Multi-level water governance – the case of the Morsa River Basin in Norway

Management of fresh water resources meets a range of often conflicting interests. Waterways usually run across political and administrative borders and hence make management difficult and collective action politically challenging. In order to meet these challenges, multi-level bioregional approaches to water management have been called for. Such an approach is institutionalised in the EU's Water Framework Directive (WFD). This paper presents the experiences of the Morsa water sub-district in southern Norway, a pilot for implementing the WFD. The paper discusses Morsa in the light of four principles for multi-level water governance: management on a bioregional scale; polycentric governance; public participation; and an experimental approach to water governance. Contrary to widely held assumptions that collective action in polycentric networks will be difficult because actors will follow their own narrow interests, the findings demonstrate how this is not an absolute truth, and how social action cannot be fully explained by rational action theories. The analysis concludes that the relative success of Morsa relates to a complex of factors, including openness of practices and active involvement of key actors, strong but including leadership, and a knowledge based ‘hybrid’ type of multi-level network combining horizontal and vertical network governance.     

Thinking with salmon about rain tanks: commons as intra-actions

The construction of California's large waterworks was inextricably entangled with a discourse of progress through technoscientific control over unruly rivers. In recent years, a turn towards decentralised governance and diversified infrastructure has produced alternate discourses of human–ecological collaboration and water as a commons. I investigate how water is understood by residents along Salmon Creek (Sonoma Co., CA) engaged in efforts to increase streamflow and restore salmon runs. Drawing on Barad's theory of agential realism, I find that living with springs and rainwater harvesting cisterns enacts intra-actions that increase residents' sense of interdependence with other human and nonhuman watershed residents. I argue that commons frameworks represent a coherent alternative to state and market frameworks of water governance.     

(Dis)connected communities and sustainable place-making

Why, despite a recent surge in the UK in “sustainable communities” policy discourse, do so many community-led sustainability initiatives remain fragmented, marginal and disconnected from local government strategies? How can community- and government-led sustainability initiatives be better integrated such that they add significantly to a denser matrix and cluster of sustainable places? These questions, we argue, lie at the heart of current sustainable place-making debates. With particular reference to two spatial scales of analysis and action, the small town of Stroud, England and the city of Cardiff, Wales, we explore the twin processes of disconnection and connection between community sustainability activists and local state actors. We conclude that whilst there will always remain a need for community groups to protect the freedom which comes from acting independently, for community activists and policy-makers alike, there are nevertheless a series of mutual benefits to be had from co-production. However, in setting out these benefits we also emphasise the dual need for local government to play a much more nuanced, integrative and facilitatory role, in addition to, but separate from, its more traditional regulatory role.     

Adapting to changing climate risk by local government in New Zealand: institutional practice barriers and enablers

Adaptation to climate change has been reviewed in several developed nations, but in none where consideration of the effects of climate change is required by statute and devolved to local government. We examine the role of institutional arrangements, the players operating under them, the barriers and enablers for adaptation decision-making in the developed nation of New Zealand. We examine how the roles and responsibilities between national, regional and local governments influence the ability of local government to deliver long-term flexible responses to changing climate risk. We found that the disciplinary practices of law, engineering and planning, within legal frameworks, result in the use of static mechanisms which create inflexible responses to changing risk. Several enablers are identified that could create greater integration between the different scales of government, including better use of national policy instruments, shared professional experience, standardised information collection and risk assessment methods that address uncertainties. The framing of climate risk as dynamic and changing that differentiates activities over their lifetime, development of mechanisms to fund transitions towards transformational change, are identified as necessary conditions for delivering flexible responses over time.     

中国污染物总量减排数据核算体系研究

"十一五"期间,中国对COD和SO2两种污染物开展总量减排工作,预期指标超额完成。"十一五"期间构建起来的总量减排数据核算体系为中央政府提供了相对准确的减排数据,是减排取得成功的基础。本文通过研究减排数据核算体系来对总量减排的成功进行制度性解释。本文采用文本分析和实地调研的方法,描述了中国减排数据核算体系的组织机构及其基本职责,整理出了自下而上的数据生成、流动机制和自上而下的数据核查、反馈机制,归纳出总量减排数据核算体系相较于传统环境统计的基本特征:一是设立了区域督查中心和各级总量控制部门等专门的组织机构;二是数据的双向流动机制,中央拥有对减排数据的审核权和最终确定权,并且会将正式确定后的数据逐级反馈给地方政府并应用于上级政府对下级政府的行政考核当中去;三是在数据核算中采用环境监测数据,并因此进行了全国范围的环境监测能力建设;四是减排工作全过程数据核算。这些新特征使得中国减排数据核算体系得以提升减排数据质量,对地方政府可能的违规行为进行约束;将减排绩效与地方政府考核相结合,通过政治激励促进地方政府开展减排工作;加强地方政府环境监管能力,保障减排工作的开展和完成。但现有数据核算体系仍然存在监测数据利用不到位而导致行政成本较高、减排量核算细则"一刀切"导致政策公平性缺失等亟需改进完善的问题。     

Local Area Quotas for Industrial Emissions along Reaches of the Pearl River in Guangdong

There is an obvious departure from the regional equilibrium of developments between the upper and lower reaches of the Pearl River in Guangdong, which resulted in ＂the effects of contra-geography-grads development＂. It is mainly because the upriver mountainous areas have been deeply stuck in industrialization delay and marginalization plights, so that nearly 40 million local people have conceived a dream to get rid of ＂the vicious circle of poverty＂ by speeding up industrial development. But the problem is that such industrialization efforts on a large scale in mountainous areas are encountering the bottleneck of environmental capacity that strictly limits industrial emissions along the upper reaches of any water system. As a solution, an institutional arrangement called ＂the Local Area Quotas for Industrial Emissions along the Pearl River＂ is put forward supposed to give corresponding compensation to the rights of industrial development yielded by some areas with lower environmental capacity through the distribution and trading of IDQs.     

Mechanisms of changes in population numbers of Caucasian red deer (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Cervus elaphus maral</Emphasis>) in the northwestern Caucasus

Mechanisms of changes in the numbers of red deer in the Caucasian State Biosphere Reserve (the northwestern Caucasus) were studied from 1958 to 2004 using simulation models developed on the basis of concepts concerning the combined effect of density-dependent and density-independent factors. The results show that changes in population numbers are accounted for by larger (more numerous) local subunits, with small groups remaining relatively stable. In the periods of depression, such a mechanism provides for the maintenance of the spatial population structure.     

论长江上游干流区持续发展保障工程主体系

长江上游干流区是我国的重要待开发区域，但开发发展基础甚差，创建支撑开发和促成实现持续发展保障工程体系是首要任务。本区持续发展的主要保障工程体系包括：建设包括沿江铁路和高等级公路及港口在内的现代化综合交通运输体系，丰裕的能源尤其电力供给系统和先进的通讯网络系统；     

地方政府推进循环经济发展的局限性及对策研究——以山东省日照市为例

在分析日照市发展循环经济的路径、措施和难题的基础上，研究了地方政府的自利性、选择性偏差、调控手段和行政分割等方面的局限性，提出了规范中央政府和地方政府关系、构建科学的政绩考核体系、加强区域分类指导、加快立法与强化执法、制定相应的经济制度与政策等发展循环经济的建议。     

Public Participation and Effective Water Governance at the Local Level: A Case Study from a Small Under-Developed Area in Chile

The concept of participation in rural development has been evolutionary for the past two decades with those involved, such as development agencies and governments, particularly in rural water supply, re-evaluating their active role. The move towards effective community participation has encouraged a shift from the traditional top-down to a bottom-up approach whereby there is a decentralisation of unevenly distributed resources and power to empower a community and allow mobility of ‘people participation’. The Molinos water project is the first large-scale development project of its kind introduced into the village of Molinos in an under-developed area of Chile, where there has been no tradition of people participation. The project objective was to implement a low technology, low budget water treatment plant to the village of Molinos. Various aspects have hindered the continued development of the project including both technical and financial. In terms of people participation, the initial approach used was the top-down approach. There was a failure to fully integrate the community or inform the community in a formal manner about the project and consult them regarding key project issues. This case study illustrates that the lack of comprehensive consultation and the low level of participation of the community on the participatory scale does not achieve much in terms of people-centred benefits. For governance at the local level to be effective, participation should be inclusive and communicative so as to enhance transparency throughout the project lifetime. Readers should send their comments on this paper to: BhaskarNath@aol.com within 3 months of publication of this issue.