Zeitschrift für Geographie und Naturkatastrophen
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Examining Water Governance: A New Institutional Approach

Bhim Adhikari, Jacob Tarkowski

This paper conducts a synthesis of case studies on different aspects of water governance. Although the concept of water governance encompasses a complex mix of institutions at multiple levels and scales, we consider four elements of governance: public participation, equity, accountability, and transparency in our analysis. A new framework for institutional analysis is proposed which incorporates these elements within a decentralized polycentric social-ecological system. This system is adapted from a number of previously proposed frameworks in the literature. Focus is maintained on developing countries in an attempt to uncover different sources of governance success and inefficiencies. The paper provides some gaps in theory and knowledge with the goal of facilitating discussion and providing some policy implications for the future direction of water governance.