Sander Meijerink

Realizing water transitions: The role of policy entrepreneurs in water policy change

This special feature aims to further our understanding of the way in which transitions occur in water management. We contend that if we want to understand such transitions, we need to understand policy change and its opposite, policy stability. These issues have attracted considerable academic attention. Our interest is, however, very specific and thereby unique: we review the role that (groups of) individuals play in the process of preparing, instigating, and implementing policy change. In this article, a review of the literature on policy change provides the basis from which we extract a set of strategies which are available to policy entrepreneurs. The questions for the rest of this special feature are first, can we detect the influence of policy entrepreneurs in actual cases of major policy change, and second, which strategies have they actually used to affect policy change?

The regional governance of climate adaptation: A framework for developing legitimate, effective, and resilient governance arrangements

Adaptation to climate change raises important governance issues. Notwithstanding the increasing attention on climate adaptation at the global and European level, the variety of local conditions and climate impacts points towards a prime role for regional actors in climate change adaptation. They face the challenge of developing and implementing adaptation options and increasing the adaptive capacity of regions so that expected or unexpected impacts of future climate change can be addressed. This paper presents a conceptual framework to analyse the regional governance of climate adaptation. It addresses the following key questions: (1) What are the distinct challenges for the regional governance of climate adaptation? (2) Which concepts can guide the design of new governance arrangements and strategies? (3) What challenges to legal principles are posed by the climate? (4) What research methods are suitable for developing and testing governance arrangements and strategies? We present a framework designed to address each of these questions; it has analytical, design, normative, and methodological components. In the paper, examples from the Dutch regional governance of climate adaptation serve as illustrations of the conceptual argumentation.

Shifts in the Public-Private Divide in Flood Management

Flood management is changing in many countries across the globe. In spite of the different institutional paths taken in these countries, various common shifts in the governance arrangements for flood management can be observed, most notably decentralization and the increasing influence of the private sector. The central argument of this paper is that a new conceptualization of the public–private divide in flood management, which is based on the dimensions of collectivity and visibility, is helpful in understanding and judging these shifts. Modern flood risk management asks for new cooperative arrangements between state, market and civil society in which the visibility and collectivity dimensions are reunited.

Explaining Continuity and Change in International Policies: Issue Linkage, Venue Change, and Learning on Policies for the River Scheldt Estuary 1967–2005:

This paper aims to assess the explanatory power and to explore the compatibility of three major accounts of policy continuity and change in cross-border policy domains: negotiation analysis (NA), the advocacy coalition framework (ACF), and the punctuated-equilibrium (PE) framework. These frameworks are used to analyze policies for the river Scheldt estuary between 1967 and 2005. The estuary of the river Scheldt is situated partly in the Belgian region of Flanders and partly in the Netherlands. Major international policy issues in this estuary are the maritime access to the port of Antwerp, water and sediment pollution, and estuarine rehabilitation. It will be shown that the negotiations on these issues are characterized by complex issue linkages, and that NA does very well in explaining both deadlocks and international policy agreement. However, unlike the ACF, NA does not specify how actors come to define their interests. Moreover, we will argue that learning across the prodevelopment Antwerp coalition and the cross-border environmentalist coalition accounts for a gradual convergence of Dutch and Flemish perceived interests. Finally, PE offers useful complementary insights as Scheldt estuary policies cannot be understood without addressing the interrelations between the processes of negotiation, learning, the creation and enforcement of game rules, which have been going on in different venues simultaneously.

What kind of leadership do we need for climate adaptation? A framework for analyzing leadership objectives, functions, and tasks in climate change adaptation

This paper explores the relevance of various leadership concepts for climate change adaptation. After defning four main leadership challenges which are derived from the key characteristics of climate adaptation issues, a review of modern leadership theories addressing these challenges is presented. On the basis of this review we develop an integrative framework for analyzing leadership for climate change adaptation. It distinguishes between various leadership functions which together contribute to climate change adaptation: the political—administrative, adaptive, enabling, connective, and dissemination functions. Each function requires the execution of specific leadership tasks which can be performed by different types of leaders, such as positional leaders, ideational leaders, sponsors, boundary workers, policy entrepreneurs, or champions. The framework can be used to analyze or monitor the emergence and realization of specific leadership functions and to specify the need for strengthening particular functions in practices of climate adaptation.

Climate-proof planning for flood-prone areas: assessing the adaptive capacity of planning institutions in the Netherlands

It is generally acknowledged that adapting low-lying, flood-prone deltas to the projected impacts of climate change is of great importance. Deltas are densely populated and often subject to high risk. Climate-proof planning is, however, not only a new but also a highly complex task that poses problems for existing institutional and administrative structures, which are the product of times in which climate issues were of little importance. This paper assesses the capacity of the historically grown Dutch planning institutions to promote climate-proof planning for flood-prone areas. The Adaptive Capacity Wheel provides the methodological framework. The analysis focuses on two planning projects in the west of the Netherlands: the Zuidplas Polder project at the regional level and the Westergouwe project at the local level. It is shown that the planning institutions involved in these projects enable climate-proof planning, but to a limited extent. They face five institutional weaknesses that may cause risks on the long term. To climate-proof urban developments in flood-prone areas, it is necessary to break through the strong path–dependent development of planning institutions and to build in more flexibility in existing rules and procedures.

The politics of river basin organisations : Coalitions, institutional design choices and consequences

Contents 1. The politics of river basin organisations. Institutional design choices, coalitions and consequences Dave Huitema and Sander Meijerink 2. Global water governance and river basin organisations Frank Jaspers and Joyeeta Gupta 3. Cooperative transboundary water governance in Canadas Mackenzie river basin: status and prospects Rob de Loe and Michelle Morris 4. Designing an agency to manage a wicked water problem: the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board Denise Lach and Dan Calvert 5. Partnering for success in England: the Westcountry Rivers Trust Hadrian Cook, David Benson and Alex Inman 6. State-founded water boards in industrialized western Germany Frank Huesker and Christoph Bernhardt 7. Emergence, performance and transformation of Portuguese water institutions in the age of river basin organisations Andreas Thiel and Antonio Guerreiro de Brito 8. The politics of establishing catchment management agencies in South Africa: the case of the Breede-Overberg Catchment Management Agency Richard Meissner and Nikki Funke 9. Introducing river basin management in a transitional context - a case study about Ukraine Nina Hagemann and Marco Leidel 10. River basin organisations in Northern Afghanistan: the holy trinity of contemporary water management in practice Jeroen Warner and Vincent Thomas 11. Evolving river basin management in Mongolia? Ines Dombrowsky, Annabelle Houdret and Lena Horlemann 12. Interplay between new basin organisations, pre-existing institutions and emerging environmental networks in the Mae Kuang watershed, northern Thailand Santita Ganjanapan and Louis Lebel 13. The evolution of river basin management in the Murray-Darling Basin Andrew Ross and Daniel Connell 14. Institutional design, politics and performance of river basin organisations Sander Meijerink and Dave Huitema

Leadership within regional climate change adaptation networks: the case of climate adaptation officers in Northern Hesse, Germany

In the climate adaptation literature, leadership tends to be an understudied factor, although it may be crucial for regional adaptation governance. This article shows how leadership can be usefully conceptualized and operationalized within regional governance networks dealing with climate adaptation. It applies an integrative framework inspired by complexity leadership theory, distinguishing several leadership functions to enhance the adaptive capacity of regional networks. We focus on one specific institutional innovation, appointed climate adaptation officers, who seek to connect science and governance practice, and to mainstream climate adaptation. Our question is twofold: What is the potential of climate adaptation officers to advance the adaptation agenda and to what extent did their establishment and working practice mirror the various leadership functions needed to raise the adaptive capacity of the regional network they operated in? The integrative leadership framework structures the analysis of climate adaptation officers forming part of a government-funded project seeking to enhance adaptation to climate variability in the central German region of Northern Hesse. The data consist of interviews with scientists and regional authority employees and project documentation including an evaluation. We find that climate adaptation officers raised awareness for climate adaptation and helped to shape and implement a number of projects within the overall KLIMZUG programme, highlighting impeding and enabling factors. The process of setting up this institutional innovation involved all forms of leadership functions and is an example of vertical mainstreaming. Its operation involved most clearly enabling and connective leadership functions and is an example of horizontal mainstreaming.

The politics of river basin organisations: institutional design choices, coalitions and consequences

Water and human development are inextricably linked. Human settlement tends to concentrate along rivers and coasts. This is because water offers fertile soils, opportunities for irrigation, and possibilities for transport and trade. To use the possibilities of the water as much as possible and to reduce the risks associated with human settlement close to water, social organisation and systems of governance are required. Arguably because water is such a crucial element in societal development, many ancient societies had to make decisions about their water management organisations early. The degree to which organisations founded for water management influence later traditions of governing is under debate. Some have claimed that the organisation of water management, which can be centralised and focused on large-scale infrastructure or, alternatively, decentralised and focused on local management, determined the governance system of entire empires (Wittfogel 1957). But others suggest that it is rather the other way around, in the sense that societies with accomplished hierarchical governance structures were better able to develop centralised infrastructures for managing water and thus to control their water environment. Whatever the protracted history of water management and its importance for broader historical patterns of governance that have emerged since ancient times, the advent of the nation state (depending on the country in question, this took place in most cases in the eighteenth, nineteenth or twentieth centuries) was a significant development, and in most cases a serious break from the traditions of the past.

The Public‐Private Divide in Flood Management

There is an urgent need for re-thinking flood management strategies and institutions in many regions across the globe. The main reasons for that are climate change and the high rate of flood plain occupancy. Climate change causes sea-level rise and an increase of peak discharges in many river basins. Hence, the probability of flooding in many coastal areas and floodplains is increasing. In the past decade, flood management has gained a prominent place on the political agenda in many countries. River floods in the European rivers Rhine, Meuse, Elbe, Danube, Oder and Moldau have raised awareness of the vulnerability of the often densely populated areas along these rivers. In the United States, the Mississippi floods and the devastating hurricane Katrina have shown the urgent need for better flood management policies. During the making of this special issue, dramatic river floods occurred in Great Britain, underlying the societal relevance of our joint research endeavour. Equally important to the increased probability of flooding is the increase in flood exposure due to the rapid development of flood prone areas over the past decades. Both climate change and flood plain occupancy increase flood risks. Water experts have developed various new strategies to cope with this challenge, both in terms of new technologies and new policies. This special issue focuses on the latter, e.g. policies aimed at creating more space for the water, and risk based policies. This special issue addresses these substantive and institutional changes within the flood policy domain, but focuses specifically on the public–private divide in flood management. A key issue in flood management is the divide between public and private responsibilities. The public–private divide differs from country to country. A brief comparison between three countries may illustrate this point. In the UK and the USA, for example, flood insurance is an important instrument in flood management, implying a substantial role for private parties. Inhabitants take out an insurance policy with a private insurance company. So, two private parties find solutions for the damage that inhabitants may have suffered from flooding. However, in the Netherlands flood management is the unique responsibility of government. Until now, it has not been possible to have private insurance policies for the impact of flooding. The public–private divide is country specific, but that is not to state that these lines within nations are settled for once and for all. On the contrary. In previous centuries, the responsibilities between private and public actors have shifted continuously, but at present we observe a debate on the public–private divide that goes beyond the gradual changes that we have seen in the past. Many countries feel that their flood management is in need of review because of the many floods in the past decade and the foreseen impacts of climate change. The Dutch, for example, used to make use of the concept of ‘probability of flooding’, but now they are on the verge of a paradigm shift towards ‘risk’ as central notion. ‘Risk’ is defined as Probability x Impact. This shift has important implications for the public–private divide. In the Probability-approach, the protection against floods is conceptualized as a pure collective good. In the definition of a pure collective good, no one can be excluded from its benefits. Applied to the case of ‘protection against flooding’, once