TY - JOUR

T1 - Does problem complexity matter for environmental policy delivery?

T2 - How public authorities address problems of water governance

AU - Kirschke, Sabrina

AU - Newig, Jens

AU - Völker, Jeanette

AU - Borchardt, Dietrich

PY - 2017/7/1

Y1 - 2017/7/1

N2 - Problem complexity is often assumed to hamper effective environmental policy delivery. However, this claim is hardly substantiated, given the dominance of qualitative small-n designs in environmental governance research. We studied 37 types of contemporary problems defined by German water governance to assess the impact of problem complexity on policy delivery through public authorities. The analysis is based on a unique data set related to these problems, encompassing both in-depth interview- based data on complexities and independent official data on policy delivery. Our findings show that complexity in fact tends to delay implementation at the stage of planning. However, different dimensions of complexity (goals, variables, dynamics, interconnections, and uncertainty) impact on the different stages of policy delivery (goal formulation, stages and degrees of implementation) in various ways.

AB - Problem complexity is often assumed to hamper effective environmental policy delivery. However, this claim is hardly substantiated, given the dominance of qualitative small-n designs in environmental governance research. We studied 37 types of contemporary problems defined by German water governance to assess the impact of problem complexity on policy delivery through public authorities. The analysis is based on a unique data set related to these problems, encompassing both in-depth interview- based data on complexities and independent official data on policy delivery. Our findings show that complexity in fact tends to delay implementation at the stage of planning. However, different dimensions of complexity (goals, variables, dynamics, interconnections, and uncertainty) impact on the different stages of policy delivery (goal formulation, stages and degrees of implementation) in various ways.

KW - Sustainability Science

KW - Complex problem solving

KW - Complex problems

KW - Diffuse source pollution

KW - Point source pollution

KW - Water Framework Directive

KW - Wicked problems

KW - Politics

UR - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28284126

U2 - 10.1016/j.jenvman.2017.02.068

DO - 10.1016/j.jenvman.2017.02.068

M3 - Journal articles

C2 - 28284126

VL - 196

SP - 1

EP - 7

JO - Journal of Environmental Management

JF - Journal of Environmental Management

SN - 0301-4797

ER -