Over the past decades the Dutch people have been confronted with severe waterrelated problems, which are the result of an unsustainable water system, arising from human interventions in the physical infrastructure of the water system and the water management style. The claims of housing, industry, infrastructure and agriculture have resulted in increasing pressure on the water system. The continuous subsidence of soil and climate change has put pressure on the land. Hence, the nature and magnitude of water-related problems have changed. Longitudinal research of relevant national policy documents reveals that the water management regime has changed its water management style over the past thirty years from a technocratic scientific style towards an integral and participatory style. We have investigated if the historical development in Dutch Water management can be characterized as a transition. Based on longitudinal research through an integrated systems analysis, document research and expert interviews, we have reconstructed the historical narrative by using the transition concepts of multi-level and multi-phase. This research indicates that the shift in Dutch Water management can be characterized as a transition. This transition is currently in the takeoff stage and near the acceleration stage. This is a crucial stage as long as the considerable differences between the strategic macro-vision and the practical implementation at the micro-level remains. As long as these levels are not compatible (modulation), the transition will not be completed successfully. Transition management as multi-level governance model should therefore be adopted to facilitate the modulation.
In this article, the authors address the challenge of including societal responses, society-environment interactions, discontinuity, and surprise in environmental scenario analysis. They do so through developing and testing a perspective-based simulation game for a typical Dutch river stretch. Concepts deriving from Cultural Theory, the Advocacy Coalition Framework, and Transition Theory provide the input for the game design. Players take on the role of water managers, responding to events and developments in the water-society system under specific realizations of a climate scenario. Responses include the choice for specific river management options, changing coalition perspectives, and changes in advocacy coalition membership. A pilot case study shows that the simulation game is a useful tool to explore possible future river management dynamics. It generates relevant insights in the water management strategies that may be chosen under future conditions, the possible drivers underlying future societal perspective change, and the way advocacy coalitions may interact. As such, the simulation game offers great potential for developing and assessing policy relevant climate adaptation pathways, in which water-society interaction, discontinuity, and surprise is taken explicitly into account. The main challenges for future research Article at GEORGIAN COURT UNIV on March 31, 2015 sag.sagepub.com Downloaded from
A fundamental transformation of our current energy system in the future is inevitable. To this end, this paper presents a 'fresh' perspective on the Dutch energy field based on transition theory. From this perspective, a number of starting points are suggested for energy transition management in order to influence the speed and direction of the energy transition. In the second part of this paper, these principles are used to reflect upon the way the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs is currently applying transition management. As such, this paper itself is part of the ongoing co-production of knowledge between science and policy, that emerged over the past few years in the Netherlands with regard to transition management.
ABSTRACT. Recent research suggests that transitions toward adaptive water management regimes are needed because current water management regimes cannot adequately respond to uncertainty. The pivotal question is how to understand and manage such transitions. The literature on adaptive management addresses this question in part, but must now move beyond the descriptive toward a prescriptive management framework. Transition management theory could help in meeting this challenge. The similarity of the theoretical starting points yet different applications offer fertile conditions for cross-pollination. We investigate three central concepts from the transition management literature for their potential contribution to adaptive management. In particular, the notions of arenas and shadow networks merit further study through joint research.
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