Johannes T.A. Bressers

Integrated Governance and Water Basin Management

The research in this book has some specific characteristics. While we did not look only from the perspective of immissions or emissions for the protection of habitats, but took a resource perspective, a greater variation of uses and users was drawn into the analysis. Nor did we not restrict ourselves to a public policy perspective or a property and use rights perspective, but combined the two, both theoretically and empirically.

Environmental evaluation of waste management scenarios - significance of the boundaries

Life cycle concept was applied to analyse and assess some municipal solid waste (MSW) management scenarios in terms of environmental impacts, particularised for Iasi city, Romania, where approximately 380 kg/cap/yr of waste are generated. Currently, the management processes include temporary storage, collection, transport and landfilling, but separate collection, sorting, recycling and composting of solid waste, which should be addressed according to the National Strategy and European policy for waste. Four different scenarios were elaborated as alternatives to the existing waste management system in Iasi, which include both previously applied and current waste management alternatives, as well as some advanced practices. The effectiveness of the scenarios was evaluated in terms of environmental impacts based on Life Cycle Analysis, supported by GaBi software. Some environmental impact categories (acidification, eutrophication, global warming, human toxicity, and photochemical ozone generation potentials, carcinogenic substances, heavy metals, winter smog, photochemical ozone formation) were estimated based on several impact assessment methods associated to GaBi software (CML 2001, CML 96, EDIP 2003, EI95). The study emphasises the importance of system boundaries for the life cycle impact assessment process and consequently – for the optimal waste management alternative

Governance of water resources

This book is based on the results of the European research project EUWARENESS: European Water Regimes and the Notion of a Sustainable Status. In this project we focused on the sustainable use of water resources, to be achieved by means of integrated water management. Our aim is to develop a better understanding of the dynamic relationships between various conflicting uses of water resources, the regimes under which these uses of water resources are managed, and conditions generating regime shifts towards sustainability. The editors of this book have coordinated the project, in which research groups from six European countries (Netherlands, Belgium, France, Spain, Italy and Switzerland) participated. For these six countries we studied the long-term evolution of national regimes over a period of more than a hundred years. We also studied in greater depth the specific regime transitions of two selected water basins in each country during the last three decades. Important questions have been: Do integrated water regimes lead to more sustainable water use? What are important indicators for integrated water regimes? Under what conditions can integrated water regimes be achieved? What could be the influence of Europe and national conditions, to achieve regime transitions at water basin scale?

The economic impact of water tax charges in China: a static computable general equilibrium analysis

This paper presents a static computable general equilibrium model of the Chinese economy with water as an explicit factor of production. This model is used to assess the broad economic impact of a policy based on water demand management, using water tax charges as a policy-setting tool. It suggests that imposing water taxes can redistribute sectoral water use and lead to shifts in production, consumption, value added, and trade patterns. Another important finding is that water taxes imposed on the agricultural sector drive most of the effects.

Water governance regimes: Dimensions and dynamics

The concept of water governance is distinctive through its focus on not only public in- tervention, but also on self-organisation as a way to deal with water issues. This article first elaborates a framework with five dimensions to describe governance regimes. Thereafter it illustrates and uses this analytical framework with a cross country comparison of the evolu- tion towards more integrated water governance regimes. Furthermore four qualities of such regimes are introduced and used to assess the degree to which a governance regime is support- ive for integral and adaptive water management. Lastly the article explores how governance regimes evolve over time and what forces shape this combination of stability and dynamics.

Evaluation of Policy Transfer Interventions: Lessons from a Dutch-Romanian Planning Project

The transfer of environmental knowledge from one country to another is a widespread practice. This paper presents an evaluation framework to assess the effectiveness of projects that involve such a transfer. It focuses on project-based interventions that are supported by actors of the transferring country. The developed framework is based on the recognition that policy transfer interventions are multi-actor processes and are, therefore, best understood as processes of social interaction. Whether such processes contribute to goal achievement depends on the engagement of users in the process. We further argue that the realization of ultimate outcomes can be estimated or explained on the basis of changes in the characteristics of actors involved. The framework is applied to a Dutch-funded project on flood risk planning in Romania. The ultimate goal of this intervention was to contribute to the solving of water-related problems in Romania and to generate follow-up projects for the Dutch water sector. Central to the project was the active involvement of regional stakeholders in the development of regional spatial plans. Application of the framework shows that the case study is unlikely to contribute to the realization of the desired ultimate outcomes. Process explanations include poor institutional embedding, limited diffusion of project results and a lack of adaptive management. The active involvement of local and regional stakeholders created a shared motivation and knowledge base. However, the project got stuck due to a lack of resources as actors with decision-making power were not involved and ignored the project results.

Towards Sustainability Through Collaboration Between Industrial Sectors and Government: The Mexican Case

This chapter discusses the extent to which Dutch experiences with negotiated agreements between firms and public authorities could be used as a tool to improve environmental policies and foster collaboration and innovation for sustainability in Mexico. The Mexican context is analysed both in terms of perceived effectiveness of environmental regulation/existing voluntary agreements and in terms of attitudes and opinions of key players in the Mexican Industry regarding feasibility of negotiated agreements. Our findings show that there is good receptivity to the use of negotiated agreements both from the point of view of policy makers and industry leaders. The comparison with Dutch experiences shows no important gap between Mexican business leaders’ expectations regarding results in terms of efficiency gains and positive side effects and the results obtained by negotiated agreements in the Netherlands. Mexico benefits from a history of trust and fair play between the industrial sector and the government; homogeneity or clear leadership in polluting industrial sectors. Polluting firms are also concerned with their public Image and there is a widespread belief that the government will resort to other measures if negotiation fails. All the latter factors, which were determinant of success in The Netherlands, support the feasibility of using negotiated agreements as a collaborative strategy towards sustainability in Mexico.

Participation at the local level in the context of environmental governance

Although most attention is likely to be paid to local issues in local participatory processes, there is no firm reason to restrict participation at that level to local issues only. By distinguishing several levels of governance (sub-national, national, international and global) and focusing on various functions of governance (public agenda setting, policy formulation, policy implementation and self-managed activities), it is argued that local authorities and other local organisations can play a part at almost all levels of governance. The strong presence and participation of local interests at the local level may even provide opportunities for policy-making at higher levels of governance. This is because the integration of interests that has to take place at the local level may provide an opportunity for local government to develop a more integrated vision of public policy than the highly specialised branches of national government. Moreover, popular inputs to local policy processes can be assumed usually to be less structured according to content than the organisation of government. When dealing with a style of policy in which support for environmental policy measures is sought by consulting different groups in society, the local level also has the advantage of being close to individuals and groups that are more inaccessible at the national level.

Framing mechanisms: the interpretive policy entrepreneur’s toolbox

ABSTRACT Policy entrepreneurs were, originally, neither conceived to be active meaning-makers nor did they interact with other actors. They invested other resources such as time, energy, reputation and money in coupling problems, solutions and politics. Adding the interpretive dimension of interactional framing mechanisms turns them into interpretive policy entrepreneurs. This perspective improves our understanding of policy cases in which initial frame conflicts are resolved by extensive meaning-making work by one specific actor. We illustrate this interpretive policy entrepreneur concept with the innovative Sand Motor mega-sand nourishment scheme case, an artificial peninsula of 21 million m3 at the South Holland coast. Designed to achieve multiple aims, this coastal management scheme should serve coastal protection, nature development as well as recreational purposes. In the risk-averse, complex policy domain of Dutch coastal management, the provincial government of South Holland turned out to be an adept meaning-maker by linking other actors’ problem definitions to their proposed solution. Fourteen in-depth, semi-structured interviews put the provincial government at the heart of several framing interactions that led to frame convergence and ultimately the resolution of the initial frame conflict. Our interpretive analysis of framing interactions concludes that interactional framing mechanisms can reveal interpretive policy entrepreneurs.

An analysis of water consumption and pollution with an input-output model in the Haihe river basin, China

It is widely believed that the economic success in China is achieved at the expense of natural resources and has resulted in severe pollution of the environment, especially water resources. This study applies a hybrid input-output (IO) model linking economic and ecological systems in order to analyze water consumption and wastewater discharge in the Haihe River Basin. Within the environmental IO framework, a series of assessment indicators is calculated to assist in tracking both direct and indirect effects of freshwater consumption and wastewater discharge in the economic sector, as well as to distinguish the economic sectors that have greatest influence on water demand and pollution. Assessment results indicate that water consumption and pollution can be reduced by readjusting the structure of production, consumption and trade in the Haihe River Basin. It is concluded that in order to achieve sustainable development in the Haihe River Basin with its very poor water endowment, not only the direct but also the indirect effects on water demand and pollution should be considered when production, consumption and trade policies are formulated.