Abstract
Addressing the ‘wicked problem’ of nutrient pollution requires coordinated policies spanning across diverse sectors and environmental systems. Using a case study of Canadian legislation, we apply semantic network analysis to identify thematic links across an inventory of 245 nutrient-related policies. Our analysis identifies twelve topics with unique types of connections across multiple facets of Canadian society. ‘Hub’ policies include broad environmental protection, land use planning, and climate-related legislation with close ties to multiple other topics. ‘Bridge’ policies create connections among otherwise disconnected topics in the network, representing opportunities to inform new policy proposals. Some legislation, such as food processing regulations, indirectly relates to nutrient use but could inform policy integration towards more coordinated and holistic nutrient management across the food system. A computational text network approach can be useful for addressing challenges in complex policy analysis, including by identifying unique entry points to guide more cross-cutting nutrient policy development.
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Acknowledgements
We thank the Trottier Institute for Science and Public Policy (TISPP) at McGill University for funding via the Public Science Fellows Program. G.K.M.’s research program is also supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Discovery Grants Program (RGPIN-2016-04920). The authors thank Gordon Hickey and three anonymous reviewers for valuable comments on earlier manuscript drafts.
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McCourt, S., Kanter, D. & MacDonald, G.K. Identifying leverage points for sustainable nutrient policy integration in Canada. Ambio (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-024-02004-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-024-02004-9