE）to get the results after regression: reasonable performance evaluation index and decentralization system can make environmental governance develop in the direction of ‘benign competition’. As a whole, the environmental governance between local governments has a strategic interaction of ‘imitative competition’. Based on political tournament theory, this paper empirically studies the impact of performance assessment on the interaction of environmental governance strategies among cities in China. Results show that environmental performance indicators enhance the strategic interaction of race to the top” among cities, and economic performance indicators weaken the race to the top” strategic interaction among cities. Furthermore, based on the theories of political tournament” and administrative contract”, we examine the impact of the combination of performance appraisal and decentralization on the strategic interaction between local governments. Environmental performance indicators combined with higher authority can weaken the race to the bottom” strategic interaction, and enhance the race to the top” strategic interaction. If equipped with higher financial power, it will weaken the race to the bottom” strategic interaction. The combination of economic performance and higher authority enhances the competitive interaction strategy and weakens the race to the top” strategic interaction. If the financial power is bigger, it will enhance the race to the bottom” strategic interaction. Accordingly, policy implications are given as follows: to establish the linkage mechanism” of environmental governance, namely joint defense and joint control” is the way to effectively control the environment; how to set reasonable performance evaluation index by the central government to hold the nose of an ox of local government environmental governance is the priority among priorities; a reasonable set of performance evaluation indicators, accompanied by reasonable decentralization system, namely environmental performance indicators as hard constraints” with the property rights and power, will encourage local government environmental governance to benign competition, to make the implementation of environmental policies get twice the result with half the effort.

Gobernanza ambiental para el desarrollo sostenible de la cuenca de Santiaguillo, Durango

This article presents the results of the research project, which objectives were to generate and implement an environmental governance strategy that directs actions for the sustainable use of the water resources of the Santiaguillo’s basin. Through the methodology of participatory action research, and based on the theoreticalconceptual framework, key social actors were identified and actions were taken. It is concluded that –through environmental governance, actions are encouraged that lead to the sustainable use of the water resources of the Santiaguillo’s basin, such as the intermunicipal order of the basin, and the active participation of civil society, NGOs, companies and government.