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An Evolutionary Perspective on Water Governance: From Understanding to Transformation

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An Erratum to this article was published on 19 June 2017

Abstract

Many water related problems can be attributed to governance failure at multiple levels of governance rather than to the resource base itself. At the same time our knowledge on water governance systems and conditions for success of water governance reform is still quite limited. Water governance is a fast growing field of scholarly expertise which has largely developed over the past 10 to 15 years. This paper summarizes the development of the field over the past decade(s). On one hand it addresses the current state of understanding of factors that determine the success of water governance systems. On the other hand it has a strong emphasis on processes of transformation and change in water governance as governing the transformation of water governance is the key challenge in moving towards more sustainable water governance and management.

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Notes

  1. NeWater (New methods for adaptive water management - www.newater.info) a project funded under the 6th EU-Framework Programme, developed new methods for integrated and adaptive water management taking into account the complexity of the river basins to be managed. NeWater focused in particular on the transition from current regimes of water management in a river basin to more integrated, adaptive approaches. The project had case studies in Europe, Africa and Central Asia and involved forty partner organizations.

  2. More information can be found on the webpage of the sustainability transitions research network - www.transitionsnetwork.org - that is also organizing the annual conferences on sustainability transitions.

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  1. Institute of Environmental Systems Research, University of Osnabrück, Osnabrück, Lower Saxony, Germany

    Claudia Pahl-Wostl

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  1. Claudia Pahl-Wostl
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Correspondence to Claudia Pahl-Wostl.

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The original version of this article was revised: The article title should have been An Evolutionary Perspective on Water Governance: From Understanding to Transformation instead of Introduction - Water Governance an Emerging Field of Scientific Scholarship.

An erratum to this article is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11269-017-1751-1.

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Pahl-Wostl, C. An Evolutionary Perspective on Water Governance: From Understanding to Transformation. Water Resour Manage 31, 2917–2932 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11269-017-1727-1

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