Assessing the sustainability of water governance systems: the sustainability wheel |
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| Authors: | Flurina Schneider Mariano Bonriposi Olivier Graefe Karl Herweg Christine Homewood Matthias Huss |
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| Institution: | 1. Centre for Development and Environment, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland;2. Department of Geography and Oeschger Center for Climate Change Research, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland;3. Decision Center for a Desert City, Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA;4. Institute of Geography and Sustainability, University of Lausanne, Géopolis, Lausanne, Switzerland;5. Geography Unit, Department of Geosciences, University of Fribourg, Fribourg, Switzerland |
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| Abstract: | We present and test a conceptual and methodological approach for interdisciplinary sustainability assessments of water governance systems based on what we call the sustainability wheel. The approach combines transparent identification of sustainability principles, their regional contextualization through sub-principles (indicators), and the scoring of these indicators through deliberative dialogue within an interdisciplinary team of researchers, taking into account their various qualitative and quantitative research results. The approach was applied to a sustainability assessment of a complex water governance system in the Swiss Alps. We conclude that the applied approach is advantageous for structuring complex and heterogeneous knowledge, gaining a holistic and comprehensive perspective on water sustainability, and communicating this perspective to stakeholders. |
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| Keywords: | water governance water management sustainability interdisciplinary assessment indicators visions |
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