Water Governance Performance Research Articles

Economic and Political Cycles in China: Leadership Uncertainty and Local Government’s Water Resources Governance Performance

There is ample evidence indicating that political institutions and official mobility influence the economy, finance, and environment. Specifically, political turnovers have been found to be essential for the functioning and oversight of economic institutions. Chinese cities, where the party secretary frequently changes every few years, provide an interesting context for studying political turnovers. In this study, we investigated the effects of political turnovers on urban sewage discharge in 242 Chinese cities between 2003 and 2018. The findings revealed a significant impact of the timing of the Chinese Communist Party Congress on urban sewage discharge. Leading up to and including the year of the Party Congress, there was a marked reduction in urban sewage discharge. Conversely, discharge increased substantially during the year or two years following the Party Congress. These results suggest that political turnovers play a critical role in environmental governance performance in China.

The Performance of Water Governance as Cultural Heritage in Peru1

San Pedro de Corongo’s Water Judges (WJs) are the heads of a political and administrative system for the ritual and practical management of the river waters that flow through this town, nestled in ...

What Drives the Performance of Collaboration Networks: A Qualitative Comparative Analysis of Local Water Governance in China.

Local water governance is challenging given the significance to public health and the difficulties to manage it in a fragmented administrative system. A collaboration network is a popular governance tool in local governance to cope with functional fragmentation problems and institutional collective action (ICA) dilemmas. Empirical works are needed to examine the outcomes of such governance networks, especially in the context of environmental governance. With fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA), this article seeks to evaluate the outcomes of collaboration networks by investigating the influence of network structures on local water governance performance in China. Based on empirical analyses on a dataset of twenty local water governance networks implementing the Water Ecological Civilization Pilot Project in China, the findings suggest that a high overall bridging and bonding of social capital and a low network density are important determinants of effective collaboration networks. This study has policy implications for the design of local collaboration networks in facilitating effective environmental governance.

A Conceptual Framework for Assessment of Governance Performance of Lake Basins: Towards Transformation to Adaptive and Integrative Governance

Governance is essential to lake basin management, but it is the most challenged and needs increased attention. Lake Basin Governance performance assessment is designed to measure the progress and impacts of policies, institutions and the roles of various actors in ensuring sustainability. It measures the performance of technical/operational, social/networks, and institutional arrangement that make up the socio-ecological system. Governance performance assessment becomes very necessary with over-emphasis of institutions on resources utilization and exploitation. The purpose of this paper is to present a governance performance assessment framework specifically for lake basins. The Adaptive Integrated Lake Basin Management (AILBM) framework is a diagnostic and prescriptive performance assessment tool with an outcome to produce an adaptive and integrative system with equity, inclusiveness, transparency, accountability and flexibility to problem-solving and resilience. A case study on water governance performance assessment of the Songkhla Lake Basin (SLB) in Thailand is provided for illustration and application and indicated a poor performance rating on governance in the Basin, revealing gaps, defects, strengths and weaknesses in the current system, necessary to recommend future improvements.

Local people's perceptions of Lake Basin water governance performance in Thailand

Local people's perceptions on water governance performance were explored in the Songkhla Lake Basin, Thailand. The study was conducted through self-administered survey questionnaires, interviews, observations as well as review of relevant literature and archival records. The objective was to understand the perceptions of the local people regarding performance of the water governance of the Songkhla Lake Basin in order to support a wider research assessing the water governance performance of the Lake Basin. The local people perceived the governance performance as below average and highlighted some pertinent challenges such as institutional and agency fragmentation, weak coordination and integration as well as enforcement and compliance. They suggested that governance performance could be improved if these issues were resolved and if the local people were involved in the governance of the Lake Basin. The study concluded with recommendations to integrate local people's perceptions in governance and management decision-making as well as highlighting some issues that arose from the study like a single formal management and policy harmonization organization for the Basin and livelihood support for the local people to reduce environmental degradation.

Performance evaluation of lake basin water governance using composite index

A Lake Basin Water Governance Performance Composite Index (LBWGPCI) framework was developed to test and evaluate the performance of water governance for lake basins using the Songkhla Lake Basin (SLB), Thailand as a case study. The LBWGPCI integrates a range of water resources and environmental related indicators together to provide a holistic profile of lake basin key water governance issues. The purpose of this work was to identify, examine, develop and analyze key lake basin water governance performance indicators, test them on the SLB, and make appropriate recommendations for improvement. In the light of the results obtained in this study, overall composite index of the LBWGPCI indicated poor performance, which required high priority, urgent and critical actions. We conclude that the water governance performance of the SLB is still evolving and has a lot of great potential to grow in the right direction if the current focus and commitment of government and stakeholders at all levels, are maintained and sustained.

Regionalization and water governance: a case study of a Swiss wastewater utility

The aim of this paper is to evaluate how regionalization trends might affect the performance of water governance in terms of three overarching performance criteria: legitimacy, efficiency and effectiveness. The empirical component of this paper draws from a case-study analysis of the wastewater utility in Zurich, Switzerland. The findings indicate that establishing competencies through the process of autonomization can lead to an increase in a utility's organizational efficiency and effectiveness; yet there is a notable trade-off with legitimacy because such processes tend to decrease direct democratic influence.