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Improving governance outcomes for water quality: insights from participatory social network analysis for chalk stream catchments in England

Improving governance outcomes for water quality: insights from participatory social network analysis for chalk stream catchments in England
Improving governance outcomes for water quality: insights from participatory social network analysis for chalk stream catchments in England

Globally important chalk streams in England are in poor ecological health, in part due to inadequate water quality. Addressing this issue requires an understanding of the governance systems that surround water quality. The complexity and uncertainty inherent in hydrological systems has led to the emergence of integrated and adaptive forms of governance. In these multi-actor governance systems, the structure of the relationships between actors (the social network) has been shown to affect governance processes and outcomes. Using participatory social network analysis, we mapped and analysed the social networks for the River Test and River Itchen in Hampshire, United Kingdom, to identify actors and their roles, determine the network characteristics and identify interventions to improve governance. Although the results suggest a well-connected network of actors from the state, private sector and civil society, we find that decision-making is not decentralised. Bureaucratic governance by central state actors dominates. However, trust in these central state actors and private actors in the networks is low, which undermines collaboration and co-ordination in the network. Devolving authority to local actors, building trust in the networks and improving connections to important actors could help to improve governance outcomes for water quality. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

Net-Map, SNA, adaptive co-management, chalk stream, co-production, social learning, water quality
2575-8314
1352-1368
Ball, Jennifer
628ed61b-d43f-418b-98e2-c2422c35cfdb
Hauck, Jennifer
123657bd-dd0c-4b3b-9b93-b08a9bb1255b
Holland, Robert
9c245e65-06bb-4b0e-8214-2b00ad2a47df
Lovegrove, Amy, Louise
e548abed-79f7-45fb-931e-4a4e17cafa59
Snaddon, Jake
31a601f7-c9b0-45e2-b59b-fda9a0c5a54b
Taylor, Gail
Peh, Kelvin S.-H.
0bd60207-dad8-43fb-a84a-a15e09b024cc
Ball, Jennifer
628ed61b-d43f-418b-98e2-c2422c35cfdb
Hauck, Jennifer
123657bd-dd0c-4b3b-9b93-b08a9bb1255b
Holland, Robert
9c245e65-06bb-4b0e-8214-2b00ad2a47df
Lovegrove, Amy, Louise
e548abed-79f7-45fb-931e-4a4e17cafa59
Snaddon, Jake
31a601f7-c9b0-45e2-b59b-fda9a0c5a54b
Taylor, Gail
Peh, Kelvin S.-H.
0bd60207-dad8-43fb-a84a-a15e09b024cc

Ball, Jennifer, Hauck, Jennifer, Holland, Robert, Lovegrove, Amy, Louise, Snaddon, Jake, Taylor, Gail and Peh, Kelvin S.-H. (2022) Improving governance outcomes for water quality: insights from participatory social network analysis for chalk stream catchments in England. People and Nature, 4 (5), 1352-1368. (doi:10.1002/pan3.10390).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Globally important chalk streams in England are in poor ecological health, in part due to inadequate water quality. Addressing this issue requires an understanding of the governance systems that surround water quality. The complexity and uncertainty inherent in hydrological systems has led to the emergence of integrated and adaptive forms of governance. In these multi-actor governance systems, the structure of the relationships between actors (the social network) has been shown to affect governance processes and outcomes. Using participatory social network analysis, we mapped and analysed the social networks for the River Test and River Itchen in Hampshire, United Kingdom, to identify actors and their roles, determine the network characteristics and identify interventions to improve governance. Although the results suggest a well-connected network of actors from the state, private sector and civil society, we find that decision-making is not decentralised. Bureaucratic governance by central state actors dominates. However, trust in these central state actors and private actors in the networks is low, which undermines collaboration and co-ordination in the network. Devolving authority to local actors, building trust in the networks and improving connections to important actors could help to improve governance outcomes for water quality. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

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People and Nature - 2022 - Ball - Improving governance outcomes for water quality Insights from participatory social - Version of Record
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Accepted/In Press date: 1 July 2022
e-pub ahead of print date: 3 August 2022
Published date: October 2022
Additional Information: Funding Information: The authors thank the study participants for their time and knowledge. This research was made possible by funding from Vitacress Conservation Trust, the Environment Agency and the University of Southampton. The authors also thank Steve Ball for his comments and language editing on earlier drafts of the manuscript. Publisher Copyright: © 2022 The Authors. People and Nature published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of British Ecological Society.
Keywords: Net-Map, SNA, adaptive co-management, chalk stream, co-production, social learning, water quality

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 468274
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/468274
ISSN: 2575-8314
PURE UUID: 5ec9d3df-f3c8-487b-bfca-3eebd58b4cc3
ORCID for Robert Holland: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-3038-9227
ORCID for Amy, Louise Lovegrove: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-1118-0823
ORCID for Jake Snaddon: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0003-3549-5472
ORCID for Kelvin S.-H. Peh: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-2921-1341

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Date deposited: 09 Aug 2022 16:40
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 03:58

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Contributors

Author: Jennifer Ball
Author: Jennifer Hauck
Author: Robert Holland ORCID iD
Author: Jake Snaddon ORCID iD
Author: Gail Taylor

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