BUILDING THE AGENDA FOR INSTITUTIONAL RESEARCH IN WATER RESOURCE MANAGEMENT1 |
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| Authors: | William Blomquist Tanya Heikkila Edella Schlager |
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| Institution: | 1. Respectively, Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, Indiana University, 425 University Blvd., Indianapolis, Indiana 46202–5140;2. Assistant Professor, School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University, Biosphere 2 Center, 32540 Biosphere Road, Oracle, Arizona 85623;3. and Associate Professor, School of Public Administration and Policy, The University of Arizona, 405 McClelland Hall, Tucson, Arizona 85721 (E-Mail/Blomquist: blomquis@iupui.edu). |
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| Abstract: | ABSTRACT: This paper pursues more specifically the recommendations of a recent National Research Council report recommending greater attention to research on institutions in the field of water resource management. The important challenge for the future in institutional research lies in going beyond the observation that institutions are important and in explaining instead how institutions actually affect management options and outcomes. It is possible to illuminate the relationships between institutional features and water management through comparative institutional research. This paper offers recommendations for studying water institutions in a comparative context, including methodological recommendations concerning approaches to comparative institutional research, and topics for comparative institutional research that appear especially fruitful at this time. The example of conjunctive management is used to illustrate the importance of institutional factors in water management, drawing to some extent on the authors’ recent experience with a comparative study of conjunctive management institutions. |
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| Keywords: | water resources research institutional arrangements water law water management social and political water policy/regulation/decision making |
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