Urban Water Governance and Learning—Time for More Systemic Approaches?

Abstract

Social learning, especially triple-loop social learning involving institutional and governance changes, has great potential to address urban water issues such as flooding, drought, and pollution. It facilitates urban transition and the adoption of more systemic approaches and innovations. Social learning in water governance is a growing field, but the triple-loop learning concept remains vague and underexplored. Additionally, the focus is often on how social learning can contribute to progress with little attention being paid to barriers to learning. The aim of this paper is to increase understanding of triple-loop social learning to improve the “learning infrastructure”. It investigates key learning barriers for realizing green (livable) and adaptive cities in Malmö and Gothenburg, Sweden. Integration of nature-based solutions in spatial planning and development of these cities has been slow. The results found three types of barriers contributing to this: systemic (disconnecting parts with the whole); opacity (reducing communication between error detection and correction); and process-related (reducing the adoption of innovations). The paper contributes to understanding the social learning barriers for implementing planning. These insights could help overcome “adaptation inertia” and speed up policy learning towards sustainability and resilience.

A Future-Proof Built Environment through Regenerative and Circular Lenses—Delphi Approach for Criteria Selection

“…'Water', fundamental to life, is a crucial resource to be managed in a more systemic manner [68] through an implementation of water-sensitive principles [69] that could enable the water cycles inside and outside project boundaries [70], and at all phases, including the aspects of embodied water [71]. A systemic application of this framework should also consider how the use of nature-based solutions could enable the circularity of water systems [72], linking with category 4.3 ecosystem services provision.…”

Green stormwater infrastructure: A critical review of the barriers and solutions to widespread implementation

“…GSI installations inherently require management throughout their life cycles, which can be achieved through the planned implementation and sustained maintenance across and within organizations and institutions (Johns, 2019; Kabisch et al, 2016), making them susceptible to institutional and governance challenges. Among such barriers, the lack of effective and clear leadership is cited extensively and manifested through ineffective communication, vague role definition, and lack of transparency among project participants (Deely et al, 2020; Ibrahim et al, 2020; Johannessen & Mostert, 2020). Siloed organizational operation (Angelstam et al, 2017; Cousins & Hill, 2021; Jayakaran et al, 2020; Johannessen & Mostert, 2020; Kabisch et al, 2016) and institutional fragmentation (Cousins & Hill, 2021; Dhakal & Chevalier, 2017; Keeley et al, 2013; Matsler, Miller, et al, 2021) either vertical or horizontal, spatial or jurisdictional, are the other institutional paradigms shown to hinder the effective adoption and management of GSI practices.…”

“…Among such barriers, the lack of effective and clear leadership is cited extensively and manifested through ineffective communication, vague role definition, and lack of transparency among project participants (Deely et al, 2020; Ibrahim et al, 2020; Johannessen & Mostert, 2020). Siloed organizational operation (Angelstam et al, 2017; Cousins & Hill, 2021; Jayakaran et al, 2020; Johannessen & Mostert, 2020; Kabisch et al, 2016) and institutional fragmentation (Cousins & Hill, 2021; Dhakal & Chevalier, 2017; Keeley et al, 2013; Matsler, Miller, et al, 2021) either vertical or horizontal, spatial or jurisdictional, are the other institutional paradigms shown to hinder the effective adoption and management of GSI practices. A much‐referenced phenomenon in the hierarchical decision‐making paradigms within many public entities is reliance on decision‐making paths, that is, path dependence, that can impede innovative proposals, including GSI, from being effectively implemented (Dhakal & Chevalier, 2017; Matsler, Miller, et al, 2021; Matthews et al, 2015; Sarabi et al, 2019).…”

“…Departmental policy integration (Drosou et al, 2019) and improved partnership among stakeholders (Angelstam et al, 2017; Sarabi et al, 2019) to overcome institutional fragmentation are among other cited solutions. Adaptive management (Chaffin et al, 2016; Jayakaran et al, 2020) with well‐defined, coordinated, and quantifiable goals (Ibrahim et al, 2020; Johannessen & Mostert, 2020; L. Li et al, 2020) has been recommended to overcome emerging challenges throughout the life cycle of GSI projects. Engaging the local communities and their representatives through active partnerships and collaborative project planning and execution has been proven effective in several cases (Biernacka & Kronenberg, 2018; Cheshmehzangi et al, 2021; Geberemariam et al, 2017; Mumtaz, 2021).…”

“…Departmental policy integration (Drosou et al, 2019) and improved partnership among stakeholders (Angelstam et al, 2017;Sarabi et al, 2019) to overcome institutional fragmentation are among other cited solutions. Adaptive management (Chaffin et al, 2016;Jayakaran et al, 2020) with well-defined, coordinated, and quantifiable goals (Ibrahim et al, 2020;Johannessen & Mostert, 2020;L. Li et al, 2020) has been recommended to overcome emerging challenges throughout the life cycle of GSI projects.…”