6 EC
Semester 2, period 5
5132WGAR6Y
This interdisciplinary lecture series deals with the governance of aquatic resources and environments, in a global as well as North-South perspective. What can the Netherlands, for example, learn from Bangladesh? And vice versa? What happens if one’s perspective changes from the local, to the national and international levels? And is the act of governing transboundary water resources fundamentally different from governing the provision of drinking water?
Water is crucial for human life on this planet. We rely strongly on water resources for daily needs such as drinking and bathing, as well as for growing the food that we eat. Water also plays an essential role for transportation of goods and for recreation. But when the sea turns stormy, or the rains make rivers swell, appreciation turns into fear. Climate change is influencing the availability and the function of water across the world. Sea level rise, storm surges, floods and droughts affect our future safety and our styles of life. Experts call for adaptation and develop far-reaching plans for higher dikes, a relocation of settlements, and the evacuation of islands. The governance challenges are immense.
Governance refers to the process of making and implementing decisions with regard to societal objectives. It is undertaken by governments, but also by civil society actors such as NGOs and religious bodies, private parties such as business, and consumers. Governance takes place at multiple levels of the administrative scale varying from the international to the local. Such governance, by virtue of engaging multiple actors and levels, has to deal with competing interests and concerns. Promoting horizontal and vertical coherence in policy is a very complex challenge. To some extent this can be addressed through the formulation of common goals and principles, but this is not easy. After all, those governing need to weigh priorities against one another: should environmental protection receive priority, or is social justice more important? Is economic efficiency a prime concern, or is employment the main goal? Establishing priorities is generally a matter for politics, and there is no single objective way to ascertain which issue should be a priority at what level of governance and in which context. But what then is the role of scientists? Can science help in clarifying the hard choices and identifying pathways to addressing wicked problems?
Compulsory readings will be provided via weblinks on Canvas
The working groups will be used to discuss the literature, homework assignments, and the class project.
The lectures are meant as a basis for the students to acquire knowledge about water governance and related concepts.
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Activity |
Hours |
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Hoorcollege |
16 |
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Presentatie |
4 |
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Tentamen |
2 |
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Werkcollege |
8 |
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Self study |
138 |
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Total |
168 |
(6 EC x 28 uur) |
Programme's requirements concerning attendance (OER-B):
Additional requirements for this course:
Important information such as literature, assignments and unforeseen changes in the schedule, will be placed on Canvas.
Attendance and preparation for the tutorials is mandatory. If a student misses more than 1 tutorial unexcused* or fails to submit more than 1 assignment, it means that the entire set of tutorials count as failed (marked as 0).
Lectures will NOT be recorded. Lecture slides will be made available on Canvas. Tutorial slides will not be shared.
*If the student has to miss a tutorial or cannot submit an assignment on time, she/he must email the coordinator of this class BEFORE the tutorial/deadline for the assignment. Excuses received after the start of the tutorial count as unexcused.
| Item and weight | Details |
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Final grade | |
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0% Tentamen | Mandatory |
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0% Class project | Mandatory |
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0% Preparatory assignments | Mandatory |
Preparatory assignments: reading course materials (articles) and preparing assignments posted on Canvas.
Group class project: case study and group presentation.
A written exam.
According to the OER, course results are valid for a 1 year period. This implies that students who successfully passed part of the course last year, can keep his/her grade for this year, and only need to redo those components for which they failed. Please send an email to the course coordinator prior to the start of the course if this is the case.
The date, time and location of the inspection moment are in the DataNose timetable.
Students will prepare readings and written assignments in preparation of each tutorial. The specifics of these assignments will be posted on Canvas.
Students will work in small groups of 3 on a case study. They will present the results of their research in the form of a group poster presentation. Instructions for this class project will be posted on Canvas in preparation of the second tutorial.
The exam will focus on the case studies, as well as the materials covered in all lectures (except lecture 8) and tutorials. This will be a 24hr exam (to be completed at home and uploaded to Canvas). Exam questions will be made available at the beginning of the 24hr period (beginning 24 hours before the end of the scheduled exam - see datanose for exam scheduling).
The 'Regulations governing fraud and plagiarism for UvA students' applies to this course. This will be monitored carefully. Upon suspicion of fraud or plagiarism the Examinations Board of the programme will be informed. For the 'Regulations governing fraud and plagiarism for UvA students' see: www.student.uva.nl
See Canvas "Modules" for the course structure, assignments, and the most up-to-date reading material. The course overview below may be subject to changes.
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Lecture or Tutorial |
Literature |
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Lecture 1: Water governance and the SDGs Prof. Dr. J. Gupta April 5, 2022, 9-11hr
The first lecture introduces the course. In order to be able to govern a resource, it is important to understand the resource. It will first elaborate on the different types of water (blue, green, grey, black, white, atmospheric, salt water), and the ecosystem services of the different types of water. It will explain how much water there is on earth and whether there are substitutes for water. It will then elaborate on the concept of governance and compare that with management and government. It will argue that water challenges today are primarily challenges of governance rather than technical or physical problems, while sometimes technological solutions can also create new governance challenges. It will then explore the need for social science to understand and assess water governance challenges and find ways to address these challenges. The lecture will debate on the role of governance versus government in addressing water issues. It will discuss whether water is a local issue or a global issue or a multi-level issue. It will argue that the perceived global shortage of fresh water and planetary boundaries with respect to water use has led to a global race to acquire water and water based or water related resources elsewhere (water grabbing) or not to share water (hydro hegemony; water securitization). It then explains why in an effort to preempt such water grabbing and hydro hegemony, all countries have jointly adopted the Sustainable Development Goals and what the specific targets and indicators are.
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Required reading: 1. Vörösmarty, C.J., A.Y. Hoekstra, S.E. Bunn, D. Conway and J. Gupta (2015). What scale for water governance: Fresh Water Goes Global? Science, 349(6247): 478-479. 2. Dell'Angelo, J., Rulli, M. C., & D'Odorico, P. (2018). The global water grabbing syndrome. Ecological Economics, 143, 276-285. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921800916307121 Further reading: te Wierik SA, Gupta J, Cammeraat EL, Artzy-Randrup YA (2019) The need for green and atmospheric water governance. WIRE’s Water e1406:1–20. https://wires.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/wat2.1406 Dietz, T., Ostrom, E., & Stern, P. C. (2003). The Struggle to Govern the Commons. Science, 302, 1907–1912. https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.1091015
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Lecture 2: History of water governance Prof. Dr. J. Gupta April 5, 2022, 13-15hr The second lecture discusses the temporal dimension of water governance focusing on the history of global water law and policy from pre-historic to present times. This lecture aims to show how despite the local differences in water circumstances, ideas have moved through the centuries to different parts of the globe and have often been either extremely relevant and successful, or ignored, or irrelevant or even counter-productive in these different contexts. These ideas/ practices have mostly focused on how water is perceived (e.g. gift of God, always flowing),how water can be accessed and/or owned and what priorities there should be in allocating water. Sometimes, when people did not live near water bodies they use the principle of ‘prior appropriation’ (first in time, first in right) to access water rights – a key predecessor of modern day water grabbing. These practices may also lead to policy and technological lock-in. Such policy mobility exists even today – when so-called ‘best practices’ are transferred to different parts of the world, even if they are contextually inappropriate or actually problematic given the global nature of water. This lecture also shows why we have legal pluralism in water governance today, why there are different sets of rules operating in the same jurisdiction.
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1. Gupta J. and Dellapenna J. W. (2009): The Challenges for the Twenty-First Century: A Critical Approach. In: The Evolution of the Law and Politics of Water. Springer Science + Business Media B.V. 2. Tellman B, et al. (2018) Adaptive pathways and coupled infrastructure: seven centuries of adaptation to water risk and the production of vulnerability in Mexico City. Ecol Soc 23(1). doi:10.5751/ES-09712-230101. Further reading: Watts, J (2015): Mexico City’s Water Crisis from Source to Sewer: https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2015/nov/12/mexico-city-water-crisis-source-sewer |
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Lecture 3: Urban water trajectories and the virtual water challenge Elisabeth Krueger April 12, 2022, 9-11hr The third lecture discusses different histories that cities have gone through, and typical trajectories that cities (in the Global North) move through over time. These trajectories are characterized by different phases of water management, including water supply, drainage & sanitation, and environmental concerns. I will make the point here that these trajectories also lead to an increasing externalization of the urban water footprint (for both direct and indirect/virtual water). We will discuss challenges related to the role of virtual water - water that is ‘embedded’ in the food we eat and other products that we use and consume. Much of this indirect water use is due to the water that is needed to grow food – most of which is imported from elsewhere. Here, the lecture links the concepts of virtual water trade that focuses on ensuring water and food supply in areas that import virtual water, and “land grabbing” and the role it can play in creating problems of water and food security and land tenure in exporting regions. |
Required reading: · Dell'Angelo, J., D'Odorico, P., & Rulli, M. C. (2018). The neglected costs of water peace. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Water, 5(6), e1316. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/wat2.1316 Brown, R. R., Keath, N., & Wong, T. H. F. (2009). Urban water management in cities: historical, current and future regimes. Water Science and Technology, 59(5), 847–855.
Further reading: · Swaney, D. P., Santoro, R. L., Howarth, R. W., Hong, B., & Donaghy, K. P. (2012). Historical changes in the food and water supply systems of the New York City Metropolitan Area. Regional Environmental Change, 12, 363–380. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-011-0266-1 |
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Tutorial 1: Discussing water governance literature Elisabeth Krueger, Lotus Arian, Rosa van Schaick, Jaap van Rothuizen April 13, 13-15hr /April 14, 9-11hr and 13-15hr
During the work group you will discuss the readings and the most important concepts from the first three lectures.
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· Compulsory literature: see lecture 1,2,3 · See preparatory assignment on canvas!
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Lecture 4: Multi-level governance Prof. Dr. J. Gupta April 19, 2022, 9-11hr The fourth lecture focuses on the spatial dimensions of water governance by looking at current global governance from global to local level. The lecture explains what is multi-level governance and why this is important for water governance. The lecture explores the content of the five global treaties on water and the fact that groundwater is still an area of very poor governance. It discusses how these treaties are both a reflection of, and shape, domestic and transboundary water issues. This lecture also discusses the multi-level drivers of water challenges as well as the ‘politics of scale’ in water governance. It concludes with the key issues of the water governance challenges.
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· Gupta, J., Wostl, C.P., Zondervan, R. (2013). 'Glocal' Water Governance - A multi-level challenge in the anthropocene. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability. 5, 573-580. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cosust.2013.09.003 · Gupta, J. and C. P. Wostl (2013). Global Water Governance (GWG) in the Context of Global Governance in General and Multi-Level Governance: Its Need, Form, and Challenges, Ecology and Society 18, 53-63. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.5751/ES-05952-180453 |
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Lecture 5: Urban water governance Elisabeth Krueger April 19, 2022, 13-15hr This lecture discusses urban water governance as it relates to the processes associated with ensuring the availability of resources and the provision of water services in cities, the challenges associated with addressing dynamic environments and the experience of shocks, such as floods and droughts, and how the security of services and an increasingly dynamic environment often compete with sustainability goals. The lecture explains what it takes to provide water services for all in the city, and discusses the specific challenges that cities face in different global regions. It introduces a theoretical framework that helps to understand the complex social, ecological, and technological systems that interact in the context of urban water governance, and discusses the issues that arise at different scales. Furthermore, we will discuss questions of responsibility related to the negative effects that arise from (virtual) water transfers. Potential tensions raise particular challenges for water governance across scales from the individual to corporations and the state.
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Carlisle, K., & Gruby, R. L. (2019). Polycentric Systems of Governance: A Theoretical Model for the Commons. Policy Studies Journal, 47(4), 921–946. https://doi.org/10.1111/psj.12212 |
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Tutorial part 2: Elisabeth Krueger, Lotus Arian, Rosa van Schaick, Jaap van Rothuizen April 20, 13-15hr /April 21, 9-11hr and 13-15hr
During the work group you will discuss multi-level and urban water governance. We also ask you to choose a case study for the main course assignment (check the list before the tutorial!) and to form a group with whom you will collaborate on the assignment. Quiz.
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· Compulsory literature: see lecture 4 and 5 · See preparatory assignment on canvas!
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Lecture 6: Paradigms of water governance 26 April 2022, 9-11hr Prof. Dr. J.Gupta This lecture focuses on the discursive dimensions of global water governance. It examines the development discourses (e.g. green growth, sustainable development), the governance discourses (e.g. adaptive governance), the environmental discourses and the water discourses (e.g. integrated water resources management; water as a human right; water as an economic good). These discourses have evolved in parallel over time, and are sometimes contradictory and sometimes coherent. The lecture explains how discourses influence the design of the policies, instruments and tools of governance either by the state or by non-state actors. It will use the example of Coca Cola in India and Nestle in the USA to demonstrate cases of water grabbing which show that water governance often takes place against the background of neo-liberal capitalist developments and has difficulty in addressing the bigger questions.
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· Gupta, J., R. Ahlers and L. Ahmed (2010). The Human Right to Water: Moving Toward Consensus in a Fragmented World. Review of European Community and International Environmental Law 19, 294-305. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9388.2010.00688.x · Savenije H. and Pieter van der Zaag (2002) Water as an Economic Good and Demand Management Paradigms with Pitfalls. Water International, Volume 27, Number 1, Pages 98–104. Available at: http://pacificwater.org/userfiles/file/IWRM/Toolboxes/financing%20IWRM/waterasaneconomicgood.pdf · Meinzen-Dick R: Beyond panaceas in water institutions. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 2007, 104: 15200-15205. |
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Tutorial part 3: Elisabeth Krueger, Lotus Arian, Rosa van Schaick, Jaap van Rothuizen May 11, 13-15hr /May 12, 9-11hr and 13-15hr
Discussion of discourse analysis and water governance paradigms. Q&A on case studies/ group assignment.
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· See preparatory assignment on canvas!
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Lecture 7: Policies, practitioners and services in urban areas Dr. Klaas Schwartz May 17, 2022
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· To be announced |
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Tutorial part 4: Elisabeth Krueger, Lotus Arian, Rosa van Schaick, Jaap van Rothuizen May 18, 13-15hr /May 19, 9-11hr and 13-15hr Quiz. Discuss literature of lectures 6,7,8 |
· Compulsory literature: see lectures 6,7,8 · See preparatory assignment on canvas! |
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Student presentations May 20, 2022, 9-13hr
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· Each group will present their case study in the form of a poster. Each student should have a clear contribution to the final poster result! |
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Lecture 8: Water, Climate Change and Looming Crisis? Prof. Dr. J. Gupta May 31, 2022
The last lecture focuses on whether and how the emerging water challenges may lead to crises. This lecture will discuss and debate whether and how the fresh water and coastal challenges are exacerbated by (a) the impacts of climate change, (b) a dominant neo-liberal and hegemonic approach, (c) the use and abuse of power and knowledge, (d) the renegotiation of human rights and property relations, (e) path dependency and legal pluralism. This lectures questions whether these challenges can be peacefully addressed through a multi-level governance system or may flare up into local through to regional conflicts in different parts of the world. It returns to the Sustainable Development Goals to analyze whether the targets and indicators cover the critical issues that this course has discussed. |
· Wolf, A. T. (1998). Conflict and cooperation along international waterways. Water Policy, 1(2), 251-265. · Gleick, P. H. (2014). Water, drought, climate change, and conflict in Syria. Weather, Climate, and Society, 6(3), 331-340. · Gupta J. (forthcoming) Chapter 11; Future Proofing Water and Environmental Law and Policy. Pp275-284.
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Final session: Exam June 02-03, 2022, 11-11hr
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· Study all class materials · The final exam will consist of writing a mini-essay about your case study, using some guiding questions that will ask you to make connections between your case study and the material learned during this course.
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The schedule for this course is published on DataNose.
Attendance is compulsory. Unapproved absence may lead to exclusion of further participation of the course.
In order to provide students some insight how we use the feedback of student evaluations to enhance the quality of education, we decided to include the table below in all course guides.
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