The STEER Diagnostic Water Governance Tool

Publication: Web Application

Website
Citation: Stein, Ulf; Bueb, Benedict; Tröltzsch, Jenny; Vidaurre, Rodrigo; Knieper, Christian (2020). STEER Diagnostic Water Governance Tool. www.watergovernancetool.eu

Ecologic Institute has recently launched the Diagnostic Water Governance Tool, which is aimed at both water governance practitioners and researchers around the world. The tool provides a diagnosis of case-specific water governance as well as recommendations of appropriate instruments, with a focus on coordination and cooperation improvement. The case-specific suggestions for appropriate instruments are based on an algorithm that is grounded in the empirical findings of the STEER research project. This is a unique and innovative feature of the Diagnostic Water Governance Tool, which sets it apart from existing online tools for water governance and management. The Tool has been developed as part of the STEER project under the GRoW (Globale Ressource Wasser) program, founded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF, Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung).

The Tool is designed to deal with practical governance issues, and therefore it mainly targets actors that are in charge for the implementation of water-related measures, regardless of the level of governance at which they operate. Additionally, scientists are included as a target group, and their contribution in collecting additional case study information will enhance a constant improvement of the tool.

The Tool consists of three steps: Data Entry, Diagnosis and Therapy. First, the user is asked a series of specific yet easy to understand questions on his/her water governance system. More advanced users can enter additional data in the research track-mode that allows for an in-depth analysis of the water governance system at hand. The data collected through the questionnaire are then elaborated and visualised in the diagnostic phase to expose strengths and weaknesses of the particular governance system. Finally, in the “therapy” section, a set of instruments is proposed to the user to mirror and contribute to solving the identified deficiencies. Moreover, the section allows filtering results according to the context of a specific water management area. The tool relies on a pool of more than 60 instruments for integrated and adaptive water management. A factsheet for each instrument provides further details, including examples of successful applications. On top of the instrument database, a case study database allows to compare the user’s context of water governance with cases that shares similar issues and challenges.

The Diagnostic Water Governance Tool is now available at watergovernance-tool.eu. If you are dealing with issues of coordination in water governance, we encourage you to get your hands on the tool and explore its functions. Please also consider adding your case study experience to our database to enhance the potential of the tool to help future users remedy water governance problems in their region.

Easy-to-use online tool to tackle case-specific water challenges following a diagnosis-therapy-learning approach.

Introducing the Diagnostic Water Governance Tool

Year 2020

Publication:Article

This article written by several researchers from Ecologic Institute provides a review of different digital tools and resources available to support related decision-making processes in the search for solutions for Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM). Furthermore, it introduces the Diagnostic Water Governance Tool (DWGT) that builds on a clear diagnosis-therapy-logic.

The Diagnostic Water Governance Tool

Supporting cross-sectoral cooperation and coordination in water resources management

Year 2022

Publication:Article

This article explores how (in)coherence in policies and responsibilities affects coordination at process and outcome level. It presents a rigorous comparative study of cross-sectoral coordination in six river basins worldwide. The authors, among them Ecologic Institute's Dr. Ulf Stein, observe that coherence can favor coordination at the process level, but it remains difficult to establish causality. Coherence of policies and responsibilities does not change the relationship between process-level and outcome-level coordination.

Effects of Policy and Functional (In)coherence on Coordination

A comparative analysis of cross-sectoral water management problems

Year 2022

Publication:Article

Cover of the magazine Korrespondenz Wasserwirtschaft 12/2020

Climate change is already causing an increase in extreme weather events, including an increase in the frequency and duration of periods of dry and drought conditions. In this paper, colleagues of the Emschergenossenschaft and Ecologic Institute summarize discussions on coordination and cooperation approaches for low water management and prevention at a workshop in the Emscher region.

Niedrigwasser und Trockenheit: Herausforderungen und Entwicklung sektorenübergreifender Anpassungsmaßnahmen auf Flussgebietsebene

Year 2020

Publication:Article

This Briefing Paper examines coordination and implementation challenges between the water and agricultural sectors in relation to water quantity in the context of WFD implementation in the Spanish Guadalquivir river basin. The challenges are interlinked by the underlying difficulty of imposing unpopular decisions against the will of powerful actors in the agricultural sector. To address these challenges, the authors suggest various coordination instruments based on incentives, voluntary cooperation, persuasion and information exchange.The Briefing Paper presents one of six analyses of cross-sectoral coordination challenges that were conducted as part of the STEER research project and on which separate Briefing Papers are available.

Strengthening Coordination in River Basin Governance in Southern Spain

cooperation, incentives and persuasion

Year 2020

Publication:Article

The completed governance analysis shows that coordination in the Emscher catchment area is already effective. There is room for improvement when it comes to involving citizens and planning processes should also be characterised by a higher degree of flexibility. The analysis provides recommendations. This paper constitutes one of six analyses of cross-sectoral challenges in water governance. These have been conducted as part of the STEER research project and results are published in separate analyses and position papers.

Coordination and Cooperation of Water Management, Nature Conservation and Open Space Development in the Emscher Restoration

Year 2020

Publication:Article

In this paper the authors, among them Ecologic Institute's Ulf Stein, focus on the governmental bottlenecks in the Implementation of the European Water Framework Directive. The lack of horizontal, inter-sectoral communication; the insufficient land reserves; human resources and; the lack of financing were the areas that emerged as the most pressing issues. Further evidence suggests that the interaction of the WFD with other policy areas regulated at the European level might require closer inspection.

Perception of Bottlenecks in the Implementation of the European Water Framework Directive

Year 2020

Publication:Article

Despite numerous efforts to promote and implement more integrated approaches, coordination problems persist and impede sustainable water governance and management. This paper introduces a framework for guiding a transdisciplinary diagnostic approach (i.e. a context-sensitive assessment of multi-level water governance, which is combined with a change management process) to address such coordination problems. The approach aims at addressing some of the challenges identified in scientific scholarship and water governance practice by combining context-specific participatory assessments of individual cases with comparative case analysis guided by a generic conceptual framework.

Enhancing the Capacity of Water Governance to Deal with Complex Management Challenges

A framework of analysis

Year 2020

Presentation:Speech

On 22 February 2020, Benedict Bueb of Ecologic Institute was invited to speak on Environmental Inequality at the International Alumni Center (iac) of the Robert Bosch Stiftung. During the workshop "Inequality: From grassroots to policy-making" he presented different perspectives on the topic. He highlighted that not only the social effects of environmental changes and environmental policy decisions, but also access to environmental policy decision-making are often very unequally distributed.

Environmental Inequality: Dimensions and Policy Options

22 February 2020
Benedict Bueb

Language: English
Credits: Concept: Ulf Stein, Benedict Bueb, Jenny Tröltzsch, Rodrigo Vidaurre
Technical implementation: Christian Bruhn
Design: Lena Aebli
Funding: Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), Germany
Published by: Ecologic Institute, Germany
Year: 2020
Project: Increasing Good Governance for Achieving the Objectives of Integrated Water Resources Management (STEER)
Project ID: 2290
Keywords: Communication

Governance

International Development

Water

capacity building, water governance, Integrated Water Resources Management, coordination, cooperation, integrated planning, climate change adaptation, water scarcity, droughts, floods, pollution, participation, watershed

online collaboration, portal, online tool

Further Links

Demonstration Video

STEER Tool Website

GRoW Website