Integrating water resource management and land-use planning at the rural–urban interface: Insights from a political economy approach

Abstract

a b s t r a c tInstitutional obstacles to integrated water management at the river basin scale have been discussed in detail in the water governance literature, but there has been less attention to the development of analytical framework for understanding local government cooperation. In this study, a median voter model was developed to describe the political processes by which municipalities lend their support to land-use control in river basin management planning. Relative income, population growth, and land cover data -as measured at municipality level -are advanced to be the main determinants of municipalities' positioning on additional environmental zoning. The consultation process for the SAGE (planning and water management scheme) for the Gironde estuary and associated areas was used as a case study. Spatial logit estimation of the determinants of the results of voting in this consultation process suggests that municipalities' decisions are strongly influenced by the landscape preferences of the median voter. Acceptance of the SAGE project is an increasing function of relative income and population growth, as measured at municipality level. Furthermore, the municipalities that reject it are mainly those with the largest agricultural areas. The results confirm the existence of a very strong political component in the process by which a municipality decides whether or not to support a river basin plan. This decision can be linked to the preservation of natural landscape amenities in peripheral areas, while elsewhere it is connected to the protection of farming. Theoretical and empirical (R. Tina). 1 Tel.: þ33 5 57 89 08 37.Water Resources and Economics 9 (2015) 45-59 developments of political economy analysis provide an alternative framework by which to understand institutional fits and interplay in water resource management.

Recovery of the Tambobamba Watershed after Environmental Zoning and Monitoring Using Vegetation Indices

“…Research has suggested different types of environmental zoning [5,12,15,16,24,27]. Designing EZ must be done according to the economic, social, environmental, political, and institutional needs of the inhabitants in the watershed.…”

“…Watershed management addresses anthropic problems [7], current land use [12], land use conflicts [13], excessive use of ecological resources [9], biological resources [14], water resources [15]. To solve these problems, watershed management employs multiple evaluation criteria, among them are the potential areas of intervention that can be addressed via environmental zoning (EZ) [9,10,16]. For zoning and management, it is necessary to start from the watershed concept using satellite monitoring and evaluation [1], as well as information on socioeconomic and biophysical characteristics [2,4].…”

“…The most important thing in EZ is to design the potential areas of intervention with the protection, handling, management, and conservation of the environment (natural resources) [5,9,13] in mind, without overlooking the essential issue of the -basic needs of the population‖ [4,17,18]. EZ involves the integration, analysis, and planning with respect to controversial issues such as territorial planning [15,16,19], potential use of natural resources [6], evaluation of environmental impacts [3,18], deterioration of natural resources [1], spatial distribution of the population and anthropic impacts [5,16], efficient and productive industrial activities [9], demographic characterization, manipulation of current land use [8,15], capacity of load that the soil resists in the formation of new resources (mentioned by institutions and governmental political norms) [20], edaphological and ecological characteristics [21,22], land cover according to the natural cover (non-anthropic origin) [16,21,23], and natural areas protected by government institutions (foreign and/or local laws) [7,17,24,25]. To implement EZ, it is necessary to start with socioeconomic and biophysical parameters [13,21].…”

Coordination and Participation Boards under the European Water Framework Directive: Different Approaches Used in Some EU Countries

“…However, some authors highlight that coordination between planning at RBD and planning (SDAGE) at the municipal level (SAGE) may be an issue in terms of implementation of measures. For instance, Christophe and Tina [77] highlighted that the municipalities may be more interested in re-election than in water protection, and this may be an obstacle for the implementation of some types of measures. In Spain, while many studies have focused on how coordination and participation are achieved at regional level, the capacity of CH to coordinate the planning at RBD level is not evident form the analysed literature.…”

Towards a tailored vision of water security in the North: A case study of the Inuvialuit Settlement Region in the Canadian Arctic

“…Environmental zoning often reflects the interests of the social group controlling this political process (Boschet & Rambonilaza, 2015). One suggestion for addressing this is through the use of rescaling, such as a shift from provincial to watershed-based management systems.…”