Multilevel water quality management in the international Rhine catchment area: how to establish social-ecological fit through collaborative governance

Widmer, Alex; Herzog, Laura; Moser, Andreas; Ingold, Karin (2019). Multilevel water quality management in the international Rhine catchment area: how to establish social-ecological fit through collaborative governance. Ecology and Society, 24(3), p. 27. Resilience Alliance Publications 10.5751/ES-11087-240327

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One major challenge of water quality management is that the source of pollution and its effects might be spatially disentangled. This cause-effect misfit has large implications on how surface water in a hydrological catchment area is managed and regulated. We argue in this paper that such misfit can best be addressed through interconnected and multilevel collaborative arrangements that support institutional capacity building. In line with recent literature, we presume that social-ecological fit can be enhanced through direct collaboration among actors managing the same or interconnected ecosystem units. To study the social-ecological fit, we analyze three subcatchments of the international river basin of the Rhine. Our data on actor collaboration, on inter-related subcatchments, and on actor and subcatchment connections are analyzed through network analysis and motif counts. Our results show social-ecological fit to emerge in less complex comanagement situations, e.g., when one resource unit lies in the competence of two actors, or if one actor is responsible for two units. To a lesser extent, there is also evidence for more complex, multilevel collaboration arrangements among actors.

Item Type:	Journal Article (Original Article)
Division/Institute:	03 Faculty of Business, Economics and Social Sciences > Social Sciences > Institute of Political Science 10 Strategic Research Centers > Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research (OCCR)
Graduate School:	Graduate School of Climate Sciences
UniBE Contributor:	Ingold, Karin Mirjam
Subjects:	300 Social sciences, sociology & anthropology > 320 Political science
ISSN:	1708-3087
Publisher:	Resilience Alliance Publications
Language:	English
Submitter:	Jack Kessel Baker
Date Deposited:	23 Apr 2020 09:02
Last Modified:	05 Dec 2022 15:36
Publisher DOI:	10.5751/ES-11087-240327
URI:	https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/140095