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

Abstract

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.

Nitrogen in Water-Portugal and Denmark: Two Contrasting Realities

“…Barriers that prevent science-based information to further influence EU policy making are mostly national and regional and relate to the lack of political will, of incentives to adoption and of implementation of command and control legislation [60]. Moreover, the lack of current understanding of the effects of the measures on the real water quality improvement, further complicates science contribution to policy making [61].…”

Social Barriers to Implementing Continuous Improvement Initiatives

“…Sustainability allows for long-term focus on efficient use of resources, minimal environmental impact, and responsible economic development (Brown, Hanson, Liverman, & Merideth, 1987). As such, it has been linked with ethics related to proper resource utilization, quality, and other corporate social responsibility initiatives (Wuijts, Driessen, & Van Rijswick, 2018). OE initiatives, therefore, are crucial to sustainability.…”

An ecological perspective on a river’s rights: a recipe for more effective water quality governance?

“…As a result, social-economic, legal, ecological and hydrological disciplines all contribute to the realization of a healthy river. The interactions between these disciplines are important conditions for effective water quality governance (Wuijts, Driessen, & Van Rijswick, 2018). Water quality governance, therefore, involves taking steps to address these links between the use of ecosystems by humans, also referred to as ecosystem services, and the checks and balances required to account for the intrinsic value of ecosystems in societal decision making (Watson & Zakri, 2003).…”

“…In response to the first research question, we have used an earlier systematic literature review on the effectiveness of water quality governance from an ecological perspective and its interactions with legal and social-economic perspectives (Wuijts et al, 2018) and complemented this by following up references (snowball sampling). To address the second question, we analyze the conditions of governance for each of the ecological requirements and illustrate this by reference to case-study material from the Netherlands on the implementation of the WFD.…”