Sub-theme
6. Innovation for Water Governance and Management
Topic
6-4. Integrated river basin management
Body
Traditional command-and-control, state-centred, and top-down approaches to water governance pose significant challenges to water sustainability in urbanising China. As regional institutions and local governments share overlapping jurisdictions and authority, China’s fragmented administration causes an ‘institutional collective action dilemma’ in which the management of water resources is ineffective and inefficient. Meanwhile, stakeholders from the public, private and non-profit sectors with conflicting interests are poorly coordinated in water governance, which is usually seen as a ‘social dilemma’. The interweaving of China’s water predicament and urbanisation may exacerbate each other. Collaborative Water Governance (CWG) has emerged as a promising framework that embraces stronger consensus and stakeholder collaboration for adaptive solutions to tackle water challenges. However, conceptual work and empirical findings on collaborative governance in emerging economies remain ambiguous. Few studies have situated CWG at the intersection of environmental, social and economic transitions in China. My doctoral research aims to explore whether and to what degree CWG actually exists in China and can produce better environmental solutions and address existing poor coordination in water governance. Methodologically, a qualitative case study approach will be adopted to understand collaborative water behaviour of key actors in a specific area. Fieldwork in China will be conducted from March to July 2023. This research will use four different types of methods for data collection (literature review and document review, semi-structured interviews, focus groups and participatory observation). Institutional arrangements and organisational architecture of water governance in the Baiyangdian basin will be analysed based on thematic analysis of a substantial number of policies. As the first attempt to systematically analyse how China’s particular socio-political context is shaping the possibilities, dynamics, and performance of CWG at a basin scale, this research aims to draw a theoretical and empirical picture of CWG of Baiyangdian Lake basin during the construction of Xiong’an New Area and provide practical insights on public participation for the sustainable water governance of China.