Thomas Bolognesi

The paradox of the modernisation of urban water systems in Europe: Intrinsic institutional limits for sustainability

This article assesses the sustainability potential of the urban water systems in Europe (UWSE) following their modernisation. A decade after implementation and close to the first deadlines, modernisation efforts seem to have not been (totally) successful. This article examines the ability of governance to achieve sustainability and poses the question of how modernisation develops a particular “terrain” more or less favourable to sustainability. We use the Institutional resource regimes framework which has been dedicated to determining the potential for sustainability of natural resources regulation. Conclusions show that the modernisation of UWSEs offers a path for progress which though necessary is insufficient due to a lack of coherence between policy design and the regulatory system. Globally, the development of regulation goes hand in hand with increasing inconsistencies that reduce the efficiency of the reform.

THE RESULTS OF MODERNIZING NETWORK INDUSTRIES THE CASE OF URBAN WATER SERVICES IN EUROPE

Since the 1980s, the European Union favours regulatory reforms in network industries and the water sector appears to be the latest to be included in this. We deal with this issue while questioning the concept of “modernization of the Urban Water Systems in Europe” (UWSE). This process began in the second half of 1990 and the Water framework directive (2000) constitutes its main element. Three core principles provide the basis for the modernization of UWSEs: 1/ a rationalisation of the public command; 2/ an increasing use of market mechanisms; 3/ the identification of sustainable development goals. After implementation it appears that many UWSEs fall short of expectations. Our analysis is concentrated on the impacts and the operating mechanisms, impacts of such reform. It is argued that modernization entails a change in the modalities of coordinating UWSEs, while intensifying and polarizing the problems of sustainability around economic issues. At an organizational level, modernization tends to depoliticize UWSEs and increase socio-institutional resilience. These two phenomena are mainly the result of hybridization of institutional arrangements in favor of the market. With respect to sustainability potential, the lack of coherence in the development of UWSEs re-regulation explains the relatively gloomy outlook.

The water vulnerability of metro and megacities: An investigation of structural determinants

Urban areas are becoming increasingly subject to and vulnerable to water-related natural disasters. Urban areas are a kind of socio-ecological system wherein the human development dynamics co-evolve with the natural dynamics. Most of the literature is focused on the impact of natural disasters on human development; we evaluate the impacts of human development on natural disasters and present an analysis of this phenomenon in the context of megacities. The approach is exploratory and begins with the construction of a database on the 595 existing megacities in the world. Multifactor analysis is then used to determine the main characteristics of these megacities. Finally, three structural components (maturity, anthropization and centrality) are identified and then correlated with data on water-related hazards, distinguishing groups of cities according to their structure and factors of vulnerability to water-related risks.

Assessing Socio-Technical Resistances to Public Policy Instruments: Insights from Water Performance Indicators in the Grenoble Area (France)

This article examines the phenomenon of local resistance to regulation by instruments in the water sector. Governance failures are mainly explained by concentrating on governance design, considering regulation as a set of control mechanisms. We propose an alternative perspective by putting the emphasis on resistance phenomena within services. This is motivated by the observation of misuse of performance indicators by local actors in urban water systems in Europe. We assume that resistances have significant impact on regulation process and efficiency. Therefore, opening the black box of resistances, we show that they are frequent, impactful and not only the consequence of opportunism. These results underline a crucial limitation of public policies and regulations that are based on New public management or classical economics of regulation.

Modernization and Urban Water Governance

This book describes the impact of modernization on the organization and sustainability of Urban Water Systems in Europe (UWSEs). Bolognesi explains that the modernization of UWSEs was a regulatory shock that began in the 1990s and was put into action with the EU Water Framework Directive in the year 2000. This process sought to reorganize water governance in order to achieve certain sustainability goals, but it fell short of expectations. Modernization and Urban Water Governance provides an update on the organization and sustainability of UWSEs, while drawing from a comparative analysis of German, French, and English water models and an institutionalist explanation of the current situation. With a focus on transaction costs, property rights allocation and institutional environments, this book argues that the modernization of UWSEs tends to depoliticize these systems and make them more resilient but also limits their potential for sustainable management. This book will be relevant to those wishing to understand the real impacts of water reform in Europe according to national contingencies.

Why Resource Regimes Fail in the Long Run? The Role of Institutional Complexity Traps and Transversal Transaction Costs

The Institutional Resource Regime framework is a realistic approach of the socio-ecological systems governance and sustainability, which is based on the combination of public policies analysis and institutional economics. If the effects identified by the framework have been confirmed, there is no clear understanding of the institutional mechanisms at work. The integration of a dynamic perspective provides the framework with tools capable of defining the workings of governance and extends its relevance to policy forecasting or specification. To do so, we propose to use concepts belonging to New Institutional Economics. Our research question is how changes in the characteristics of an Institutional Resource Regime contribute to improving the sustainability potential of a Socio-Ecological System. The paper provides an original analysis of environmental governance and transaction costs, which results in three generic theoretical propositions.

UWSEs Sustainability and Modernization: Achievements and Main Challenges

This chapter highlights the impact of modernization on the sustainability of urban water systems in Europe and what the remaining challenges are, comparing the cases of Germany, France and England. It shows how economic and environmental aspects of sustainability fall short of expectations while social dimensions have a better outcome. Then the chapter shifts its emphasis to the economic mechanisms used for coordinating the modernization process. These mechanisms improve the ability to adapt in the face of new problems, but also increase uncertainty about future trajectories. The chapter also critically discusses price incentive mechanisms as a means of dealing with resource management and the social dimensions of sustainability.

UWSEs’ Organization and Modernization: Similarities and Variations

This chapter highlights how modernization has had an impact on the structure of urban water systems in Europe (UWSE) by depicting a European model and comparing its German, French and English variations. It provides empirical clues which indicate that the ongoing regulatory changes are contributing to reducing the role of the state in the governance of UWSEs in favour of new actors (private operators, civil society or third-party regulatory agencies). Similarly, it appears that the polymorphic character of UWSEs varies according to how far modernization has taken hold and that new contractual forms tend to increase flexibility in UWSEs.

The Micro-institutional Determinants of Depoliticization and Resilience in UWSEs

This chapter explores why the modernization of urban water systems in Europe (UWSEs) brings about the process of their depoliticization. Furthermore, it investigates why modernization implementation goes with a resilient dynamic of water systems. It appears that modernization renders the structure of property rights within the UWSEs more complex, expanding the distribution of associated rights of control. This mechanism is central to the depoliticization process. Institutional arrangements reflecting the organizational principles of modernization emerge more easily when institutional matrices give credibility to impersonal commitments and reflect a preference for flexibility. The diversity of capitalism allows these elements and their dynamics to be observed while explaining the variety of ideal-types of UWSEs.

Institutional Dynamics and Sustainability: The Trade-Off Between Broader Regulation and Consistent Regulation

This chapter explores how the institutional dynamic of modernization limits the potential for the sustainability of urban water systems in Europe (UWSEs), revealing a paradox. Modernization brings with it an increased number of rules intended to regulate UWSEs in a harmonious and sustainable way. However, it appears inherently unable to bring about such a development. This failure comes from the ambivalent effect of the increase in the number of rules in UWSEs, which both generate regulations and inconsistencies. This multiplication of the number of rules stems from two different mechanisms of UWSEs’ expansion (expansion by means of control, and expansion by means of self-organization), which can conflict and impede high coherence of governance.