A method for risk analysis across governance systems: a Great Barrier Reef case study

Abstract

Healthy governance systems are key to delivering sound environmental management outcomes from global to local scales. There are, however, surprisingly few risk assessment methods that can pinpoint those domains and sub-domains within governance systems that are most likely to influence good environmental outcomes at any particular scale, or those if absent or dysfunctional, most likely to prevent effective environmental management. This paper proposes a new risk assessment method for analysing governance systems. This method is then tested through its preliminary application to a significant real-world context: governance as it relates to the health of Australia's Great Barrier Reef (GBR). The GBR exists at a supra-regional scale along most of the north eastern coast of Australia. Brodie et al (2012 Mar. Pollut. Bull. 65 81-100) have recently reviewed the state and trend of the health of the GBR, finding that overall trends remain of significant concern. At the same time, official international concern over the governance of the reef has recently been signalled globally by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). These environmental and political contexts make the GBR an ideal candidate for use in testing and reviewing the application of improved tools for governance risk assessment.

Evaluating Governance Arrangements and Decision Making for Natural Resource Management Planning: An Empirical Application of the Governance Systems Analysis Framework

“…The GSA is an analytical framework that was developed to address the lack of systemically-oriented evaluative frameworks for governance systems and to inform governance reform in complex landscapes (Dale et al, 2013b;Dale et al, 2013c). It uses the lens of structural-functionalism in combination with planning and systems theory to support analysis of the complex, multiscalar interactions within NRM governance systems.…”

“…A summary of the key interrogative questions raised by the GSA framework is shown in Table 1 (previously described and applied by Dale et al (2013b), Dale et al (2013c), and Potts et al (2014)). Also published in: (Dale et al, 2013b;Dale et al, 2013c;Potts et al, 2014) …”

“…The interactions between institutions impacts on governance, and environmental outcomes for NRM (Dale et al, 2013c;Dietz et al, 2003). Despite this, few existing evaluative frameworks are used in practice to analyse such governance systems holistically (For example Burns, 2006;Hill & Hupe, 2006).…”

“…The GSA framework has been applied to evaluate governance arrangements for the management of the Great Barrier Reef (Dale et al, 2013c), and the Australian carbon farming initiative (Dale et al, 2013a).…”

Understanding How Policy Actors Improvise and Collaborate in the Great Barrier Reef

“…GBR policy conflicts occur over values and priorities for the use of catchment and marine resources (Day 2016). GBR policy has been adapted and contextualized, leading to innovations in representative zoning (Day 2016), catchment water planning (Dale et al 2013), and paddock to reef monitoring (McCosker and Northey 2015). Policy advancements have enabled some progress towards marine conservation outcomes and further action is required to address massive threats to the GBR's future (McCook et al 2010;Hughes, Day, and Brodie 2015;Waterhouse et al 2016).…”