Societal Drivers of European Water Governance:  A Comparison of Urban River Restoration Practices in France and Germany

Zingraff‐Hamed, Aude; Greulich, Sabine; Wantzen, Karl M.; Pauleit, Stephan

doi:10.3390/w9030206

Cited by 36 publications

(32 citation statements)

References 43 publications

(30 reference statements)

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“…The variables of an ecosystem provide the options for a water authority to act upon. During the first planning cycle of the WFD, water authorities throughout Europe invested on a large scale in the development of hydromorphological measures, e.g., nature-friendly water banks [19,[39][40][41]. Although their positive influence seems apparent, the effects of these measures on ecological objectives remain somewhat unclear.…”

Section: Ecological Perspectivementioning

confidence: 99%

“…This includes an adaptive planning and programmatic approach, a diversity of voluntary and mandatory policy instruments, including cost recovery for water services. After examining comparative assessments of the WFD implementation in multiple MS, it is clear that there are substantial differences in implementation approaches [6,10,41] resulting in a serious risk for effectiveness in practice, especially if these differences occur in transboundary river basins. The river basin approach, introduced to address water quality issues effectively, forces MS to cooperate and share responsibilities in a river basin, while objectives of the WFD have to be met by MS individually [4,45,46].…”

Section: Legal Perspectivementioning

confidence: 99%

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Towards More Effective Water Quality Governance: A Review of Social-Economic, Legal and Ecological Perspectives and Their Interactions

2018

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In this article, social-economic, legal and ecological perspectives on effectiveness of water quality governance and their interactions have been studied. Worldwide, authorities are facing the challenge of restoring and preserving aquatic ecosystems in accordance with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 6). Over the last few decades, governance approaches have often been used to realise these ambitions. To date, scholars have identified that it is difficult to relate governance approaches to water quality improvement and have offered several different explanations for this. Combined with a targeted conceptualisation of the perspectives and their interactions, the systematic literature review demonstrates the gap that exists in the current understanding of these interactions and what their effects are on water quality improvement, especially in regard to the identification of ecological issues and their boundary conditions for the legal framework and the development of measures and follow-up. The review also reveals that the scientific debate is focused on the planning rather than implementation phase. A step forward can be made by supplementing existing analytical frameworks by the interactions between the different perspectives, especially those related to problem definition and the development and realisation of measures.

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Section: Ecological Perspectivementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Legal Perspectivementioning

confidence: 99%

Towards More Effective Water Quality Governance: A Review of Social-Economic, Legal and Ecological Perspectives and Their Interactions

2018

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“…Finally, we wish to encourage practitioners and scientists to improve the documentation of urban hydrosystem restoration projects in the Global South. Documentation and efficiency analysis of river restoration projects have been strongly neglected in the Global North for a long time (e.g., Europe [16][17][18][19], Australia [20] and North America [21,22]). Consequently, restoration techniques were often applied without knowing their impacts, restoration targets were not precisely defined (or refined), and the interactions between different restoration activities remained unknown.…”

Section: Introduction: Urban Freshwater Hydrosystems Of the Global Somentioning

confidence: 99%

Urban Stream and Wetland Restoration in the Global South—A DPSIR Analysis

et al. 2019

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In many countries of the Global South, aquatic ecosystems such as streams, rivers, lakes, and wetlands are severely impacted by several simultaneous environmental stressors, associated with accelerated urban development, and extreme climate. However, this problem receives little attention. Applying a DPSIR approach (Drivers, Pressures, State, Impacts, Responses), we analyzed the environmental impacts and their effects on urban hydrosystems (including stagnant waters), and suggest possible solutions from a series of case studies worldwide. We find that rivers in the Global South, with their distinctive geographical and socio-political setting, display significant differences from the Urban Stream Syndrome described so far in temperate zones. We introduce the term of ‘Southern Urban Hydrosystem Syndrome’ for the biophysical problems as well as the social interactions, including the perception of water bodies by the urbanites, the interactions of actors (e.g., top-down, bottom-up), and the motivations that drive urban hydrosystem restoration projects of the Global South. Supported by a synthesis of case studies (with a focus on Brazilian restoration projects), this paper summarizes the state of the art, highlights the currently existing lacunae for research, and delivers examples of practical solutions that may inform UNESCO’s North–South–South dialogue to solve these urgent problems. Two elements appear to be specifically important for the success of restoration projects in the Global South, namely the broad acceptance and commitment of local populations beyond merely ‘ecological’ justifications, e.g., healthy living environments and ecosystems with cultural linkages (‘River Culture’). To make it possible implementable/practical solutions must be extended to (often poor) people having settled along river banks and wetlands.

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“…Most publications include two (N = 41) or three (N = 20) case studies in their comparisons. More than 50 cases are compared in only three publications (Heikkila 2004, Scott 2015, Zingraff-Hamed et al 2017.…”

Section: Case Study Data and Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For these publications, data were collected mainly using qualitative methods such as interviews and document analysis. In addition, a few publications are based on large-N surveys (e.g., Lebel et al 2013, Kadirbeyoglu and Özertan 2015, Harris et al 2017, Zingraff-Hamed et al 2017. We also identified one publication for which the authors conducted field experiments (Ibele et al 2017).…”

Section: Case Study Data and Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparative studies of water governance: a systematic review

Özerol¹,

Kruijf²,

Brisbois³

et al. 2018

E&S

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Governance is key to tackling water challenges and transforming water management under the increasing pressures of competing water uses and climate change. Diverse water governance regimes have evolved in different countries and regions to regulate the development and management of water resources and the provision of water services. Scholars and policy analysts have been comparing these water governance regimes to analyze elements and processes, to assess performance, or to draw lessons. Although the number of such studies has increased since the 1980s, no comprehensive synthesis exists. We present such a synthesis by conducting a systematic review of the emerging field of comparative water governance studies, and we critically reflect on how water governance is defined, conceptualized, and assessed in different contexts. Based on the resultant insights, we identify four areas for future research:(1) improving the balance between small-, medium-, and large-N studies that are used in comparative studies of water governance; (2) conducting longitudinal comparisons of water governance to identify temporal governance trends and patterns; (3) expanding the geographical coverage of the comparisons to include underrepresented countries and regions, focusing more broadly on the global South; and (4) addressing the issues of justice, equity, and power, which are becoming increasingly important in tackling the water governance challenges that are exacerbated by the effects of climate change, industrialization, and urbanization.

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Societal Drivers of European Water Governance: A Comparison of Urban River Restoration Practices in France and Germany

Cited by 36 publications

References 43 publications

Towards More Effective Water Quality Governance: A Review of Social-Economic, Legal and Ecological Perspectives and Their Interactions

Towards More Effective Water Quality Governance: A Review of Social-Economic, Legal and Ecological Perspectives and Their Interactions

Urban Stream and Wetland Restoration in the Global South—A DPSIR Analysis

Comparative studies of water governance: a systematic review

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