Maia Lordkipanidze

Governance assessment of a protected area : the case of the Alde Feanen National Park

This paper addresses the challenge of appropriate governance of complexity and diversity in the Dutch national park of Alde Feanen. The issue is how to enhance ecosystem resilience. Our focus relates to a navigable waterway within the park that affects the natural values of the area. The governance assessment tool is used to assess the governance context of the waterway and ecosystem resilience in the area. The study shows that a lack of a long-term integrated vision makes the governance context less supportive. Such a vision could maximize the focus on the resilience of the parks nature and motivate actors to work towards a common future for a concerned area. However, institutional complexity, combined with institutional inertia, is revealed as a hindrance to the quality of governance and shapes a weak ability to adapt the current situation to move towards resilience.

Drought awareness through agricultural policy : multi-level action in Salland, The Netherlands

This chapter focuses on the Salland region of the Netherlands and presents our analysis regarding the role of governance context on the new irrigation policy of the Water Authority of Groot Salland (Waterschap Groot Salland—WGS). The irrigation policy was adopted in early 2013 by the five water authorities in the eastern Netherlands. Given the drought conditions in this region, the policy is concerned with finding a balance between the use of groundwater and surface water by farmers and the water needs of vulnerable nature areas.

Eifel-Rur: Old Water Rights and Fixed Frameworks for Action

This chapter summarises our analysis of drought governance in the Eifel-Rur region of Germany. Within the Interreg IV-B project DROP a team of researchers from five universities and knowledge institutes performed two field visits to the Eifel-Rur region and held interviews with authorities and stakeholders.

Flanders: Regional Organization of Water and Drought and Using Data as Driver for Change

This chapter presents a summary of the analysis results of the governance of drought-related issues in the Flanders region of Belgium. In the context of the Interreg IV-B project DROP, a team of researchers from four universities and knowledge institutes visited Flanders twice to perform interviews with authorities and stakeholders (October 2013 and May 2014). The visit was supported by colleagues at the Flemish Environment Agency (Vlaamse Milieumaatschappij, VMM). The exchange was held in the form of individual and group interviews and workshops with stakeholders including representatives from different institutions and sectors, e.g. from the drinking water company, national and local nature protection organizations, local farmers and local and national farmers organizations, the Flemish Environment Agency, different provinces, e.g. Province Vlaams-Brabant, and local municipalities, e.g. Kortemark Municipality. The analysis was guided by the drought-related Governance Assessment Tool (GAT) developed for the project

The Fragmentation-Coherence Paradox in Twente

In this chapter, we will concentrate on the Dutch water authority of Vechtstromen, more specifically the region of Twente part of Vechtstromen. The Twente region has some 135,000 ha and about 630,000 inhabitants. Though most of the Netherlands is flat and the highly artificial system of waterways often enables to let water in from outside each region, a substantial part of the Twente region does not have this option and is thus fully dependent on rainwater and groundwater. Apart from the wetland nature areas, especially the northeast of the region is for this reason relatively vulnerable for water scarcity and droughts.